I just posted information how to teach a beginner groundstrokes. you might want to research that as well.
First Position: Pat the dog on the head; This requires the student to be in forehand grip. The racquet goes back to the lowest point of a looped swing with the strings facing the ground. As if they are ready to bring the racquet forward. You can see the "pat the dog" on the head by this clip. It is the position just before the racquet starts to come forward to the contact point.
www.uspta.com/html/e-lesson-Open stance forehand 2.swf
Second Position: Square racquet at an imagined and correct contact point.
Third Position: The racquet hand is just above the forehead with the racquet up and pointing straight toward the other court.
The point to this is not to create robotic tennis strokes. It is to generate sensory information to the brain and back to the muscles on how the racquet face needs to be at a given point in time.
When developing a player, you are not developing the arm or the legs to hit the ball. You are developing and conditioning the brain to relay information to get the muscles to perform.
Serve: Wedge a ball in a fence about the height they would make contact. Place the student in a continental grip and have them perform the serve motion very slowly and place the racquet strings on the ball. Again, you are conditioning the brain to accept correct movement. You can also use the ball on the string device I have mentioned before.
Volleys: Same thing. Place the student in a continental grip and have the student hold the racquet with a firm wrist in a volleying position (contact position). Feed very slow balls and have them feel the use of their legs and make contact with the ball with hardly any swing. Have them hit their volleys to about the service line. We are providing pictures for the brain to use on how to position the racquet at contact.
There is obviously a ton of other things you can do. I know some of the coaches here will give you more information and other ideas.
The bottom-line to teaching a beginner is to paint pictures for the brain to use so it knows what to do. From there, practice will help condition and strengthen the muscles to support the brains commands.
Also, the human being is intelligent enough to fill in the blanks which allows it to develop style and preferences (i.e. looped swing, etc..) It also means you don't have to get overly technical and fill them with information the brain will eventually do anyway.
As a coach, your job is to make sure as the styles and preferences are developing within the player, that they are developing within reason and is supported by good fundamentals.
