One step at a time...

It occurred to me today (and partially last night while observing another coach's lesson) the importance of teaching one point at a time and concentrating on this particular point until enough repetition has been preformed until the neural path is formed (partially or fully).

An example...
1. Find the nearest book or magazine, pick a page at random and start reading aloud - no problem right?
2. Keep reading aloud whilst at the same time writing your name on a piece of paper - not so easy?
3. Keep reading aloud and writing your name and with your other hand touch your nose repeatedly - game over?

Okay, so aside from looking a bit daft to anyone who may have witnessed your experiment, you can see how difficult it is to focus on two or more tasks at the same time. Relating this back to tennis, if I am asking a student to concentrate on keeping the racquet head up on their forehand preparation, then that is all I am going to comment and offer instruction on. If they get their feet in a mess and I make a correction there as well, they now have two things to concentrate on - feet and racquet head. If, on the next ball, they forget to use their non-dominant hand and I make a correction there, they have three things to concentrate on - diminishing the effectiveness of all of them.

If my (our) goal is to work on racquet head, then we concentrate on racquet head technique only, the other issues are for another lesson, another day! Consistent repetition of technique is the only way to create the correct neural pathways (more on this in another post - one thing at a time right???!!!), so let's make sure we don't confuse the issue by trying too many corrections at once.

A great coach knows when it's time to add another ingredient to the mix, a poor coach chucks everything in the bowl at once and hopes for the best. In the case of the lesson I observed yesterday (a 6 year old lad), after half an hour, the steam coming out of his ears and the blank expression on his face suggested he had probably had enough instruction for a lifetime, let alone a quick lesson!

Cheers