Learning tennis for the very first time is quite daunting, especially for young impressionable children. Many good tennis clubs offer designated children’s coaching and this can be a great idea as long as the parents do not give conflicting advice to the coaches.
However, a lot of modern coaches and players believe that the first focus should be on the technical side of their game together with tactics and good physical development. This seems a pretty straight forward course to take, but little or no attention is paid to the mental game.
Tennis is also very mentally demanding for kids and beginners, their first forays on the court are fraught with some many things to think about. There is a school of thought that a learner should first develop a natural game with friends and family, then move on with coaching.
Coaching Techniques
Most coaches prefer well trained players which they adapt by using different drills to improve their game, this is limited somewhat by complete novices.
They are not able to perform various drills, as they need to familiarise themselves with rackets, balls and trajectories. Many learners feel this unhappiness and impatience of their coach, which makes them even more nervous.
Watching Good Players
Tennis can look so simple when you watch good players play, and that is a great way to learn. When a beginner starts his lessons and his brain is working 100%, he still make mistakes. When he makes these mistakes he gets nervous and agitated, the learner at this stage does not comprehend the amount of work and repetitions that will be required to eliminate these mistakes.
Learning By Making Mistakes
Mistakes are a part of the learning process. A tennis beginner is not actually aware how many and how big his mistakes will be. There are two fundamental types of mistakes when learning to play tennis.
Mistakes where you can influence the outcome
When a coach reminds you to play gently and you forget to or decide that it’s boring to play gently, then you will likely over hit. You can correct that mistake by hitting the ball more gently, it is in your control.
Mistakes which are out of your control
It is impossible to have a perfect technique after only 50 repetitions, to be fluid and execute the shot perfectly. The brain needs many more to store and coordinate your body fluidity. You also cannot have a good feel for the racquet face level or swing speed after 20 minutes of practice.
You will make mistakes and you cannot speed up the process. It will take time, so this situation is out of control.
Try not to get upset, as there is little you can do about it, stay calm and give the brain and body many more bits of information so that you can learn and adapt.
Beginners rarely know how much time and the many tricks of the learning processes take place subconsciously.
Basically the big lesson to be learned from all this is to learn by your mistakes, even in coaching sessions. Try not to get agitated when it does not come instantly, if you continue practising improvements will come.
