CLASS DETAILS
45 MIN / 60 MIN MONDAY TO SATURDAY from 4pm
1] SCALED - learning environment
Having the right learning environment allows for explicit and implicit learning as kids learn incidentally from each other and other factors. Research suggests over 70% of all that kids learn is through other means than “direct coach” teaching.
*Scaled equipment [nets, racquets and low compression balls] and teaching aids modified to the age of the pupils to excite, simplify and stimulate learning.
*A warm up activity designed equally to stimulate the mind and body for play
*A defined court area with an opponent i.e. playing in pairs [as opposed to an artificial feed from a coach] which makes the learning experience “real”.
*Encouraging kids to understand a movement cycle in each shot i.e. ready, respond and recover.
*Giving the pupils a reason to want to learn by using motivating "challenge activities" in each lesson plan.
2] LEARNING PHILOSOPHY - serve, rally & score
Using modified equipment enhances developing "real" skills. Apart from the serve each shot in tennis is performed in an unpredictable and changing environment, therefore adaptation, is equally, if not more important than learning the “perfect” technique. By learning skills in a variable practice structure, that is, by practicing skills in a variety of different and challenging ways, pupils remember those skills more profoundly than simply by practicing the same skill over and over [e.g. the coach feeding a ball to a forehand repeatedly with little or no relevant decision making] – in a variable practice structure pupils are basically solving the motor problem anew each time!
Pupils learn to play the game in match situations learning to “serve, rally and score” whilst developing skill sets in context to the game which makes the experience meaningful and real to the pupil. There are many skills sets to be acquired: i.e. reception [perception/anticipation], physical [including F.M.S.], psychological [concentration, developing confidence and self-belief], social [cooperation, etiquette] as well as, of course, tactical and technical skills. We treat all skills with equal importance as the game itself requires all the below skills sets combined.
*reception [reading the flight of the ball, perception/anticipation, decision making],
*physical [including tennis relevant Fundamental Motor Skills e.g. throwing, tracking, movement],
*psychological [concentration, developing confidence and self-belief],
*social [cooperation, etiquette, disputes & problem solving]
*tactical [choosing the right shot at the right time]
*technical [the biomechanics of each stroke]
3] HOLISTIC APPROACH - play the game
We encourage kids as soon as possible to play in our Orange ball Friday Night Hot Shot League which is a graded competition. As soon as kids are capable of [modified] serving, rallying and scoring we recommend kids play competition. In comp kids learn to use the skills taught in coaching whilst playing the game developing their tactical and social skills with qualified coaches as supervisors. Our fun comp has four season, one each term, all year round and has an end of term Party, Pizza & Presentation of trophies.
