Tennis Lessons that Work!

Is there any tennis player who doesn’t want to play better tennis?  Some try to do this on their own, but smart people take tennis lessons to find ways to improve.  Before you enter into a tennis training program, let’s look at some important considerations.

Many tennis players take tennis lessons without a clear goal.  It is very important to be explicit about improvement goals with the coach.  Likewise, a good coach will talk about these before the first lesson or class begins. Unless the player hires a skilled tennis professional who understands the importance of quantifiable improvement, chances are, they will not improve in the way they had hoped. Understanding the importance of hitting the Sweet Spot is critical for accuracy and power.

Successful tennis training programs have clear goals and measure those to monitor improvement.  Another product that can help with monitoring your improvement is Qlipp.  This device will tell you just how many Sweet Spot hits (solid hits) you make. When you sign up for a tennis training program, make sure the coach/facility asks you what your goals are.  Do they plan on tailoring your tennis lessons to help achieve those goals?  Do they give you homework?

Homework?  Yes.  Here’s a story to illustrate the importance of that.  A football player told his coach he wanted to be faster and stronger on the field.  The coach said, then you need to do more work OFF the field…hit the gym and lift weights.  Well it is the same for tennis players who are in serious tennis training programs. You can learn many things on court, but it also takes correct repetitions OFF court to create movements that require no conscious thought.  People used to refer to this as muscle memory.  I like saying “we are creating instinctive patterns of movement”.

If you take tennis lessons on court with a coach, but then you don’t go home and repeat the movements off court, it will take much longer to develop to the level you may desire.  Yes, it takes thousands of repetitions, so why not do that in the fastest, most effective way possible?  This is one of the reasons Billie Jean King’s Eye Coach was developed….and it works.  Not only is it a time saver, there is science behind it.  Everybody wants to have the balance of Roger Federer, but how many have that?  Very few, even at the professional level, are hitting balls in the Sweet Spot most of the time.  Why?  Because the key to balance and accuracy is keeping your eyes at the Point of Contact. This means “head still”, not “head shift” as many do.

Coaches using Billie Jean King’s Eye Coach in their tennis training programs accelerate learning on court, but then they also need to give homework so students can solidify what they learned.  Interestingly, it only takes 5-10 minutes a day to make a huge difference. Whether you are in a tennis training program or even just taking private tennis lessons, the off-court work can really make a difference.  Click HERE to get your own Eye Coach and watch how you find your fastest way to better tennis!

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