How to write a 5 week training plan?

[GN-001]

Hi everyone,

I've recently had a private lesson with this guy and he wants me to write a 'formal detailed 5 week (1-2 lesson/week) training plan' as hes very serious about it and wants to get better quickly. (Yeah I got my work cut out for me)

He's been playing for only 6 months but as hes very sporty and athletic, he picked up tennis very fast and I would say he's a good intermediate player 3.5 level with good power and spin on groundstrokes and serves but lack abit of consistency.

What should I include? Im thinking I should include what to focus on each lesson, what goals to aim for and what drills to do. What else?

He wants something like 'by the end of the 5 weeks, I should be able to hit atleast 7/10 serves in with good spin and pace'

Thanks

 

[sureshs]

3.5 in 6 months?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

With a pencil?

 

[Deleted member 776614]

I've been playing 5mos and play 3.5 at my club. I know it's not normal, but it's certainly possible.

 

[sureshs]

I've been playing 5mos and play 3.5 at my club. I know it's not normal, but it's certainly possible.

Video?

 

[Ronaldo]

Video?

Video is a four-letter word now

 

[MyFearHand]

If he's that serious about improvement I would spend the entire five weeks focusing on serve, returns and serve + 1. Something like 35% of points are decided outright by the serve and of course every point starts with a serve or a return. If you improve a lot at these two things your tennis can't help but improve. For serve +1 have him hit a serve and then hand feed him a ball to aim for a corner.

 

[Deleted member 776614]

@sureshs it's coming! I took my first video the other day. I brought the wrong kind of mount so too much of the action is out of the screen. I'm playing a 3.5 again Friday so I'll try again.

@GN-001 this sounds kind of far fetched (not easy, maybe not realistic.) I feel like you need to know his strengths and weaknesses, and he needs to know what his goals are. For me, I play a few matches and observe what's causing me the most grief, then I ask for a lesson on it. Sometimes what I ask for isn't really what I need - for example, I thought I wasn't getting enough spin to control distance, when actually I needed to work on weight shift and forward contact. It ended up being a really quick fix. At the same time, what I do in my serve comes natural, but I get confused as all get out when my coach starts explaining it, so it's taking longer to get confident than I would have expected.

And I totally agree with @MyFearHand - serves and serve returns were some of the earliest things I asked for. I put off doing serves because I was in the middle of a league and didn't want to change it yet, but that's also been pretty frustrating.

He needs to serve at least well enough that he gets the ball in, and his opponent isn't destroying him on the return.
He needs to be able to return (at least, send back in play) whatever serve is expected of his 3.5 opponents; not expected to return perfect or outlier serves.
He needs ground stroke control to rally from the baseline and start to setup points.
He needs to know court positioning to minimize time to get to the next shot.
He needs to learn when to take control of a short ball and hit approach shots.
He needs to be able to volley and win the point when he comes to the net.
Then there could be lesson on serve strategy and/or point constructing strategy - learn to setup to use a weapon if he has one.

Then find out which of these is his weakest skill and work on it some more.

Also, is the consistency a skill thing, or is it a mental thing? One lesson I asked for turned into a psychology talk, and was one of the most helpful things so far.

 

[ZanderGoga]

I've been playing 5mos and play 3.5 at my club. I know it's not normal, but it's certainly possible.

Sounds normal to me. Any less progress than that, and you should probably abandon taking the sport even remotely seriously.

 

[GN-001]

3.5 in 6 months?

It helps that hes been playing competitive sports his whole life (in his 30s) and has a girlfriend that was a high ranked junior in tennis that he regularly hit with.

If he's that serious about improvement I would spend the entire five weeks focusing on serve, returns and serve + 1. Something like 35% of points are decided outright by the serve and of course every point starts with a serve or a return. If you improve a lot at these two things your tennis can't help but improve. For serve +1 have him hit a serve and then hand feed him a ball to aim for a corner.

Yeah I fully agree, that's great advice thanks! I will write a plan around that

@sureshs it's coming! I took my first video the other day. I brought the wrong kind of mount so too much of the action is out of the screen. I'm playing a 3.5 again Friday so I'll try again.

@GN-001 this sounds kind of far fetched (not easy, maybe not realistic.) I feel like you need to know his strengths and weaknesses, and he needs to know what his goals are. For me, I play a few matches and observe what's causing me the most grief, then I ask for a lesson on it. Sometimes what I ask for isn't really what I need - for example, I thought I wasn't getting enough spin to control distance, when actually I needed to work on weight shift and forward contact. It ended up being a really quick fix. At the same time, what I do in my serve comes natural, but I get confused as all get out when my coach starts explaining it, so it's taking longer to get confident than I would have expected.

