How to run an effective on court session as a parent

June 2, 2020

Here I talk about how parents can run an effective on court training session with their child.

For many parents who have little or no tennis experience, the thought of getting on court with your child might be daunting. My daughters are keen dancers and attend classes regularly, but if you have ever seen me dance then you would understand that under no circumstances will I be trying to run a dance session for them or teach them anything to do with dancing!

However, for those who can play tennis a little or are a bit better than average and would like to get on court, I have put together these tips for on-court sessions for parents.

A parent training session can have its benefits, being:

A session during the week that doesn’t cost money!
A great time to bond with your son/daughter – something physical you can share and do together (although this comes with warnings below in the cons)
Can definitely be beneficial for your child’s tennis, if you follow what the coach is already doing and stick within some guidelines and the athlete can remember what they are working on and can stick to it without the coach present
Can be great at tournaments when you child can’t find anyone to warm up with and you can jump on the court and either rally with them or just feed balls

It can also have its drawbacks, being:

Can do more harm than good to the relationship with your child if you push them too hard, constantly talk or shout at them, try to offer advice different to their coach or the wrong advice (or often any advice!) or in general get too involved in the coaching side of things
I have also seen parents become the primary and only coach and this is definitely not recommended, particularly once your child hits about the age of 12/13 years old. If parents take this on they will have to have the technical knowledge to continue to develop their child’s game and a really deep knowledge of how to develop an elite junior tennis player – something that takes years of experience to develop. They will also have to balance the incredibly difficult job of being a loving parent AND a sometimes critical coach. Trying to do both is near impossible. What happens after your child loses a match? How do you offer constructive criticism and also be a supportive parent who offers unconditional love?

If you do decide to hop on court and run a training session for your child, try to stick to these things:

Have a plan for the session that will help your child. Be that ball feeding, drilling or point play. Talk to your child’s coach to see what they are working on so you can reinforce what the coach is saying
If doing ball feeding, don’t go on forever. Change the drills up (e.g. do forehand down the line for a few sets, then backhands down the line, then volleys or smashes). Try to mix it up, use targets, try to keep it interesting!
Ensure you keep your child MOVING! I have seen many children who develop very poor footwork and intensity and therefore become slow because their parents have fed thousands of balls straight to them with little purpose so the child becomes bored and develops poor footwork and, in turn, becomes slow
Encourage your child to keep the intensity up (footwork, energy, concentration). And change up the drills to allow them to do this! Putting a marker or a cone so they need to recover to somewhere will help this
Don’t make ball feeding sessions too long. An hour of just ball feeding and serving is a long time and would be a good length of time. You could incorporate some court sprints (again, not too many) or some ladder, mini-hurdles into the session to extend it a bit longer
Don’t give them advice, rather prompt them to tell you what they are working on. If they can tell you then it means they are listening to their coaches and are becoming self-driven and self-motivated which is what we all want!
If your child seems bored, doesn’t want to train with you, isn’t engaging – THEN GIVE IT UP AND TRY AGAIN ANOTHER TIME – MAYBE A FEW MONTHS, A YEAR – but forcing your child on to the court to train when they are not engaging does not work. This will only reduce their passion for the game and create bad habits and both won’t help them improve, nor will it be any good for your relationship with your child (far more important than them winning tennis matches!)
If you can’t feed a ball very well, then hand feeding is ok, for a certain amount of time (maybe 1-2 baskets) and then they could do some serves and some physical work
I recommend investing in some tennis balls (online boxes of about 90 balls about $150). If you look after these (if possible, don’t store them in freezing cold conditions) and are only doing the occasional session they should last 3-4 months or longer. You can also buy second hand balls sometimes off your State Association after tournaments are finished.

RUNNING AN EFFECTIVE SESSION AS A PARENT CAN CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR CHILDS WEEKLY TRAINING ENVIRONMENT. CLICK TO DISCOVER WHAT A WORLD WORLD CLAS TENNIS TRAINING TENNIS ENVIRONMENT LOOKS LIKE.

HOW MUCH TENNIS SHOULD MY CHILD PLAY? CLICK TO READ MY ARTICLE ON WEEKLY TRAINING VOLUME

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