Tennis Mind & Body

How do we learn? 

 What was the process that we used when we were kids?

Why are young kids are able to learn 3 or 4 languages, sports, play music, etc., with amazing ease?

 The key is in the attitude, kids are not afraid to make mistakes, as their knowledge grows with them. They are not conscious about what is good or bad and are free of constraint.  But, what happens later? Why do we lose our sense of free exploration? We lose this capacity when we start to be taught. When we enter the schooling environment where we are required to conform.  This culture is very deep in our society and it happens in nearly all of the teaching systems, including most systems of tennis teaching.

We see many times, how tennis teachers, (we will not say tennis coaches) are trying to teach tennis like a subject in school, confusing a learning process with a training process.  Why do we call these types of coaches “tennis teachers”?  Because there is a big difference between teaching and coaching.

 The teachers teach by following a program, the coaches show options, and ask questions that look for new answers.  They open up new possibilities and develop creativity.  Big difference eh?

 Whenever we want to learn something new, the learning process should always be a process of discovery. To learn something new we have to venture beyond our current knowledge area, we have to stretch our current limitation and go into an unknown area. Once we are there, then this is the moment to train so as to get the new knowledge fixed into the nervous system.

The big difference between learning and training is that when we learn we gain “new” abilities, and when we train we practice through repetition the new abilities that we have previously gained. 

To learn is to create a new neural connection; to train is repeat the new skill until the neural connection become stable.

 Off course the learning process and the training process sometimes take part during the same session.  But the strategy that we are using in both cases must be different.  Learning is a discovery process; training is the repetition of the ability until we get the higher performance levels.

Our job as coaches is to create a good environment for our students to learn in and also be able to train them effectively so as to achieve high levels of performance. But, never forget that the learning process must be a creative, enjoyable and holistic one.

This course will help coaches put this fantastic theory into practice.

See course dates & venues here