January 8, 2012
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High School Tennis Coach Survey TennisOne is interested in helping high school tennis coaches. If you're coach, please take this 2 minute survey. If you're a parent of a HS tennis player, please forward this link to your coach. Click here for survey. The Four C's — A Winning Combination David Brouwer Athletes across all sports have long understood the power of confidence. Take two athletes with the same physical capabilities, weapons, and experience and the athlete who is more confident in those things at the right time will likely come out the victor. So how does a tennis player develop confidence? Here's a quick story: A few weeks ago, I was giving a lesson to a young lady who is a terrific athlete. Her physical capabilities, weapons (she's also a lefty), and all-court game make anyone who watches her play pause and say “wow, that girl is really good!” However, she has a terrible lack of confidence, especially in tough matches. So my mind wandered… how can I help instill confidence in her? I came up with the four C's. A coach once told me, “the definition of confidence in tennis is getting the ball in the court.” Simple, but true. We've all played the player who just “gets everything back” and they always seem to be supremely confident. Why? Because they are consistent. In other words, they rarely give up an unforced error or a free point and they've won so many matches on this consistent game they believe in their capabilities. In short, their consistency has led them to confidence.
Once i put the first two c's together, my mind started to wander to how this manifests in matches. The next two c's popped into my head — courage in competition. I immediately formed a lesson plan for the remainder of the hour. It went something like this: First, we immediately ceased hitting full court with the yellow ball. This gal is a tournament player and accustomed, of course, to practicing on a full court with a yellow ball but I needed to get her as many touches on the ball in the next 15 minutes as possible. Why? To develop confidence in her ability to “get the ball back in the court.” Enter the red foam ball. This 90mm dream of a teaching aide has helped me develop more strokes in the past five years than any other single teaching tool. We headed up to the service line and started rallying the red ball on the diagonal, service line to service line. Because she's a lefty, we went on the ad side and allowed her to hit her forehand the majority of the time. Since this is her favorite shot, it also began the process of building her confidence. Her western grip made it easier to get topspin on the red ball so our rallies quickly entered the 30 strokes range. I could see something starting to build. Her footwork quickened, her eyes focused, her finishes got more aggressive and most of all, her attitude changed from negative to positive. In short, her confidence was beginning to grow. Next, without explanation or instruction, she began to take any weak ball that I hit and rip it down the line for a winner. Courage was beginning to grow. Whereas before, on the 78' court with the yellow ball, she was struggling to stay positive because of a lack of consistency, now she was ripping winners, moving her feet, smiling, hustling, and the mood of the lesson had changed completely.
Enter competition. Still on the red ball, we began playing games up to 10. Because she was so consistent in this format, her strokes were really starting to smooth out and her footwork was adjusting nicely to each of my shots, she welcomed the challenge. Remember, 15 minutes ago she was ready to throw in the towel as she struggled to keep six balls in play on the full court. For the next 15 minutes we battled foam ball points until both of us agreed that it was time to head back on the full court. The difference in her confidence was tangible for the last part of the lesson. We had built her consistency, which had led to her confidence, given her courage to try things and take risks, and all this while not fearing competition. On that night, my student helped me learn a lot about coaching. Again, with all the physical skills of a great athlete, without the four c's this young gal was struggling to enjoy her tennis game. With the four c's I was dealing with a new player. I encourage all coaches to utilize the red, orange, and green balls to develop consistency, confidence, and courage in players of all ages and levels. That way, when your student does compete, they may very well welcome the challenge.
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