005 - Dont Follow The Pros

Well, we all want to be like the pros.  We even talked about copy, copy in episode 003.

If you go on any teaching group page, they compare a player’s strokes, usually a young junior, to Federer’s, Nadal’s or Serena’s. I listen to discussion after discussion about it.  Some really good stuff and some a bit out there, but how good is this really for a Young player?

Well I just watched a video of Roger hitting at a fairly young age, 12 or so I would guess, with some nasty background music playing, and it looked nothing like he does today.  I then watched another one, where he was older, and it started looking a bit more like Roger does today.

Well I remember, with a few teaching pros in my past, we would have disagreements about how to hit the forehand, and it only took a matter of time until they would bring someone in the top 10 in the world, to support their argument. Federer does it that way………

So today’s quick tip is: Learn the fundamentals of all of the strokes so it is easier to teach and break down any players strokes.

Now the title of this episode is Don’t Follow The Pros or “Don’t necessarily try to teach your young player the Greatest player of all time’s forehand, because of what we talked about earlier.

If you think about it, You still read all the time how these great players are still trying to develop their strokes, even at the highest levels. So

When you try to copy what the pros are doing, especially at an early age, , you could be hurting your player more than helping them.

Chances are that that they could get injured, but they will definitely develop some bad habits that are going to be hard to undo when they get older.

If the fundamentals are not there, there is no reason to progress to an advanced level on anything.

Going off on a quick tangent, I remember reading in tennis magazine what poncho segura said about strategy;  It is very simple, he said, keep the ball deep and punish the short ball. 

Pretty cool…… simple and you can build a complex game around that for sure, but start with the simple. 

As a coach, it is your job to make sure your students understand and can execute the fundamentals of all of the strokes.  Don’t let them waiver.  Add to them as long as the fundamentals are still there.

Here is an analogy: you are in charge of teaching the “Cheese Pizza forehand,” the basics, but once students are good at that, then you can add on the pepperoni, sausage, onion, whatever….., but remember underneath all those toppings, the cheese pizza is there.  It is the foundation.

Get good at this.  You could be the Hero because surprisingly enough, from my experience, a lot of pros do not know the first steps in doing this. 

Why?  Well for a number of reasons, but probably one that really hits home is where I interview someone for a Head pro position and they say something like, I don’t teach the beginners or young kids, I paid my dues.  I am a high performance coach……..   

The real reason is that they have a hard time starting from scratch.  I have had pros that interviewed do well with advanced players, but terrible with beginners.  Not bad if that is all they are teaching, but they are usually more “style” oriented than fundamentals oriented.

Well if they WERE good at all of levels, it would be job security.  

Here is a great  example of the supreme pizza with a lot of toppings, but with the cheese so evident:

Go watch Nadal’s forehand in slow motion, even when he does the buggy whip.  

Now when you watch kids try to hit this forehand, they rarely follow through with the racquet on the opposite side of their body.  They usually keep everything on the dominant side.  I have even watched more than one pro teach it this way.

But, if you watch Nadal’s forehand in slow motion, you will see that it actually looks a lot like a “Regular” forehand, for lack of a better word and then he comes around over his head

So what I see is that even though his forehand is definitely unique, the same fundamental points are still there. He added on the extra toppings.

When you watch him at 12 years old, the buggywhip is not there.  It is straight to the elbow on his non dominant side. It looked like the fh most every pro would teach.

So he must have developed it LATER………. And at about age 16, I started seeing it more, but still not as often as you do now.

The point is that he had good fundamentals BEFORE he got all flashy with his FH.

Again, this is where you come in.  If you want to work with any new player, or correct a player that has been in the game a while, you will have success with both knowing what to look for in the new player and what fundamental is lacking in the player that has been hitting longer

For a beginner, you have to get them to understand them and execute.  

For the seasoned player, there is usually a reason that this is not happening, which takes a little more “Undoing,” but if you can visualize key points in the stroke, it is easy.

So the tip for you is to “Learn the Fundamentals First”  Understand them and then the teaching and the analysis of any stroke becomes much easier, and you become a much better coach.

Study this a lot and get good at teaching the basic strokes to anyone.  You do not have to be flashy and teach that cool way that you saw someone else teach that one player that does it well.

The key for any good teacher in my mind is to know the fundamentals and weave them into a players natural style, because what a player does naturally is something you do not want to have to change if you can help it

Maybe that is why there are so many different looking strokes out there, but they have the same fundamentals.

Have you ever watched at how many different ways people hold onto a pencil? Some put it between their index and middle finger,  some just under their index finger, but the penmanship looks the same.  If you tried to change someone’s natural style it would just make things a bit worse for ho knows how long.

Just google “ ANY PLAYERs Name and then Forehand contact point and go to images.  What you will see is a VERY similar racquet face at contact. 

The fundamentals are very similar, so get good at them and know what to look for because as a coach, you need to introduce them to new players, but you need to recognize where they are missing in those that have been in the game a while.

Good Luck With This,

Coach Mick, USPTA