TennisOne Lessons

Deliberate Practice – Second Serve Application

Wayne Elderton

In the first installment of the series (Deliberate Practice), we looked at the concept of work ethic being a key factor in players becoming better (much more than ‘talent’). However, it was not just hard work that achieved results but the type of practice champions engaged in. This kind of practice has been studied extensively in many disciplines (art, music, sport, etc.) and has been termed, ‘Deliberate Practice’.

As the name implies, it is practice that’s targeted and purposeful. The other characteristics included:

• Highly structured
• Specific and relevant
• Weaknesses are targeted and performance monitored
• Mentally & physically focused
• Reward-less

These characteristics reveal important distinctions between the activity most consider practice and the kind of practice that creates champions. In the last installment we said:

“For tennis, DP is not a matter of practicing serves, groundstrokes and volleys, but which serve and which groundstrokes, etc. For example, a player can hit a thousand forehands but, does that help their aggressive angled crosscourt forehand? They may practice serves but how much repetition do they get on a topspin second serve to the backhand on the ad side?”

Taking up this concept of a specific second serve, we have created a video that lays-out a Deliberate Practice process. The keys needed for the practice include:

• Clear tactical intention (technique is only for executing tactics. The idea is to practice in order to win more, not look nicer)
• Key technical points to practice (what is really important to make the tactic happen)
• How to set-up measurement (this is required to know if you are improving or not)
• Scoring norms (to gauge improvement based on typical results)

None of the concepts in the video are particularly new. It is the package of how they are put together that makes the practice deliberate.

At my academy, we call this concept, “Performance On Demand” (POD). If you truly ‘own’ a skill you can do it whenever it is demanded of you.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Wayne Elderton's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.

Wayne Elderton

WayneElderton isHead Courseof Tennis Canada Coaching Development &Certification in British Columbia. He is a certified Canadian national level 4 coach andcertified by both the PTR and USPTA.For two consecutive years he was runner-up for Canadian national development coach-of-the-year out of nominated coaches from every sport.He has also been named the Tennis Professionals AssociationCoaching Educator of the year and Tennis Professional of the year.

Wayne is currently Tennis Director at the Grant Connell Tennis Center in North Vancouver. He has written coaching articles and materials for Tennis Canada, the PTR, Tennis Australia , and the ITF. He is a national expert on the Game-based Approach.

For more informationvisit Wayne Elderton's website at www.acecoach.com