Coach Newman's Corner

I think that question:  "What did you do in practice today?" gets asked a lot and probably does not get answered in a complete fashion.  A typical practice works on many things and players often rotate through a good number of drills, courts, coaches and other players as practice partners.  What I have found is that players often time latch onto one of the things that happened at practice and talk about that.  Sometimes that is something amazing that happened, other times it is complaint about who they practiced with.  In order for you to more fully understand what happens at practice, I would like to use yesterday as an example:

As an example, yesterday's practice looked something like this:

3:30--Players arrive, fill out daily goal sheets (which they find in folders that hold their long term, intermediate and short term goals, as well as articles handed out).  Players warm-up--we ask them to warm-up with the first person they see, and not wait around for their best friend. 

3:40--Players come in from warm-up (the last one in has to do 10 pushups, so it is a competition to get into the staging area near the ATA ball)  We talk about the goals for the day and an outline of what will happen.

3:40-3:52--3 sets of 10 hits in a row, with each partner on your court, three drills:  cross court, down the line, and 1 person at the net and one person at the baseline.  Each court has a leader, in this first set of drills we normally assign an older, more experienced player as the leader with a group of 3 younger or less accomplished players.  The leader does the count of shots and when any pair on a court gets their 3 sets of 10 the whole court moves to the next series.  Once they have completed 3 sets of 10 on cross court, the same group moves to down the line and then to one up, one back.  The first court to complete the three series calls out and every one comes in (again, last person in does 10 pushups)  This series usually takes between 9-12 minutes.  We have a record time and the players know it and want to beat.  Additionally, their is pride in being the first court done with the three drills.

3:52-4:00  Same drills with different partners.  This time players go out with peer group age or skill players on each court with one of them assigned as leader.  Three drills, three sets, everyone comes in, last person does 10 pushups.

4-4:15  Games based on the concept of winning two or three or four points in a row.  Players are paired up into groups to compete.  The idea is to win a single point in the game, you have to win consecutive points, either 2,3 or 4 in a row.  This forces the players to see the connection between points and to try to interrupt an opponents flow of points to keep them from scoring.

4:15-4:30  Team singles games, 4 players on a court, one vs one, the winner stays in the loser moves out and their teammate moves in, you can stay in for a maximum of three in a row.  Players compete for a game to 7 or 11 points.  Score is kept, top two finishers on each court move up a court, bottom two finishers on a court move down a court, the same series of games is repeated 3 or 4 or more times as players move up and down by their results.

4:30  Additional players join practice, they fill out goals, warm-up and we start another series of drills usually.  Yesterday, Younger players compete in sets, older players meet with Coach Newman to discuss an article about the Bluffton University baseball team bus crash. 

5:15-5:30pm  Older players return from fitness center, Two rotations of 3 drills described earlier  all players.

5:30-6:30  Older players in gym for fitness or sets in preparation for tournaments, Younger players sets in preparation for tournaments

6:30-7:30-  Continue with sets, (depart for 3:30 starters), as players come off sets they rotate into drill/competition courts with coaches.  As players leave they complete an evaluation on the day's practice.

7:30  4:30 starters depart

I will, from time to time, try to give you reports like this for you to see the structure of practice. 

Some questions to ask your player to help prompt them about giving you more feedback about practice?

What did Coach Newman talk about at practice today?

How many different groups of kids did you practice with today?  Who were some of them?

What was your daily goal today?  How did you evaluate yourself today Physically, Technically, Tactically and mentally? (Each player has a sheet each day to write down a goal and to evaluate themselves at the end of practice)

Sometimes what you do in practice and what gets reported through the prism of an 11 year old or 15 year old mind is two very different things.  I sent this email to our Austin Tennis Academy parents recently to help them understand how to talk to their child about practice.