Skills a Tennis Coach Can Help You to Develop
If you want to improve your tennis skills, you may be considering hiring a tennis coach. This article explores some of the ways that tennis coaching can help you to improve your game. Read on to find out more!
Balance
Balance is mostly about learning to use the various parts of the body in correct coordination with one another. This is a big part of tennis. The more you learn to use your feet, torso and arms in coordination with each other, the better a player you will be.
You can improve your balance in many ways. For example, you could practice side shuffles (so that you are balancing the weight on the inside of your foot). Or you could practice lifting your foot up, then with a point-following motion, bringing it to the ground.
Hand-eye-coordination
Hand-eye coordination is very important, and a tennis coach can help you to learn this skill. A good exercise your coach my recommend for hand-eye coordination is the tennis ball catch. This involves standing a few feet away from the wall and throwing a tennis ball against it. You should aim to catch the ball as it bounces back towards you. Your coach will throw harder and faster balls, and you will need to catch them as they come as quickly as possible to improve your responsiveness and hand-eye coordination.
Ball judgement
Ball judgement is the ability to understand the speed and direction of an incoming ball so you can position yourself on the court to return it over the net. A coach can help you to develop this skill by throwing balls at you from different angles. You'll need to make a judgment about how hard you need to hit the ball back, and your coach can give you feedback on your accuracy once you've hit the ball.
Concentration
Concentration is a very important skill for tennis players because it helps to keep your mind focused on what you're doing while you're playing. A tennis coach should help you to improve your concentration by asking you to perform mindfulness exercises before a match that help to focus your mind and get you into the right psychological space to compete.
Improving these tennis skills will make a difference in how quickly you can learn to play well. These skills are all parts of a whole, and a tennis coach can help to maximise your abilities as a tennis player. To find out more, contact a coach today.