How to get the most out of your private lesson

[babolat15]

As we all know, private lessons can be very expensive. Many families make sacrifices for juniors to get the best instuction for their kids. And many adults pay to get the best instruction for themselves. I think this would be a good place to post good techniques and strategies to get the most out of your private lesson.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

As we all know, private lessons can be very expensive. Many families make sacrifices for juniors to get the best instuction for their kids. And many adults pay to get the best instruction for themselves. I think this would be a good place to post good techniques and strategies to get the most out of your private lesson.

If you want to get the most out of your private lesson outside of the obvious that happens during the lesson, then practice everything that you are suppose to work on religiously. Be focused and deliberate regarding you achieving your tennis goals. So make sure you develop your goals. There is nothing wrong with taking the NTRP ratings and setting goals around the descriptions.

You not only need to go to your lesson and set your goals, you also need to setup your practice and conditioning training around your lessons. Ask your coach to help you out or you can talk with us about it.

The key is not necessarily what happens at the lesson but what you do AFTER the lesson.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

As we all know, private lessons can be very expensive. Many families make sacrifices for juniors to get the best instuction for their kids. And many adults pay to get the best instruction for themselves. I think this would be a good place to post good techniques and strategies to get the most out of your private lesson.

My strats (I'm a 4.5)...
1a) Prefer that the pro just watch you (vs. hit while watching), because (s)he'll be able to watch you better, than if they also have to hit the ball... this would probably only work if you're a fairly high level (4.0+), and can find a comparable hitting partner. This may not work for lower level players, because you need a steady diet of balls to hit during the lesson (which may not happen if you're both spraying balls everywhere).
1b) Prefer a coach that is blunt. I've had a couple of pros praise a good technique for an hour, and left me feeling like I paid for cheerleader rather than teaching pro. On the flip side, one of the best pieces of advice I've gotten was, "You're technique is ok, but I'd work on getting in shape before attempting to correct any techniques"... If i was a teaching pro, I can see how this might negatively impact my revenue stream, so I can see why some pros might not want to give this type of advice!
2) Take notes! If you follow #1, ask the pro to write down his advice, or jot a few key words you can elaborate on later, or try to mentally remember.... or better yet, video tape!
3) Try taking 2 types of lessons:
* playing: play a match with someone of comparable level (preferably slightly better), and have the pro watch... more things come out in a match, than during a lesson where every ball is perfectly fed to you.... this might lead to appropriate follow up lessons below:
* technique: ie. if you have a particular stroke(s) you want to work on, or know needs improvement
4) If at a club, try work out a deal in the off hours so the club doesn't need to get such a big cut (ie. 7am weekdays... no one is on), or better yet, try to move the lesson to a public court if possible (though I'd imagine most good pros are also selling for the club).
5) Don't take another lesson until you've actively tried to apply in practice the thing you were taught in your first lesson. I can usually only focus on changing one thing at a time... so I'll master that before I try moving on, and usually that might take a couple months (ie. hitting 3x weekly/2hrs), before I can execute "the tip" comfortably in practice and in match situations...