We’ve all been there before. There are a bunch of tasks that need to be done, and we try to do all of them at the same time. Before you know it, hours have passed, and you have completed nothing. The same thing holds true for tennis. If you focus on too much at once, nothing will get better and the frustration will pile up.
The key to a good practice is monotony. For the quickest results, your child needs to be focusing on one thing at a time. Concentrating on one thing does not mean that your child can only hit forehands for a lesson. It means that they only focus on improving one aspect of their game. The rest of the activities they do during practice would be just to maintain. Practicing like this can be frustrating, but it leads to much more productive workouts.
By focusing on improving one thing at a time, your child will progress at a much faster rate. However, it can also be a little tedious and frustrating. So, it is crucial that your child push through the frustration and find satisfaction in doing something over and over again, improving it each time.
One Thing At A Time
Most private lessons work in a progression. The coach picks something that needs to be worked on. They start with the basics and increase the difficulty of the drills as the lesson goes on. Then if there is time, the coach goes on to make sure previous lessons learned are maintained.
Your child needs to make sure they have the same mindset during practice sessions. They are not always going to have a coach telling them what to do, so it is important they learn to work on things themselves. Your child needs to be able to take what they learned in a lesson and continue to work on it during other practices. So, if they were working on using more topspin on their forehand during a lesson, they should work on the same thing during training. To see how lessons, clinics, and tournaments work together to help your child improve, you can check out our post about it here.
It can be tough for people to work on improving things during practice sessions. When someone tries to improve, they always make more errors as they learn to incorporate the improvement into their game. Making errors can be a frustrating experience as someone tries to learn something new. The frustration can lead to kids reverting to old habits, preventing them from moving forward. It is essential that your child learns to push through this frustration and continue to work on improvements because it will allow them to get better at a much faster rate.
The Satisfaction of Monotony
Focus on one part of the stroke
Focusing on one small part of a tennis stroke makes it easier to get into the zone. If your child is worried about every detail, they will get frustrated. It is impossible to focus on everything at once so make sure they just focus on one small aspect. The aspect can be anything from more wrist flick, to extending their arm more, to making a good unit turn. Be sure to ask their coach what they should focus on during practice.
Realizing it can always be better
If your child understands that they can always get better, it will be easier for them to sit there and practice something over and over again. If they don’t feel like they can get better, then they will lose focus and will want to do something else.
Don’t worry about results… at the start
When your child first learns something they will make more errors as they learn to incorporate it into their game. If they only focus on these errors, they will become frustrated and want to work on something else. It can sometimes take a little while for them to start to get consistent results. That being said, they will feel it when they get it right. If they focus on the shots that they got right and try to replicate it, the consistent results will come with practice. If you are interested in learning more about the parts of tennis that help someone improve, you can check out this article by optimum tennis!
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