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Progressive Tennis: ½ Court Tracking, Catching & Throwing Skills

Wayne Elderton

In the last article (“Progressive Tennis: Starting Players at 1/2 Court”), we looked at the contrast between a traditional beginner process (feeding balls so players can groove strokes), and a Game-based approach. In a GBA, players start with the tactic of a consistent neutral exchange (rally). They then learn the technical elements required for successfully rallying by ‘shaping’ the shots out from the impact point.

GBA: An approach that doesn't teach technique?

This leads to a little side bar. As the GBA becomes known, and coaches experiment with the process, resistance by traditional coaches becomes inevitable. One of the most common complaints about GBA is that it doesn't teach technique. Unfortunately, this observation is all too often true with coaches who have not mastered a GBA.

When coaches begin to explore a GBA, they get occupied dealing with the greater organizational demands of the approach (organizing all players to be active is far more difficult than putting people in lines). They get drawn into the tactics and process of getting learners to play so much that they loose sight of technical development. Also, since they typically have abandoned the inferior "model" method as a technical approach, they have few tools to apply to develop players technically (see the tennis one article: "Tactics-The secret to Great Technique"). The result, technique that is minimized or absent from lessons.

The truth is, good GBA coaching has lots of technical development. Contrary to objections typically raised about GBA, it is actually an alternative way to teach technique. Technique in a GBA is second (after tactics), but never secondary! Developing a 5-7 year old should be all about building a technical foundation for future success. This is much easier when the Progressive Tennis system is used (Oversized foam balls, playing doubles sideline to doubles sideline on a "1/2 Court", with the appropriate length racquet).

Skill Development

In the last article we learned about two technical development concepts and the first rally activity:

1. Skill Blocks:
   • Block #1: Track, Catch, Throw Skills
   • Block #2: Racquet Skills
   • Block #3: Body Coordination Skills

2. The “Accordion” Method: Switching back and forth from having players rally to skill building exercises and then integrating them back into a rally.

3. Self-rally: A low-pressure activity to build rally skills and technique.

The biggest challenge when teaching 5-7 year old beginners is getting them “over the hump” of being able to rally. These concepts create a powerful learning process to help get there faster.

After some basic technique has been mastered during Self-rally, the player immediately progresses to rallying with a partner at a short distance.

The “formula” of a neutral rally (Ball received = Ball sent) needs to be maintained to build consistency. Cooperative activities are great for just this task. As players engage in rallying to a partner, common challenges emerge. Typically, 5-7 year olds have difficulty receiving the ball. That is, tracking the ball and moving to get into a favorable position to send the ball. In addition, they have difficulty with overhand throwing.

Block #1: Track, Catch, and Throw Skills

This block of skills is the solution for the above mentioned challenges. Lots of tactical/technical skills can be developed in cooperative underhand throwing exercises. In addition, being able to deliver the ball underhanded to a partner is a critical skill to increase practice repetition. Depending on a coach as the only person good enough to feed the ball doesn’t empower players inside, or outside of lesson times.

Here are a number of drills from this skill block that can be used to in the Accordion method to improve rally skills. To make it easier to understand, the “Tactical Grid” introduced in article #1 of this series should be used (“Progressive Tennis: Tactical Development”)

Judging the Bounce

One partner (starting in area ”A”) throws underhand to the other (starting in area “B” on the other side). The “thrower” calls “three”, “two”, or “one”, to signify how many bounces the “catcher” lets the ball bounce before catching it. As the players get better, have them throw from areas “C” and “D.” Use this activity to develop the following elements:

• Establishing an ideal Impact point: Catching should be at waist level, slightly out front, and comfortable distance from the body to prepare players for creating an ideal impact point in the future.

• Body Position & Stance: Players can catch with a cone, or with both hands to start. Progress to catching with a single hand (simulating a forehand with a sideways body position and neutral stance).

