How to Minimize Waiting in Line When Teaching Large Groups

How to Minimize Waiting in Line When Teaching Large Groups

by | Tennis Coaching | 0 comments

I am extremely grateful to see more and more tennis parents and coaches reaching out to me for advice based on my playing and teaching experience.

This time I’d like to bring to your attention a question a tennis coach recently asked: how to run your tennis classes so that the students do not have to wait in line for too long?…

Waiting in line is not only boring but also disruptive to the rest of the players, especially when those who wait begin chatting and the coach’s instructions are not being heard by the other players.

The following are some tips that I have used in my classes to keep all my students happy and get the best of my instruction:

1. A coach should never accept more than 6 players on the court (unless you are conducting a cardio tennis class where the coach feeds more and teaches less).

2. While some players (first in line) hit the balls that the coach feeds, the others in line should shadow the first player or do some tennis-related exercises (ladder, cones, etc.) – make sure your students are aware of proper spacing so that no one gets hurt.

3. A coach should line up the players (if there are more than three) in two lines and learn to double-feed (two balls in the air at the same time) so that two players (one from each line) practice their strokes at the same time.

4. Choose games that involve as many players as possible: 2-3 points before rotating and bringing new players on the court. Those waiting can be put through some drills (cones, ladders, etc.) or have them act as ball boys/girls for the ones who play.

Feel free to send me your suggestions if you have more tips in regard to keeping the class going and getting everyone involved.

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Cosmin Miholca

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.

Perfect Tennis Technique or Games-Based Approach?

Perfect Tennis Technique or Games-Based Approach?

by | Tennis Coaching | 0 comments

I was recently asked about my preferred teaching style: do I strive for the “perfect” technique or do I let my students learn tennis through games (lately there have been more and more tennis coaches who embrace the games-based approach).

The answer is simple: tennis should be fun regardless of the level of performance.

I do like to stress the proper technique at the beginning of the lesson just to start with the right fundamentals, but I want to make sure that at least 60% of my lessons are actually exciting for my students by introducing games and drills that have them work on placement, friendly competition, and strategies. 

In my teaching career, I’ve often paid attention to the faces of my students: when they are put through the repetitive drills of learning the “perfect” technique and when they are presented with the opportunity to play tennis games. 

The difference between the two is enormous; and here is why: 

1. When a coach stresses the technique most of the time, the students might end up “looking great” on the court, but deep down in the back of their minds they will consider tennis boring and repetitive. 

2. The games-based approach gets players thrilled to be on the court and, even though their technique will not be as good in the beginning, the fact that they enjoy playing tennis will make them do this longer and not only that… they’ll encourage their friends to get involved into it because people want to share things they love.

I’m not advocating that technique should be eliminated from the tennis practice – just not over-emphasized.

My suggestion would be that a player/student should practice their technical elements at the beginning of the lesson (let’s say for about 15 – 20 minutes) but then they should be exposed to applying the learned fundamentals into a fun-related tennis activity.

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Cosmin Miholca

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.

How to “Enforce” Proper Tennis Technique

How to “Enforce” Proper Tennis Technique

by | Tennis Coaching | 0 comments

I was recently asked: “How can I get my students to stick with the technique I teach them and not poke at the ball once they begin playing games?”

This is a very good question because I remember doing this as a kid only for the sake of winning a match. In my attempt to not miss I would just “push” the balls over the net.

The upside was that I was winning matches playing this way… in the beginning.

The downside? Well, this kind of play does not lead to real progress in the long term.

Poking the ball will annoy your opponents first but they will soon figure you out and make you work hard for the points.

The players should understand that developing relaxed and full swings will benefit their tennis in the long run.

A player who cares for their proper development knows that in the beginning, it’s not about winning. They are patient to develop a comfortable technique that allows them to swing at the ball with power and less effort.

Many people want to sacrifice the process of properly developing a solid technique for the sake of winning a few matches.

As a coach, you must not allow players to become “sloppy” when playing; especially after a lesson where you put so much effort into teaching them the proper technique.

With my students, every time I see them not following the technique we studied, I stop and ask them to do shadow strokes (swing with the correct technique, without a ball). I do this with them until they know that not sticking with the proper strokes will interrupt their fun games. (:

If you follow this method, you’ll see that the players will develop a better awareness of how they swing and the proper tennis technique.

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Cosmin Miholca

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.

How to Avoid Choking… When Serving

How to Avoid Choking… When Serving

by | Tennis Coaching, Tennis Training | 0 comments

One of my fellow coaches recently shared a story with me.

He told me how he is teaching a young man, whose serve is great during his lessons when there is no receiver at the other end. During the tennis matches though, when there is the pressure of having somebody return the serve, his student often chokes (misses a lot).
He wanted to know what he could do to help him…

My advice (which I’m hoping you will find useful too) was the following:

  • His student is probably too concerned with what the opponent’s reply will be. He’s anxious about the return and therefore he cannot relax when serving. Therefore, he must be taught to focus (when serving) on things like breathing, spin, and visualization (seeing the ball go to a certain spot inside the service box, etc.) – this would help him take his mind off of his opponent.
  • He should also have somebody return his serve (e.g. his coach, or practice partner) most of the time he practices it. Of course, his coach will have to stay next to him and correct the serve technique most of the time, but they should change it up sometimes. For example, the student can hit 20 serves with the coach next to him, then 20 serves with the coach returning the serves – in that case, the student should be doing it until the coach/practice partner returns 20 balls; and so on. My overall point is that every time someone works on their serve, they should do some pressure practice of it too.

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Cosmin Miholca

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.

