Deliberate Practice

Practice is loving the feel of the ball on the strings. Practice is the pursuit of mastery. To make your game look effortless and to be the example that will inspire someone else. How do we get there though? It isn't just practice for the sake of practice, but deliberate practice. Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.Taking the time to work on the little things like the forearm turn on the serve or the swing pattern on the forehand. It is that deliberate action of practicing the tedious movements as well as playing games and sets. The key to mastery is this intentional focus of 10,000 hours. When someone commits over 10,000 hours of intentional and hard work, suddenly they are an overnight success. We always incorporate the deliberate practice, the routine of working on the mechanics of the strokes and applying it in a game situation in our lessons. By incorporating that routine our students have a practice plan they can use outside of our lessons on their journey towards mastery.

The Standard Method

For twenty years I have been trained in the Standard Method. What is the Standard Method? The Standard Method is the name of the teaching methodology the Professional Tennis Registry uses as the framework to design lessons. This method is a Gradual Release of Responsibility that allows students to see a model, get guided practice, and then apply their new skill on their own. 

What makes this system so unique is how we are able to use cooperative learning and differentiation to allow students of all ability levels the chance to learn in one environment. We can adapt the lesson to the student strength and area of growth. We also focus on mastery of the skill by focusing on repetition and learning goals. Over the next couple posts I would like to discuss more about our methodology and how it helps me as well as your child  create a framework for overall mastery.

Reflections on 2019: Taking New Ground

When we go through struggles in our lives, stay the course. Often those struggles, those setbacks are set-ups for a comeback. They are removing things you don't need anymore or pushing you away from things you don't need anymore and allowing new growth to happen. The key was to have the mindset to be present in each moment.  2019 will be a year of comebacks, resets, recovery, refreshing, and rejoicing. Seriously, who could have imagined a better year to end the decade on. I reflect back to where I was ten years ago and the vision hadn't even been established. Ten years later we had our greatest summer, we saw kids take their skills to new levels, we saw kids loving the moment, and we saw relationships grow stronger.  

Learn To Rally Summer 2019

Saturday at North Phoenix Baptist

To say that one part of 2019 was the best would take away from all that happened. We saw so many of our students grow and take new ground. Our summer program was the best yet. I felt like a kid again watching thirteen, yes thirteen, five to eight year old students in our Learn to Rally class.
We had new private groups  and classes with students from Khalsa Montessori, Encanto Elementary, Arizona School for the Arts,

Learning to Volley in a Private Group

Encanto Fall 2019

Phoenix Elementary School District, Biltmore Prepatory Academy, Madison Heights, Madison Simis, St. Thomas, St. Francis, and Madison Traditional Schools. I never dreamed we would be able to influence kids from so many different schools. 
Our fall 2019 sessions were awesome! We added some new days and times. Our Learn to Rally classes, orange ball classes, and green ball classes were the place to be on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
As many of you know we were in a horrific car accident in 2018. In 2019 we received our new miracle mobile to be able to get to our lessons. I guess you could call this the Service Wagon, since that is what we are here to do, serve.

The Power of 3

The goal of tennis is to keep the ball in play until you have to start over. Sometimes that can be rallies of 10, 15, even 20 hits. Most of the time this is not the case. As a matter of fact, the top professionals in the world average between 1 and 3 hits per point.  This fall we incorporate this practice into our lesson planning. While we still want the students to play until they have to start over, we also want them to realize the importance of getting that first, second and third ball in play. In most matches, the point is lost on the third hit ball. So we want our students to get good at getting that third and fourth ball back. We have played a lot of games like 3+, where the students get a bonus point for getting three or more balls in play. We also work on serve, return, +1, focusing on the next shot after the return.  So, next time you are out playing with your kids, have them focus on getting three balls over to start. Anything after three is bonus hits.

 

It's all about the WHY

I sometimes have to wonder why I keep doing some of the things I do. It could be productive or non-productive activities. The thing is there is a WHY.  The WHY is probably the strongest factor to motivation there is. If your WHY is to find food because you are hungry, then you will search to find what you need. If your WHY is to work to provide for your family, than you will find any level of work to make sure that happens.
I think the same principle of the WHY applies to playing tennis or teaching it. Recently though I have been soul searching more about the WHY. Is the reason I teach tennis just because I like to be outside and be active? Not as much anymore, because I can find a lot of activities outside that I like to do. Is it because I have been doing this for a while and have confidence in my abilities? Maybe, but even too much lobster after a while starts to taste like soap. I think the WHY is I just love seeing the improvement and engagement of the students. The connections that are made through practice.

Learning to Play Smart Tennis

Over the years I have had students ask me to teach them tactics for playing tennis.  One of the tactics that many of the boys wanted to use was to hit the ball hard. Hitting the ball hard is not a tactic. Often times it is just extra arm practice and the ball goes anywhere. There was a teaching pro that called this tactic,"Bam! Slam! Hope to goodness Sam!" 

What many students don't realize is they are already doing tactics when they serve, return, volley, hit a forehand or a backhand. Any one of those is a tactic, especially depending on how you  play one of the strokes. 

Once you learn the strokes you can start using them to your advantage. First, you must keep the ball in play. You have to be able to rally. You must be able to get one more ball back. I always like to ask students,"How long before you start over? "

After you have been able to keep the ball in play, you try to move your friend side to side. Now you are rallying and making your friend move to play another ball. Once you have them running, you ring your friend to the net and then hit it over their head with a lob. As you become more advanced you start playing short and deep angle shots to get an easy ball to make the winning shot. 

Next time you go play with your kids, practice some of these tactics and soon you will be making the winning shot.

Encouraged and Inspired Summer 2019

As summer vacation in Arizona comes to a close, it brings cause to reflect. This was one of the best summer's yet! This June was full of some returning and some new students who came out to learn to play tennis! It seemed as if the students came out of the woodwork for our June offerings. Our offerings this summer were Learn to Rally for ages 5-8, a Beginner class for ages 8-10, a class for ages 11-14, and the Parent and Me classes. We use the progressive teaching model with low compression balls, modified courts, gradual release of responsibility method, and cooperative learning strategies.

Learn to Rally 2019

 We had an overflowing class in June and sometimes that can mean chaos with this age group. It wasn't and our system allowed for students to develop pre-rally and rally skills using cooperative learning games. I especially love to watch how some of the students who struggle in the first week suddenly become experts by the end of the session. Students could not wait to come to tennis. They were always asking to play certain game ad their favorite part. We even learned a few magic tricks along the way.

• Parents and kids teaching each other the palm down in the rolling rally
  Parent and Me ages 5-8

Another hi-lite of our summer program is the Parent and Me classes. We offered two age ranges this year. This is such a special time as families get to spend time with each other. In these sessions they develop stronger communication skills because they are teaching each other through cooperative drills.

We had students come from all over the valley and even from out of state. On our last day of our July session we had a special visit from Darnell McDonald of Svasport and the Chicago Cubs. Darnell shared his story and talked with our students about being in the moment and a better way to look at failure. The students walked away feeling encouraged and inspired. This was truly one of the best summers I have had. It was emotional to see it come to a close, but joyful in knowing that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.