Physical time and court time

[warmsurfing]

My 12 years old daughter had changed 5 teachers in last 18 months.
Now ,we have this teacher gives my daughter one hour physical(hard training),and then one hour court time.Six times a week.I pay good money for this.
I can see my daughter is not doing good in the court like she did before,she complained that she was too tired from the physical training.
This teacher has only one tennis court.While my daughter is doing physical,he is training another person in the court.
He insists that physical is more important than court training.I am not sure about that.
My daughter says she does not want to go to this class any more.I can see this is too lonely for her also.
I have to take up coaching my daughter again.She agrees this time.
Ahhh,so hard.




(we live in a foreign island)

 

[andromeda]

My son is twelve and while I feel that physical conditioning is important, I also feel that match play is important for their mental game and for practice.

Every coach has a theory that they think is what will work for your child. Only you know your child and you have to help make those decisions for her. At the age of 12, she should be able to give you intelligent input as to how she feels about her tennis life. You certainly don't want her to get burned out and she should be having fun at this age. If tennis isn't fun for her, then maybe she needs to take a step back or maybe she needs a new coach or maybe she needs some match play. Every child is different.

For us, we find that we get the most enjoyment out of cross training off court. Hiking the trails, mountain biking, practicing our golf shots at the course, speed walking the neighborhood, etc. My son has a ladder and he does footwork drills at home 2x a week for 20 mins. He also uses my step aerobics step and he uses a conditioning band for about 20 mins a week. I make sure he gets at least 1 practice match a week and that he gets 2 practice matches when we don't have a tournament weekend going on. And, we always ask him, "Did you have fun?" If we get an unsure answer or if he stalls and won't say YES, then we take a break from tennis. I hope this helps! I just hate to see kids get frustrated at such a young age. They've got a long way to go and I really hope that most of them enjoy their tennis life!

 

[tennisdad65]

I prefer to let the kids get their 'physical time' while playing tennis. A bit of a warm up and they are ready to go. Physical drills are good, but they can be even better if you figure out how to make them do these drills while hitting a ball with a tennis racquet

During his school breaks, my son runs all over the school fields and playground and monkey bars etc. That's enough physical time for him.

 

[warmsurfing]

Mostly my daughter problem is her footwork.She is not moving her legs or steps fast enough.We can work on that ourselves,I hope.
She will be back to her old tennis school , she has a good friend there to hit with.
But no coaches,they are all busy.
Back to where we started again.

 

[jkang909]

younger kids should first work on their strokes then they should improve their fitness as they grow up... working on the strokes can also help the fitness at the same time

 

[Ash_Smith]

Exactly what kind of physical training is she actually doing? bearing in mind she is only 12, is your tennis coach alos a certified personal trainer?

Cheers

Ash

 

[warmsurfing]

Exactly what kind of physical training is she actually doing? bearing in mind she is only 12, is your tennis coach alos a certified personal trainer?

Cheers

Ash

None of the coaches here are certified,I think.
They are mostly young.
Physical training he gives is very organized,that include ladders,cones and stretches and jumping ropes(1000 jumps !).One hour of these is very exhausting.
After 2 months with this coach,I can see my daughter is moving her legs faster,and she is hitting with more topspin.
We decided to stay with this coach,but she will spend 2 days(2 hours each)per week in the court with her friend or me.I think this will work out better.