Outcome-Oriented Tennis Practice

Outcome-Oriented Tennis Practice

by | Tennis Coaching, Tennis Training | 0 comments

“Whatever you do, don’t say anything to me about my serve. If I think about it, I’m in trouble.” Andy Roddick said this when he first met Patrick McEnroe, his Davis Cup coach.

In a tennis world where the emphasis is on the technical aspect, there is one area that very few tennis players dare to adopt – and it pays off big time for their game. That is… letting things happen naturally. 

What I’m about to tell you is directed to your tennis improvement by getting you out of the normal and popular tennis culture. 

As a tennis player and coach, I have been experiencing many frustrations and successes in my own lessons with all kinds of players. 

One thing that’s certain is that all players are different and you cannot teach the same technical aspect to everyone. I have to pay very much attention to what works for each of my students individually.

For example, in teaching my two daughters, Cezara (8 years old) and Bianca (6 years old)…

Cezara, on the serve, prefers the pinpoint stance (when during the toss the back foot joins up with the front foot) whereas Bianca likes the more traditional platform stance (when both feet are not moving during the toss and stand fairly close to each other). 

Cezara’s dominant elbow must elevate during the forehand ground-stroke preparation to avoid opening her racquet too much during contact; Bianca has a natural way of controlling the racquet face at contact without having to focus on the set-up. And so forth…

But my ultimate point for this letter is that players should be allowed to forget about all the technical overload and focus on the outcome. 

When serving, the outcome could be just getting the ball in (for beginning players), sending the ball with lots of slice or topspin, or placing it powerfully in the corner of the service box. 

As Andy Roddick did when he was a junior – he got fed up with all the technique that was imposed on him when serving and then one day he just threw the ball up and hit it as hard as he naturally felt. And it worked great. 
Just imagine if someone would have tried to change his serve technique!
Or if some coach would have told Nadal to not hit his forehands with that looping finish! (he was so fortunate to have such an open-minded coach like his uncle Toni)

You can only imagine what damage you can do when you want to impose one kind of technique on every single player that you coach. 

We should always be paying attention to what works for each player. 

As a tennis player, you should listen to your body and how it reacts to every stroke you execute…

In my teachings, I get the best results when I give my kids tasks that are goal-oriented. Examples:
– hit 40 serves in
– send 25 forehands cross-court
– rally 50 balls over the net with your partner
– etc.

When goal-oriented tasks are given, the mind and body work together to accomplish them successfully.

Next time you go to practice, forget about the technique. Instead, focus on what you want to accomplish: is it more slice on your serve? is it more power on your backhand? more penetrating volleys?

Then here’s what you need to do: 
– before you start hitting the balls visualize (or tell yourself) what you want: more power, more spin or to get it in
– let your body loose and the racquet do its work
– clear your mind of any technical thoughts and keep in there only the outcome you aim for (more power, spin, placement, etc.)

When you practice without the technical details cluttering your mind you will see better things happening.

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Cosmin Miholca

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.

Try Serving With a Backhand Grip. Here’s Why…

Try Serving With a Backhand Grip. Here’s Why…

by | Tennis Coaching, Tennis Training | 8 comments

Most teaching resources tell you to serve with a continental grip but if you want to add more spin to your serves try moving your hand on the grip slightly to the left (if you are a right-handed player)…

This type of grip (also called Eastern backhand) will allow you to hit better kick serves. Of course, you will have some trouble with the flat serve and you might lose some pace, but you will gain the necessary spin to improve your serve consistency.

Many players choose to hold the racquet with a continental grip on the first serve (for power) and then switch to the backhand grip for their second serve.

Note: A continental grip is holding the racquet (bottom towards you, tip points away) so that it feels like you could hammer a nail with the edge of your racquet. Your hand is on top of the bevel 1 of your racquet (the side that extends the racquet edge).

Personally, I prefer to use an Eastern backhand grip (pictured above) on both my first and second serves. On the power serves, I let my hand be loose and on top of bevels 8-1 for more penetrating contact through the ball; but on the second attempt, my hand is more toward bevels 7-8, which helps me with brushing over and/or the side of the ball for extra spin.

I recently watched an instructional tennis course with Patrick Rafter where he mentioned he used to kick serve on both – first and second. Obviously, as a serve-and-volley player as he was, this kind of serve was necessary. For many players though, when they apply this tactic (heavy spin on both serves), their first serve consistency is greater and as a result, they don’t have to go through the pressure of hitting second serves too often.

This Eastern backhand grip approach on the serve will give you peace of mind that your consistency will be greater. Your opponents will have to worry about controlling your heavy spin and, mentally, you will be more relaxed knowing you don’t have to deal with too many second serves.

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Cosmin Miholca

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.

A Fatherly Advice

A Fatherly Advice

by | Tennis Coaching, Tennis Training | 2 comments

I’d like to address one of the things that have happened to me (I’d say, often) and I am sure you could relate to this as well…

You watch a tennis match between two players and think that they are playing great: long rallies, a nice variety of shots, etc. You can’t help but get the feeling that those guys are so much better than you. Then one day you meet one of them in a tournament match… And you beat them! That makes you wonder: “What has happened? I was certain that this guy was much better than me based on how they looked playing against somebody else.”

One thing is for sure: only because somebody plays very well against a certain opponent does not mean they will play well against you too!
We are all different and our style of play can either help or impede our opponents.

We often tend to underestimate our own potential and therefore we think others are better players when, in fact, they are not.

My father once told me this before a match I was nervous about: “Don’t worry about how good he is, let him worry about how good YOU are!”

Now, THAT is one attitude you should step on the court with.

Cosmin Miholca

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.