When learning a motor skill such as a tennis stroke, how you learn is just as important as what you learn if you want to acquire the skill quickly and permanently. Hitting hundreds of balls in a row degrades tennis strokes rather than improving them. Understanding some physical education basics will help you learn, or teach, tennis strokes in the most beneficial way.
Learning
Trying a skill for the first time is learning. Going from a two-handed backhand to a one-handed backhand, or switching from an Eastern forehand grip to a semi-Western grip would be examples of learning. To help you learn new skills quickly, you should try them in a blocked learning environment, where every ball you receive has a similar depth, trajectory and pace. Once you feel you've "got it" and can start repeating the stroke the way you want, you'll want to practice in this way for a while longer, going into the overlearning phase of stroke work. During overlearning, you'll hit 50 percent of the balls it took you to learn the stroke. Once you have initially learned a new stroke, you'll want to move on to skill retention.
Retention
If you want to retain the new skill you've just learned, you'll need to move to the variable learning environment. You will now receive balls that make you take several steps forward or wide, have different ball-bounce heights, jam you or have slice or topspin. The balls should still come to the same stroke you are practicing.
Recall
Once you are able to comfortably hit a variety of fed balls with your new stroke, you'll want to work on being able to use that stroke tomorrow, next week or next month during a match. To create retention of your stroke, you'll need to receive random feeds. This means a ball to your forehand, one to your backhand, an overhead, another ball to your forehand, a volley, etc. This type of learning environment mimics the patterns of play in a match. At this stage, you will want to use live-ball hitting with a partner rather than just hitting balls from fed from a basket. If at any time during the random or variable learning phases, your new stroke skill breaks down, return to the previous practice stage.
Practicing
If you don't practice like you play, you'll play like you practice. If you don't hit the ball after two bounces in a match, don't do that in practice. If your practice partner hits a ball that is going out of the court, catch it, don't hit it out of the air or on a bounce behind your hip. If you receive a short ball, don't run in half-heartedly, hit it with your arm while your weight is on your back foot, then run back to the baseline. If you hit 100 balls with perfect form, that is the only motor pattern your brain will have to recruit during a tennis match.
Backboards, Ball Machines and Lessons
Set up lessons to mirror the demands of a tennis match. Your tennis coach should not be feeding balls from the side of the court, creating angles of incidence and reflection you won't see in match. Have your coach feed from the baseline to give you the same reaction time you'll have to balls during a match. You will rarely hit more than 10 shots during a point in a tennis match unless you are a defensive intermediate. Hitting 100 balls from a ball machine fatigues your central nervous system and fills your muscles with lactic acid, a muscle inhibitor. Backboards give you half the time to react to incoming balls and project balls low, often forcing you to hit them on two bounces.
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