034 - Elliott Pettit - Become Financially Literate
The PTM Podcast
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033 - Mike Barrell - Evolve9 - Your Value Isn't Your Resume
The PTM Podcast
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032 - Oscar Wegner and His Preferred Coaching Style
The PTM Podcast
Oscar’s Success As a Coach When the coach can communicate through easy words and willing to permit the student to experiment and fail, learning will create a independent and lasting result. People learn when they experiment what does and does not have the correct result. We need to get creative when working with players to get them to understand concepts. They need to practice using a self-discovery model because this is what hey will do during a match. They need to figure out how to handle adversity for themselves. Oscar used this method with Bjorn Borg and Gustavo Kuerten. To learn...
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031 - Dr. Mark Kovacs - Become a Specialist In an Area You Are Passionate About
The PTM Podcast
In today’s episode, I had another chance to interview Dr. Mark Kovacs, one of the nations leaders in sport science. In this episode, Mark talks about the importance of trying to specialize in one of your passionate areas. You want to develop a skillset in any area that may make you known in: Your Local Area Your District Your Section Or eventually even nationally Some examples may include: The way you design drills How you teach Club management High performance All payers can be trained with a HP mindset, be at different levels. You may adjust the drills, the language…..etc You...
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030 - Sid Newcomb - USPTA National Tester - The Importance of Diagnosis
The PTM Podcast
Today we welcome Sid Newcomb, USPTA National Tester to the PTM Podcast. Sid is going to discuss the importance of the diagnosis in a lesson. Diagnosis is such an important part of what we do as teaching pros. A lot of inexperienced pros tend to diagnose based on the last ball they just fed. Way to much info instead of one thing they can work on. In a private: Start by removing yourself (or don’t teach the way you necessarily play) Be observant of the student Ask questions These are all super important in the diagnosis. A good pro has the confidence to ask questions to find out what...
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029 - Motivating Your Students To Learn
The PTM Podcast
Today’s Quick Tip Is: Tell Your Students What They Are Going To Learn – Teach Them – Tell Them What They Learned And using my online marketing method, may just get those stubborn players eager to learn. A Quick story: I had a group of students recently come to the campus for a week and it was an amazing experience for me s well as for them (I hope anyway) And by the way, if you are interested in bringing a group here, talk to me and I will set you up with an experience that you will not forget. Each day this group worked with an expert on campus: Monday: On-Court With Player...
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028 - Jorge Capestany - The 5 Types of People
The PTM Podcast
Today I interview USPTA/PTR Master Professional Jorge Capestany. Jorge is a highly regarded tennis professional all around the world and has arguably the best tennis drills site on the internet. So Jorge , through his own experience has put people/coaches into one of 5 different levels 1. The Encourager - They look for the good in others and take the extra steps to tell them 2. They look for the good, but don’t tell them 3. Generally wired to look for the bad in others 4. Look for the bad in others and then DO tell THEM. These people are kind of mean. 5. The Gossiper - Look for the...
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027 - Successful Progressions - My Foolproof Plan For Beginners
The PTM Podcast
027 – Successful Progressions – My Foolproof Plan for Beginners So today’s quick tip is: Start with contact and progress backwards when working with a NEW player, So why do people say that tennis is HARD? I’m going to tell you how I achieved 100%, yes I said 100% success, with getting every new player I have ever worked with to hit a 20 ball rally over the net on their 1st day with me. There are two secrets here and one of them is you So come on, make it easy for them. This way you can increase the chances of them being successful and coming back for more! Now you...
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026 - The Ocean Liner Coach
The PTM Podcast
Today’s Quick Tip Is: Become the Ocean Liner Coach if you are in the business in taking a player from one point to another. I have been on one cruise. I thought I would never like them, but I really do. The cool part, other than the free drinks and ice cream, it that even though there is a final destination, we make a lot of successful stops along the way. For example: My in-laws come to Florida every year to hang out with us for a few months. Now when I make the drive, it takes me about 21 hours to get here from Michigan. When they drive it takes about 4 days, because...
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025 - The Ambulance Coach
The PTM Podcast
Today’s Quick Tip Is: Stop commenting on every shot and PICK ONE THING. Don’t try to correct each shot. There are NO REDOS anyway, just opportunities. Instead, Try to look for the primary issue and go from there, BEFORE THE FACT. Now you have presented an opportunity to the student. As a tester, the student was supposed to match the primary problem we saw, but the key for me was even if the primary problem didn’t match mine, that was OK as long as long as he progressed properly and the student LEARNED and improved. Let’s start with the positive: Now, depending on...
info_outlineToday’s quick tip is: Don’t rock the boat too early. Gain some trust and respect first
1. You are all confident and want to get all that you know out. Good, but it has to align with the clubs teaching philosophy (If they have one)
Philosophy – A teaching system, pathway or method used to keep instruction consistent from level to level or even class to class.
Even though you interned with the Coach of the Year for 27 years in a row, who has 172 national championships under their belt, you are working for someone else now
This is probably a question that you should ask in the interview. I was in same situation when I interviewed in front of a board…………….
Something like, how much freedom do I have to teach with the philosophy that I am comfortable with………………. As an intern, this should NOT be an issue.
2. Remember, as an intern, you are there to learn and as an assistant pro eventually, battling it out with the head pro is not going to get you very far up the ladder.
1. It can embarrass the lead pro in front of the membership (I have seen it happen)
2. You get a lot of “Coach Renee doesn’t teach it that way”
3. When members get conflicting instructional ideas, it hampers their progress.
Here is an example:
As a teaching pro at a resort, I would get a lot of Hotel guests, which made my job a bit tricky.
If I only had them for One hour, then the fundamentals were the key and trying to get them to conquer them within their own “Funky “ style. I used a lot of quick fixes or what I call band-aid solutions.
If they served with a semi western grip and I told them to switch to continental for their serve, how do you think the lesson went? Do you think that they felt like they got their $70 worth?
So the key was to work with what they had, even though I knew that there was a better way.
What I would do is end up having them ask their pro something like, Coach Mick suggested that I eventually change to a continental grip, what do you think?
Key was to ask them questions and find out how the pro at their club taught specific shots and then go from there.
4. Once you gain trust and respect from the pro staff, the rest will come easy. Just be careful about that first impression that you leave with the staff.
Bottom Line: Don’t go too overboard with your philosophy at first, especially if it differs from the rest of the staff. You should know this before you even walk in the door if you ask the right questions at the interview anyway…………
Good luck with this and please email me with any questions,
Coach Mick, USPTA