Blog | WebTennis24 - the all-in-one platform for players, coaches and tennis parents

Serve Problem – This Is How I Fixed It…

by Cosmin {WebTennis24} | Tennis Tips Blog, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Here’s how I fixed the serve problem of one of my students.

This particular lady used to take lessons with me a couple of years ago.
She called me on a Wednesday afternoon saying that she was lacking consistency and did not know what was the problem with her serve.

We met the next morning after my usual 8:30-9:30 am class, and after she warmed up, I made a few steps away and looked at her while she was delivering most of her serves long, just a foot beyond the service line. Over and over…

I soon noticed the problem:
She was releasing the ball very early and then lowering the tossing arm right away.
This caused a loss in balance and low contact with the ball.

So here’s what I did to fix her serve consistency within a few minutes…

I asked her to continue serving focusing on one thing only: keeping the tossing arm up and extended towards the sky after releasing the ball until she sees it coming down.
She got her balance back and made contact a lot higher.
The result: more power and… more serves landing inside the service box.

There are a few technical elements that players need to be aware of in order to deliver the serve with consistency and power. These elements can make a big difference in someone’s game.

If you want more information about tennis technique, or drills for consistency and accuracy, as well as tactics and strategies for winning against different tennis opponents, you’ll find all this in the WebTennis24 Training section.

If you are a tennis coach or a parent of a child who wants to learn how to play tennis, you should definitely check out the WebTennis24 Kids and the new 10 Lesson Plans program.

Cosmin Miholca

Certified Tennis Coach

Check out my work at WebTennis24 where I share with you my best video tennis lessons, drills and tips for players, coaches and tennis parents.

The Number One Reason Children QUIT Tennis

by Cosmin {WebTennis24} | Tennis Tips Blog | 0 comments

(This message is intended for professionals who teach tennis to children or beginning players. If you are not interested in this topic, please share it with a coach or tennis parent who might find it useful – thank you!)
——————-

The year was 2004 when I got a job working as an assistant tennis coach for a city program.
The pay was just awful but I considered it an opportunity for me to learn and grow as a coach.
At that time I was in my twenties, barely spoke English, and was trying to learn as much as I could to improve my teaching skills.

The “city” was organizing beginner classes and my boss and I were greeting these big crowds of enthusiastic kids who were coming with their parents to learn how to play tennis.
My boss, at that time, was an elderly lady who was kind to kids but did not have too much knowledge about helping beginning players fall in love with the sport.
She would stress the discipline and technique way too much to the point that most players were staying in lines waiting for their turn to hit a ball once in a while…

As a result, we could see that even though those parents were paying for the lessons 6 weeks in advance, many children quit their classes after the first couple of lessons.
By the end of the 6-week session, we were left with barely 30% of the kids who signed up for the classes!

Those 2 years that I’d been working for the “city” taught me a VALUABLE lesson:

PEOPLE PLAY TENNIS BECAUSE THEY ENJOY IT.

And they quit if they don’t.

It’s just that simple…

Now, I have to say that during those 2 years of working for the “city” I did not let things continue as they initially were. Here’s what I did:

I talked to my “boss” and convinced her to “rotate” the children so that they learn from both of us (with respect to the other’s methodology). In this way, the kids would get to learn and improve with tips from both of us.
We agreed that we should find ways to limit waiting in line by introducing fast-paced drills.
The technical aspects were discussed and practiced at the beginning and reminded throughout the lessons to make sure that while we were teaching those who struggled, we kept the others busy so that nobody was left wandering on the court.
Every lesson should have at least two periods of fun activities that kids would enjoy:
– one in the middle of the class to take their minds away from the technical and repetitive tasks, also to bring some excitement after all previous work;
– another one at the end of the class (last 10 minutes) to allow the kids to leave their classes happy and “loud” so that they have something to look forward to after all the work they put in during the class; their parents would see that kids were having fun at tennis practice before picking them up.

This statement has been my motto for the rest of my tennis teaching career:
MAKE TENNIS LESSONS FUN AND THEY WILL KEEP COMING TO PRACTICE.

You might be wondering how can you find drills and games that keep kids interested and excited about practicing their skills?
Well, there are two main ways:

You can search YouTube or the internet and eventually you’ll make a list of drills and games that you can apply with your students.
But that takes time which you probably would be the best spending with your family or working on more exciting projects.
You can sign up for programs such as Best Tennis Drills and Games for Kids which is a collection of drills and games that I’ve applied with my students during my many years of teaching thousands of beginning tennis players, kids and adults.

