Teaching children tennis is the best way to develop future champions. Early tennis training prepares protégés for what the demanding sport might throw their way. Notably, hiring a professional tennis coach or enrolling your child in a tennis camp is the surest way to guarantee proper coaching. Unfortunately, some parents take it upon themselves to coach their children just because they enjoy the sport or have played it for a few years. If you take the route, your child will miss the critical foundations of tennis coaching. This article highlights the essential elements of tennis coaching.
Foundational Strength
Tennis coaches often hear parents complaining that their children are too young to start strength training. However, waiting for kids to reach a certain age to start strength training is akin to building a house on an unstable foundation. An experienced tennis coach who has worked with children will tell you that the sport is demanding regardless of age. Moreover, it takes time to build strength; therefore, the earlier kids start, the better. Foundational strength for young tennis protégés is essential for power development, injury prevention and recovery. Under the right strength coaching, a dedicated strength development program will enable your child to play tennis at amateur and professional levels for years.
Tennis Specificity
If you want a child to excel in tennis, you must start doing the right things early. Although you can change habits, they become a problem when a child grows up doing the wrong things. Nothing could be more damaging than the types of exercises inexperienced people put young players through. Notably, different sports have varying demands, and professional coaches understand the requirements when working with children. For instance, tennis involves rapid changes in the direction and rotation of joints, accurate hand-eye coordination and stamina. Therefore, exercises such as the 'frying pan' are exceptional for developing hand-eye coordination for beginners. Most importantly, tennis-specific exercises are the cornerstones of effective coaching.
Foundational Flexibility
Children have supple muscles and joints, and most can stretch relatively easily. Thus, it is common for some parents to delay flexibility exercises for fear of injuring their children. However, waiting longer than necessary only hinders a kid's progress. In addition, less flexible children tend to be injury-prone and often stop training when they reach their teens. Foundational flexibility prevents such incidents because the joints can accommodate sudden changes in direction during plays. However, strength training often accompanies flexibility because lack of stability around the joints is a recipe for injury.
Contact a company like Netsports to learn more about tennis coaching.
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