Hey, soon I'm starting my level 1 coaching course and I was wondering if anyone had any advice when it came to coaching. I'm not bad at it by any means when I've helped out some of the younger players. I was just wondering if theres anything people look back on and say 'I'd wish I'd known that' and could pass it back to me. I'm still a junior and still want to play competitively but at the same time my Friday sessions I don't get much out of and think I could spend that time better helping others and keep up my training elsewhere. I'm not going to be England next no1 but always want to have something to do with the sport.
1. Always remind the player to be relaxed when playing/training, its something that few players do and most of the times it is a state of mind or even a personality thing. If one does not learn to play relaxed he will never reach his peak potential. Not even 30 % of his peak I would say
2. First perfect the basics dont go to a next level training if basics are not perfect. Basics from my point of view A) Footwork/balanced body posture at all times
B) Stroke technique. Try to teach from small moves to large moves. The bh loop for example, first I would teach how to snap the wrist (50 perfect consecutive repetitions for example), then add some forearm motion to learn the BH counterhit (50 again). Then same motion but change the angle of paddle to produce spin and finally teach the BH loop against topspin no spin backspin etc. C) Serving receiving -> It demands footwork knowledge . So I would begin on reading spin feeling the ball properly and use your creativity on serve/receive.
After all these 3 are perfected then and only then you can start combining them
3. Take one good step at a time and dont rush. If you rush, the time needed to correct the player's mistakes is much bigger than the training sessions you have given so far...so its the most effective way to train/teach some one
4. Find ways to make training amusing to players. I believe its one of the "secrets" that made Richard Prause so successful. He said training should be as fun as possible, you can combine competitive training and entertainment together. The players must be happy and relaxed after a training session, not anxious/nervous or sad
Hope I helped!