• Footwork: Players must use shuffle steps to maneuver (avoid running while facing forward)

Tactical Throw and Catch

The “thrower” throws underhand to a “catcher” who must catch the ball and send it back. The variations of this activity include:

• Footwork Cycle: Players must start at a "Home base." They must throw away from their partner to make them move. They move out, catch the ball, and return to home base to simulate the footwork cycle used while rallying. Players can only send the ball when they are at home base.

• Click photo:" Beat the Bounce" to set-up and recover.

  "Beat the Bounce": Players again start at home base and throw the ball away from their partner to make them move. This time, they must move out and set-up to catch before the ball they receive bounces. They catch the ball and send it away from their partner. They then must recover to 'Home base' before the ball they sent bounces on their partner's side of the court. Quick set-up and recovery is the goal. Player's also need to be guided to discover that sending the ball at different heights can buy time, or take away time.

• Crosscourts and Down-the-lines: The concept of sending the ball to different places and the terminology used is the goal. To make each other move, players call out “crosscourt” (e.g. sending the ball from area “D” to area “B” on the other side) or, “down-the-line” (e.g. sending from area “D” to area “A” on the other side) before sending the shot. All the tactical ideas around these shots can be explored and developed.

Overhand Throwing

In ½ Court competition (in Canada) players serve underhand. This eliminates the temptation to ruin good serve motions by ‘bumping’ the ball over the net (which 99% of all kids will do when they want to get the ball in).

Although they serve underhand when they play, in training all the skills required for a good overhead serve are developed. When they do start to serve overhead, (in ¾ court Tennis) their motions will be so well developed, they will be resistant to being corrupted just to poke the ball in.

The easiest way to develop a good serving action is to start from a good throwing action. Players should be encouraged to throw overhand in every practice session.

• Throwball: In this activity, players are placed in teams on opposite sides of the court. Each team gets a ball. A team gets two points if one of their players hits the back wall of the opposing team with an overhand throw. If a team catches the ball in the air, they get one point. The following technical elements should be emphasized:
• Throw from a sideways ‘serve’ position (no running starts)
• Throw upward (45˚ trajectory)

• Alley Throws: Players stand with a partner across from each other on opposite doubles lines (adult court). They start from a ‘trophy position’ (looking like the figure on the top of a tennis trophy) and “turn and reach” to release the ball when their arm is at full upward extension. The goal is to send the ball upwards so it lands in the opposite doubles alley. The partner should let the ball bounce, catch it, and throw it back. The following technical elements should be emphasized:
  • Pronation of forearm (avoid ‘pushing’ or ‘grenade toss’ actions)
  • Upward extension (get players to ‘freeze’ their throw when their elbow is up beside their ear)
  • Maintaining balance through the movement (they must be able to throw with both feet on the ground although the back foot heal can leave the ground

Conclusion

None of these activities are ‘new’. The revelation however is for coaches to fully engage in developing the technical foundations of the game during these activities. All too often, these types of activities were done by coaches as ‘games’ and as long as the ball was going back and forth, coaches were content. Any old technique was tolerated.

To fully realize the benefits of Progressive Tennis (and the USTA’s new ‘Quick Start’ Tennis), coaches need to develop players both tactically and technically. In the not too distant future, people should be saying, “scaled tennis is the best way to learn solid technique”. May it be so.

Note: All of this material is soon to be released on a new Tennis Canada ½ Court Development DVD created by Wayne Elderton and Canadian coach and videographer, Neil Parker. Special thanks to Neil for the clips for this article as well. Stay tuned to find out the DVD release date. It will be available on www.acecoach.com

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

Wayne Elderton

Wayne is the Head Course Conductor for Tennis Canada Coaching Certification in British Columbia. He is a certified Canadian national level 4 coach and a PTR Professional. For two consecutive years he was runner-up for Canadian national development coach-of-the-year out of nominated coaches from every sport. Wayne has also been selected as Tennis BC High Performance Coach-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 information on the Game-based approach, you can visit Wayne Elderton's website at www.acecoach.com