United States Tennis Association - Coaching Tennis Successfully

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coaching tennis successfully / United States Tennis Association.-- 2nd ed.

p cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-7360-4829-4 (pbk.)

1. Tennis--Coaching. I. United States Tennis Association.

GV1002.9.C63U55 2004

796.342077--dc22

2003018063

ISBN-10: 0-7360-4829-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-4829-3

Copyright 2004, 1995 by United States Tennis Association

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CONTENTS

The USTA proudly acknowledges the contribution of the professional staff in player development (now referred to as high performance) and sport science for their guidance and expertise through the first edition of this book and revisions where appropriate in this edition. Specific staff members included Lew Brewer, Paul Roetert, Linda Jusiewicz, Lynne Rolley, Nick Saviano, Stan Smith, and Tom Gullikson. Also, thanks to Riki Schafer who assisted in editing the second edition.

We are particularly grateful to two highly respected and successful high school coaches who supplied much of the material for the first edition based on their years of experience: Mike Hoctor, now retired, was coach extraordinaire at Astronaut High School in Titusville, Florida, and inductee into the Florida Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame; and Becky Desmond, coach of both boys and girls at Downingtown, Pennsylvannia High School and was recipient of numerous awards, including the Educational Merit Award from the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

A special note of mention for Casey Sandor, coach of the girls varsity team at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut. Coach Sandors teams have won several league championships and captured the state championship in 2003 after several second-place finishes. I watched her carefully as she spun her magic in coaching high school girls for the three years when my daughter was a member of the team. Her insight into handling young ladies, inspiring them, and helping them become a cohesive team is reflected in this book.

Throughout my nearly 40 years of tennis coaching and teaching, scores of dedicated and successful coaches of high school teams have inspired and amazed me with their wisdom, dedication, and commitment to helping young people learn to love to play competitive tennis in a team setting. High school tennis has continued to gain popularity for both boys and girls since the early 1970s when participants totaled about 100,000. Today, over 300,000 players every year salute you for helping them enjoy tennis!

Ron Woods

The United States Tennis Association proudly counts over 600,000 members, a significant number of whom are high school coaches, players on school teams, and parents of those players. This book is designed to help all involved in competitive school tennis enjoy the experience and to help players and coaches perform at their highest level.

The material presented here reflects the cutting edge of tennis coaching today as refined by the USTA national coaching staff along with our sport science experts. By combining USTA concepts with the practice experiences of highly successful coaches, the USTA has created a solid source for coaching high school and summer tennis leagues. If you coach a tennis teambe it Olympic, college, high school, or even USA Team Tennis for Youthyoull find lots of helpful advice within these pages.

sets the stage and lays the foundation for your coaching style and philosophy, offering advice on critical interpersonal communication skills and tackling the difficult issues of motivating your players. These are the fundamentals of coaching at any level of play.

deals with planning for both the overall season and each practice in an organized, efficient way. Instruction from this section will save you time and effort that can be better spent doing what you really loveworking with young people on the court.

The nuts and bolts of on-court coaching are presented in the third section. Tennis technique is presented in a simplified fashion with the suggestion that each players game be customized rather than forced into one ideal form. Tennis skills are then developed through practical drills that are explained and displayed in diagram form.

Tennis tactics for both singles and doubles are the focus for the fourth section. Styles of play including examples of professional players who can serve as role models are presented along with strategies to counter various styles.

Finally, the concluding section will help you prepare players for match play, including tips on scouting opponents and conducting prematch practices. Your role as a coach during match play is also analyzed along with important advice for helping players deal with a win or a loss after a match.

All of us who have contributed our insights and experience in this book recognize the dedication of thousands of tennis coaches throughout the United States just like you who are eager to add to their coaching skills. We hope this book fills that need in part and we congratulate you on your quest to continue to learn from other coaches, and especially from your players.