The PTM Podcast
info_outline 033 - Mike Barrell - Evolve9 - Your Value Isn't Your ResumeThe PTM Podcast
info_outline 032 - Oscar Wegner and His Preferred Coaching StyleThe 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...
info_outline 031 - Dr. Mark Kovacs - Become a Specialist In an Area You Are Passionate AboutThe 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...
info_outline 030 - Sid Newcomb - USPTA National Tester - The Importance of DiagnosisThe 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...
info_outline 029 - Motivating Your Students To LearnThe 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...
info_outline 028 - Jorge Capestany - The 5 Types of PeopleThe 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...
info_outline 027 - Successful Progressions - My Foolproof Plan For BeginnersThe 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...
info_outline 026 - The Ocean Liner CoachThe 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...
info_outline 025 - The Ambulance CoachThe 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: Try to start developing your coaching objectives early
I am only skimming the surface here:
When I took the sports science exam, we covered 3 coaching objectives:
- To Have Fun
- To Develop Players
- To Win
More defined:
- To have Fun Kids—Games/activities. Adults—social and maybe a good workout
- To help develop players
1. physically (Skills and health),
2. psychologically (emotionally and self-worth)
3. socially (handling competition and teamwork) - Winning (out of class objectives—matches, tournaments, practice, private lessons, conditioning, periodization…..)
And this came from the book “Successful Coaching” which is was more for team coaches if I remember right when it talked about coaching philosophy, but it is a number one seller in the US
The key for you is to decide what your coaching objectives are (Fun, developing, or winning)
So…… One of the most important steps in determining this is how significant winning is to you as a coach.
This may all depend on who you are working with at the time for sure, because your students may be at different levels of their tennis development and have their own objectives.
The development route sounds like the hardest, but it should be included in ALL of the objectives if you want to be a successful coach.
Most any coach will tell you that the development of the athlete is the most important, but have you ever gone out and watched one of those coaches during a match or a game?
Remember the story at the beginning of todays episode. Very easy to SAY one thing and DO another, especially in a competitive environment.
If it is a combination of fun and development, then working with the High performance programs may not be for you, but working with HS players, middle School players and the younger players may be a perfect fit.
If you want to go the high performance route, and you are just getting started, find a good mentor. There is a lot more to it than you think and may require a number of different coaching specialists, depending on the degree of winning you are interested in.
As for adults, they usually have an easier time doing most of the dirty work for you.
For example, we had a number of 3.5 levels teams at our club and if you wanted to be a district champion, you wanted to get on one specific team for sure, but if you just wanted to have fun and compete followed by a few jello treats, the there was a team for that too.
Usually the captains of the “Winning” team made it clear that that was the objective and that the line-up would be decided that way. The other teams made sure everybody had equal playing time.
Wanting your players to win can be an inspiration or a buzz kill. Depends on the make-up of the team or class
BOTTOM LINE: Try to start developing your coaching objective first o at least understand how you may have to make adjustments based on the class you are working with.
Coach Mick, USPTA