A View From Tenerife

What seems a life-time ago, I wrote a piece for Tennis Magazine back in the UK, about how different tennis was run/coached out here compared to working in the UK.

It caused quite an upset with the LTA who were not happy that the magazine had printed the article, without their permission.

I was in those days quite critical with the system and the standard of coaching at the higher level- I was never critical with the guys who coach out there wind/rain, having to put up with all the rules and regulations thrown at them for the tennis’s governing body.

It seems after all those years, not a lot has changed, and this system being used to coach kids using mini tennis method is one of them.

It is quite involved, a certain type of ball is used for certain ages, and a different racket is also used depending on the age – up to a certain age, competitive tennis is not allowed, and 8 year olds cannot play with 9 year olds- this type of thing.

To emphasise how crazy it has got, because the idea of making it simplier is NOT wrong, as long as the coach has the choice, but in the UK the rules are set as below – watch this..

I have recently been working with an 8 year old girl from Moscow – and wait for it, using the real ball.

You will all be glad to know out there that she is still alive, and handled the real ball amazingly well – and on speaking to her parents, she uses the real thing back in Moscow.

NOW, if she had struggled with the real ball, I MAY have either just carried on using it but in a mini tennis court, or used the softer ball if she really struggled – but she did not.

But back in the UK she would have HAD to play with the softer ball, and any competition would have been using the softer ball as well.

So I sent a quite famous tennis coach in the USA an e-mail, and asked him the following:

“If I trained 2 girls, both 8 years of age, and they were exactly the same ability wise, one with the softer ball and one with the real ball, who do you think would progress quicker”

And his reply;

“Hi John,
Great question. All things being equal, I believe that the girl who learns using normal tennis balls will have a slight advantage playing “real” tennis as she gets older.
That said, as long as the girl using the slower, softer balls is taught the right foundation, she should be able to transition to real balls and courts as she changes. The problem is not the potential in terms of the fact a pro can teach proper technique using all equipment types.

The problem lies in the fact that kids are able to “rally” with slower balls quickly using just about any form they choose or that feels comfortable at the time. Whereas using real balls and racquets and courts require more stroke technique based on effective and efficient stroke patterns. (If a kid is NOT taught the right foundation using real balls, they too can acquire very questionable stroke patterns.)

It isn’t objective, but the problem with slow balls is that the perceived ‘success’ of a player in creating longer rallies often causes players to believe they are getting better when in reality, they are basically getting better at being bad if they are using any swing pattern that doesn’t fall within an advanced foundation. (No different than what we see millions of adults do when they go out and try to learn tennis without any conceivement of proper technique and simply try to figure out a way to hit a ball high enough and hard enough to clear the net but soft enough to land in. They almost NEVER achieve skilled play nor do they ever come close to reaching their true potential in tennis.

Just like a piano player who never learns to use all their fingers in a coordinated manner to play the insturment…they are relegated to playing very simple songs for their life…instead of working on the proper technique to master the piano in such a way they can play more prolific songs”

Food for thought…