Tennis teaching underwent a significant change after the turn of the century as federations around the world switched from the directed method of teaching to the guided discovery method. Creating a more games-based lesson plan, rather than using the traditional "show and tell" method, will help you share the game of tennis more effectively.
Pedagogy
Games-based teaching requires that you set up tasks for your students, helping them solve problems such as hitting down the line or crosscourt, putting topspin on the ball or hitting up on the ball. The term "guided discovery" means that you let students try to a solve a problem, steering them to the solution with a combination of questions and suggestions. This type of problem solving leads to greater skill retention and greater ability to recall skills later.
Learning Styles
Some students learn best by watching you demonstrate a skill, others need more verbal instruction and some learn primarily by hitting. If you have a large class, explain and demonstrate strokes and let students try multiple attempts at a skill with no instruction to provide kinesthetic learning.
Feedback
After you have set up a problem for students to solve, demonstrated the stroke and explained it, let students hit balls 50 percent of the time with no feedback. Approximately 40 percent of the time, give positive feedback, providing students specific instruction, such as, "Touch your back on the follow-through." About 10 percent of the time, provide negative feedback, correcting errors, such as, "Don't step across, step forward." If you comment after every ball, you won't allow the student to problem solve. If you tell students only what they are doing wrong, they might not make the connection to the correct movement. Don't say, "Don't step across," say, "Don't step across, step forward."
Types of Feed
When you feed balls from a basket, use similar feeds to help promote quick learning of a skill. Move to variable feeds, giving students feeds to the same side but with different heights, spins, speed and depths, to help with retention of the skill. Help students to recall skills later during their matches by moving to random feeds, requiring them to hit forehands, backhands and volleys, as they would in a match. Finish lessons with live-ball rallying.
Lesson Format
Start lessons with a short-court warm-up focusing on rallying and ball control. Review the skills learned in the previous lesson. Introduce the new skill for the class, using problem solving. Use the previously described progression of feeds to introduce the new skill. Finish the class with cooperative, live-ball rallies, moving to competitive live-ball rallies that reward students for winning points. Finish the class with a review of the lesson and a question-and-answer session.
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