We’ve all heard the instruction, “Watch the ball” more times than there are balls in a large teaching cart. I remember hearing a story of a tennis pro teaching a beginning player in Hawaii. As was appropriate for most tennis lessons 25 years ago, he kept reminding her to watch the ball, especially after a missed shot. In this one lesson, things got out of hand when he repeated watch the ball one time too many. After three mishits in a row and hearing watch the ball each and every time, she threw down her racquet and screamed, “Darn it, I am watching the ball!”
The point is that, at least in this case, the issue at hand may not have been whether she was watching the ball, but rather adjusting the learning situation to her capacity. Perhaps she should have been advised to shorten her swing, choke up on the racquet, or maybe she would have been more successful using a slower bouncing foam ball or low compression tennis ball. At the most basic beginner level, some players would learn faster by pushing a beach ball around the court, or hitting off a stationary batting tee to start.
With my own daughter I had a truly breakthrough experience which dramatically changed the way I look at racquets and skill development for young children. In a nutshell, here’s what happened:
When Kalindi was five or six, like most tennis teachers, I wanted to give her a start with tennis. We went out on the court and I tossed some balls to her, trying to coerce her into making solid contact and taking a nice controlled swing at the ball with “picture perfect” form. Sounds sensible. But she would have none of it. A dozen or so frustrated swings where she missed or framed almost all the balls and then no interest whatsoever. “It’s too hot,” she complained. So, we went indoors. But that didn’t help either. “I want to go swimming!” she argued. So, we would try five minutes of tennis with swimming as a reward. That didn’t help much either. So, like any loving father, I relented and let more time pass. First one year, then two, and then three. “Was this really my daughter?” I asked myself and scratched my head in confusion. After all, I fell in love with tennis at five years old and haven’t stopped swinging since.
My breakthrough came when we did a photo shoot of a product called the Hand Racquet, a foam paddle with an opening into which a child’s hand slides. This allows them to hit forehands and backhands with no grip to hold onto and the “racquet” is literally part of the hand. During the photo shoot, I tossed her softball-size foam balls in amazement. Instead of missing most of them, she suddenly made solid contact with one after another, forehands, backhands, balls out of the air, balls after a bounce. I was stunned. She contacted nineteen out of twenty balls tossed her way. Click, click, click. We got tons of great photos, but more importantly, I learned a dramatic lesson. Adjust the skill to help someone be successful and they will have fun and keep playing! Please understand that although I definitely had some understanding of this principle beforehand (after all I was already a USPTA Master Professional), it just never hit so close to home.
Shortly thereafter we got on the court. Kalindi was now ten years old. We moved through progressions with foam balls inside our house. Achieving success every step of the way was the strict rule I followed in each and every session. First the lessons lasted fifteen minutes and by December of 2003, we were up to an hour. She was hooked!
Once she started feeling success, her enthusiasm carried her through those early days. But a lot of patience and diversions were still needed. We made up silly jokes, sang even sillier songs, painted faces on balls, used big inflatable targets, anything to help add focus and fun. And, no, I never once told her to watch the ball. Rather, each day the challenge was to create an environment in which her focus would gradually improve.
After a few weeks, I realized that one of the looming challenges she faced was learning to aggressively run and hit. Any child can learn to hit a ball standing still. And, simply running from one spot to another is a motor skill they develop as toddlers. But, running quickly across the court and then striking a ball required a whole different set of skills. Often it seems that boys are more “reckless” than girls. In other words, they run with more abandon and less concern about falling down. Girls are more cautious on the whole. I am not sure whether this is fully a gender issue or not, but it seems to be a pattern. The bottom line is that I have a daughter and had to help her learn to more freely run and hit. Without help, she would wait and watch before running and would never quite get to those slightly out of reach balls. Here’s what we did.
There is a tool used by physical education teachers called a “juggling scarf.” It is just a square piece of extremely lightweight cloth that, when tossed up in the air, floats slowly towards the ground. Since I knew that running and catching something was a prerequisite to running and hitting a tennis ball, we started with juggling scarves. At first, when I asked her to run and catch the scarf before it landed on the ground, she looked at me with disbelief. I said, “Just try.” Try she did, and she laughed when she caught it. It was easy. All she had to do was “let go” and go for it! It was simple. The next step was for her to hold a racquet. Then I tossed the scarf into the air and asked her to run and catch the scarf on her racquet. Again she laughed. That skill was also pretty easy. Finally, I asked her to run and hit a ball, but pretend it was a scarf. “Just run fast,” I explained, and she took off and got to it with ease. This whole transition only took a few minutes. It was like opening a dam. The water just starts flowing. Similarly, from that point on, Kalindi was able to run for wide balls and hit them without hesitation.
Now, after reading this article, don’t misunderstand the point. There is nothing inherently wrong with the instruction, “Watch the ball.” It’s just that there may be easier ways to get the same desired result of increased focus.