I’ve learned what works and what not, what gets beginning players excited, what kind of drills improve their speed, body control, shot accuracy, and consistency.

You can do your own research or just keep things simple and take what others have worked for and know it works.

This is why I created this program for you – to take my proven drills and games that are guaranteed to be loved by your beginning players.

Get access to Best Tennis Drills and Games for KIDS today and make tennis lessons fun for your beginning students.

Be Inspired,

Cosmin Miholca

Certified Tennis Coach

Check out my work at WebTennis24 where I share with you my best video tennis lessons, drills and tips for players, coaches and tennis parents.

Tennis Balls and Court Size for Kids

by Cosmin {WebTennis24} | Tennis Tips Blog | 1 comment

This is a subject that tennis parents ask me sometimes: what type of tennis balls should their child play with and whether they should play on a full-size court or a smaller one.
I personally encourage the idea of children to progress from slower to faster balls for the following reasons:
– slower balls let them swing harder without being afraid of missing deep (biggest fear)
– they have more time to prepare for the shot (good technique)
– promotes longer rallies.

1. Red Balls – these are the slowest and largest of the balls and are recommended for little children aged 4-7. Along with the red balls, players can also use sponge balls which are both oversized, and about 75% slower than a regular adult tennis ball, giving beginning players time to prepare for the shot and add a big swing without being afraid of missing deep.
The court size that the red balls should be used is a small one (36 feet long). Beginning players using red balls or playing red ball tournaments have the net placed along the center service line or between the service line and baseline and the points are played between the doubles lines.

2. Orange Balls – are about 50% slower than regular tennis balls and are recommended for children between the ages of 7-9. Used on 60×21 feet tennis court (show how the lines are positioned: baseline is 9 feet / 3 meters inside the regular baseline; singles sidelines are 3 feet / 1 meter inside the regular sideline)

3. Green Dot Balls – are about 25% slower than regular tennis balls and are recommended for kids who are 9 or 10 years old.
Those who play green ball tournaments use a full-court, are fast enough to cover larger areas and are almost ready to move up to a regular yellow tennis ball which bounces higher and moves faster.
They are also called transition tennis balls.

4. Yellow (Adult) Tennis Balls – should be used by children who are at least 11 years old and my recommendation is that the transition should be done gradually using practice balls that are slower and lower bounce than tournament balls.

It is important to not start the beginning players with balls that the child finds difficult to control in regard to speed and height because they can develop bad habits in order to adjust to the new ball, such as a western grip (to hit high bouncing balls), tight arm (being afraid to not lose control of the ball), poor footwork, etc.
Transitioning from one ball type and court size should be done under careful supervision and the before mentioned technical aspects should be monitored so that the child’s technique and footwork are not affected.

Cosmin Miholca

Certified Tennis Coach

Check out my work at WebTennis24 where I share with you my best video tennis lessons, drills and tips for players, coaches and tennis parents.

10 Tips to Becoming a Better Tennis Coach

by Cosmin {WebTennis24} | Tennis Tips Blog | 0 comments

The following tips are for tennis coaches to connect with their students, gain their respect, and, as a result, get more clients:

1) Do not wear sunglasses when meeting your students for the first time or greeting them as they come to your classes. They should be able to see your eyes. You’ll make a good connection with them.
IF you wear sunglasses, taking them off as they approach you shows that you care for them.

2) Have a positive attitude.
Your students should not have to know that you could not get any sleep last night from your newborn baby keeping you up (like it happened to me). Even if you had a tough previous lesson with another client, you should reset and put on a smiling face for the next student or class.
Keep it positive and show that you are excited to see them every time.

3) You should always remember your students’ names and say it a few times during their lessons. Everybody enjoys to hear their name mentioned; it is a form of respect from your part.

4) Never pick up or talk on the phone during your tennis lessons. Imagine you are a parent who is paying for their child’s lesson but you see the coach talking on the phone when they should be in fact interacting and giving instructions to your child. Put yourself in the shoes of your clients; they want your undivided attention during the time they employ your services.