And I totally agree with @MyFearHand - serves and serve returns were some of the earliest things I asked for. I put off doing serves because I was in the middle of a league and didn't want to change it yet, but that's also been pretty frustrating.

He needs to serve at least well enough that he gets the ball in, and his opponent isn't destroying him on the return.
He needs to be able to return (at least, send back in play) whatever serve is expected of his 3.5 opponents; not expected to return perfect or outlier serves.
He needs ground stroke control to rally from the baseline and start to setup points.
He needs to know court positioning to minimize time to get to the next shot.
He needs to learn when to take control of a short ball and hit approach shots.
He needs to be able to volley and win the point when he comes to the net.
Then there could be lesson on serve strategy and/or point constructing strategy - learn to setup to use a weapon if he has one.

Then find out which of these is his weakest skill and work on it some more.

Also, is the consistency a skill thing, or is it a mental thing? One lesson I asked for turned into a psychology talk, and was one of the most helpful things so far.

You've outlined some really good points Joe, I'm keep those in mind thanks.

Surprisingly he can serve amazingly well with good pace and spin. I'd say with good consistency it's a 4.5 serve. He struggles with balance and ball toss at times which I immediately started fixing in that first lesson and will continue fixing it in later sessions.

I think the consistency thing is more skill thing. He sometimes mis-times the ball a little, doesnt get in the right position for the ball or he closed his racquet face too much and it goes into the net but when he gets it right he can hit those groundies and serves super well and overall the technique looks mostly correct and only require a bit of tweaking.

What resonated with you in the psychology talk? Care to share? I once took a tennis mental training course and that was quite helpful.

 

[Vanhalen]

Wait. You’re going to take lessons from a guy who’s been playing tennis for six months? This is hilarious.

 

[ptuanminh]

Wait. You’re going to take lessons from a guy who’s been playing tennis for six months? This is hilarious.

well some people here pay 3.5s 40$ an hour to hit. so i guess its not that hilarious.

 

[sureshs]

It helps that hes been playing competitive sports his whole life (in his 30s) and has a girlfriend that was a high ranked junior in tennis that he regularly hit with.

Need to get a girlfriend like that.

Wait a minute, I am already married. Darn.

 

[sureshs]

Wait. You’re going to take lessons from a guy who’s been playing tennis for six months? This is hilarious.

LOL I also initially read the post that way. Actually, the poster is the COACH, not the player.

 

[Ronaldo]

Need to get a girlfriend like that.

Wait a minute, I am already married. Darn.

Make sure the gf is married too. Mixed dubs ftw

 

[Mixeddubskickserve]

well some people here pay 3.5s 40$ an hour to hit. so i guess its not that hilarious.

Ehhhhh what 3.5s are charging $40 for a hit

 

[sureshs]

well some people here pay 3.5s 40$ an hour to hit. so i guess its not that hilarious.

Where is this?

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

With a pencil?

What kind of pencil?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

What kind of pencil?

A #2 Ticonderoga with a good eraser.

 

[GuyClinch]

well some people here pay 3.5s 40$ an hour to hit. so i guess its not that hilarious.

Who? Link? Why are people making up weird tennis insults today about this board? I never heard of anyone who hired a 3.5 hitter. Hitters are generally 4.5 or better players at least. If you hire a 3.5 hitter - demand your money back. LOL.

 

[ptuanminh]

Who? Link? Why are people making up weird tennis insults today about this board? I never heard of anyone who hired a 3.5 hitter. Hitters are generally 4.5 or better players at least. If you hire a 3.5 hitter - demand your money back. LOL.

lol TTPS. he pays 3.5 to hit with him.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Who? Link? Why are people making up weird tennis insults today about this board? I never heard of anyone who hired a 3.5 hitter. Hitters are generally 4.5 or better players at least. If you hire a 3.5 hitter - demand your money back. LOL.

Maybe a beginner would? Compared to a newbie, a 3.5 looks amazing.

It's not the absolute level of the hitter that's important; it's the difference between hitter and the one with the $.

That being said, if I were advising this person I'd suggest hiring a local HS or college kid who is likely a lot better than 3.5 as long as he could modulate his game: it does the learner no good to hit with a 5.0 if every ball is whizzing by him.