Did you ever notice that sports have rhythm? There's the measured movement of the individual player, and then the flow of the game itself. Sports can feel like dancing to your favorite song. Tennis is no different. The rhythm of tennis is not an easy concept to grasp by any means of the imagination. But, when beginner players incorporate the movements of each swing, whether it be a forehand, backhand, volley, overhead, or serve, they will soon realize they have overcome an important hurdle to understanding the fundamentals of the sport.
Coach Antonio along with his assistant, Michael, spent much of yesterday’s practice reciting split, pivot, step, swing; split, pivot, step swing. You could almost hear the one, two, three, four of a dance sequence. Our junior players were required to say this cadence over and over again to drive home the steps necessary to develop a basic swing.
For many of the juniors, this repetitive drill was met with grumbles of resistance. Counting? Repeating? Silly. Fortunately, Coach Antonio was not the least swayed by the moans from the participants. In fact, the more the kids groan the more he drove the point loud and clear split, pivot, step, swing again split, pivot, step, swing. By the end of practice, substantial improvements could be observed and appreciated. Okay. The counting and repeating, not so silly. This realization of course supports Coach Antonio’s distinctive coaching style and his approach to developing future tennis players.
Please visit our website at www.abovethenettennis.org/events for more information on upcoming junior tennis programs. We would love to see you out on the courts learning the rhythm of tennis.
