A Great Teaching Strategy for Coaching...

As a coach, when teaching footwork it is important to be able to demonstrate what you want your students to learn. The best way I have found to do this is through shadow tennis where you mimic the footwork with a racquet but without a ball.

Once the student follows you by standing behind you, you can then face them and again they mimic you and you can see what they're doing. Get them to have a go by themselves and this time call out cue words.

Once they have mastered the shadow tennis get them to shadow again on the baseline and then intersperse shadow tennis with an appropriate fed ball. This enables you, as the coach, to compare and contrast the shadow footwork with the fed ball footwork.

I also want to say here how important it is to warm up properly before anyone plays any game of tennis.

Shadow Tennis is also a great way to do this: 

In essence all this entails is this: before playing get your players to mimic their swings and footwork without a ball but still swinging their racket.  They do it in golf; they do it boxing why not do it in tennis?  Not only does this warm up the muscles, but it also warms up their mind because it is a form of moving visualization and gets them concentrating.  And as we all know concentration is essential to win in tennis!

There are More Tips and Techniques In my Coaches Guidebook.

The Coaches Guidebook is taken from discussion between two practicing coaches and myself.  The coaches, Peter Burgess and Margie Zesinger have successfully implemented The Bailey Method into their everyday lessons.

Peter Burgess is an internationally certified coach and educator who has been teaching adults and children from beginner to high performance/tournament levels for over 20 years. In this Coaches Guide he and Dave discuss how implementing The Bailey Method into his teaching has changed his approach to his coaching and his business with some dramatic results.

Margie Zesingeris a strategic coach at the IMG, Bollitierri's Tennis Academy in West Bradenton, Florida, USA. She teaches students of all ages and at all levels. In this discussion with Dave she describes how using The Bailey Method in her coaching makes teaching footwork so much easier for both the coach and the student.

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