5) You should never be late for your lesson, otherwise, it should be free for your client. If you know you will be late, definitely find a way to let your student know ahead of time. My advice for you is to always get on the court at least 15 minutes before your lesson so you have enough time to get the court and any teaching aids that you will be using for the class ready.

6) Do not gossip!
Don’t talk negatively about your other clients, fellow coaches, or competing tennis clubs/organizations. If you don’t have anything positive to say, better not say anything at all. The negative talk will reflect on you and your clients will associate what you say with the feeling they have towards you. So keep your actions and words as positive as possible.

7) Show respect for your tennis students and especially for those who have stopped taking lessons with you. Even if they are not your clients anymore, your former students can be great ambassadors to promote your services to their friends and families.

8) Once in a while you should offer free lessons to those who cannot afford them. In addition to that, you could organize weekly get-togethers where your students and their friends can play together. It is a great way not only to offer your players a chance to get extra practice but it is also an excellent way to meet their families and spread the word about you and your services.
(I used to organise a 1 hour games-and-play session every Thursday evening inviting all my students to come and play. I would match them up according to their skills and parents would be participating in feeding balls to start the games or picking up balls, etc. It was fun!)

9) Look clean and smell nice.
We coaches sometimes have to rally with our students, therefore, it is important that we have spare clothes and a way to take care of our appearance before and after each lesson.

10) Find ways to constantly improve your knowledge about the latest teaching techniques, and share what you know with your younger fellow coaches. Be available to share your experience not only with your students but with their parents or anybody who is willing to learn. Knowledge should not be kept a secret. It should be shared so that others benefit from it.

Cosmin Miholca

Certified Tennis Coach

Check out my work at WebTennis24 where I share with you my best video tennis lessons, drills and tips for players, coaches and tennis parents.

Avoid THIS if You Want to Teach Tennis to Your Child

by Cosmin {WebTennis24} | Tennis Tips Blog | 2 comments

When I decided to teach my (then) 4, respectively 5 year old two daughters how to play tennis I was both excited and terrified in the same time.

I had already enough experience playing and teaching tennis for almost 30 years, but putting all my knowledge on the line to help my two daughters fall in love with the sport was a major job for me.

As a tennis coach, you can encounter a lot of pressure when it comes to teaching your own children.

Despite that, after a serious discussion with my wife, we have decided that nobody would ever put more passion into teaching our daughters as much as I would as a parent and tennis coach.

BUT… there was one step that had to be carefully planned:

How to make my kids take me seriously as a coach and change their perception toward me from the “fun daddy” to… “coach daddy”?

Up to that point, I was the daddy who was coming home and they would jump on his back, go for bike rides, go to the beach, read with them, and have fun.

That was all good in the beginning when we began to transfer those fun activities onto the tennis court, but at some point we had to ease into the technical aspects of the tennis strokes and learn that tennis requires some serious moments when repetition and certain focused activities are not as entertaining as the games my daughters were used to playing with me.

Something had to be done. Something that would get my daughters to ask me to teach them how to play tennis and allow me to introduce them to the mechanical aspects of tennis strokes and footwork.

After careful analysis and long discussions with my wife, we both agreed that the best solution to have our daughters be willing to learn tennis from me would be to enroll them into group classes under the guidance of another tennis coach.

Why?

We figured that by being enrolled in group classes, our two daughters will see other children playing and enjoying tennis.
They will see other children learning, executing the strokes technique and paying attention to a coach’s instructions.

My daughters, in this way, got introduced to tennis by joining other children of their age and observing how others behave in a tennis class.

That was a turning point! 

My daughters, soon, decided to allow me to teach them not only the technical aspects, but they wanted to excel by practicing more only to get better and eventually participate in competitions.

Conclusion:

If you are a tennis parent, don’t try to teach your children yourself… in the beginning!
Allow them to learn by participating and observing other kids of their age, first.
Only after they get introduced to tennis together with other children will they be more open to learning and working hard… just like they saw other kids doing.

If you want to learn a step-by-step method and see how I taught my two daughters to play tennis from the ages of 5, respectively 6, up to junior years, visit the WebTennis24 Kids section to follow the “My Daddy / My Coach” video series.
You’ll see live and full tennis lessons (each about 45-65 minutes) in which I share all my tennis knowledge in teaching my daughters how to play and fall in love with the sport.

Have fun teaching tennis to your children!