Listen to the Voices

A Personal Journey to Mental Toughness

Simon Grieve BSc.
LTA Performance Coach and Procompare joint founder

As a tennis coach I am often impatient wanting my pupils to improve quicker than they do. Sometimes, I highlight what seems an obvious point to me, and the child I am teaching just doesn’t seem to understand what I am talking about.

Why is my ‘simple’ message not getting through to him or her, when it makes perfect sense to me?

I remember one day, after a particularly frustrating coaching lesson, that I realised perhaps the fault lay with myself, and the way I was explaining my ‘simple’ message. I reflected on a coaching course I had attended a few months earlier, which explained that there are many different learning preferences, (learning by watching demonstrations, listening to explanations or feeling how the body works) and that it is important to treat each pupil as an individual. It was a ‘simple’ point that I had forgotten, everyone is different and the way you communicate often depends on the individuals learning preference (most people learn best from watching a skill, but not all).

The Procompare web site was developed to help players and coaches receive information visually. Players viewing the videos or photo sequences can take information and experiment with it on their own game. Coaches who use the web site as a coaching tool must know how to effectively communicate specific points to their pupils. For the purpose of this article I have chosen to discuss the backhand return. Each photo will have two explanations, the first being more scientific (more useful for coaches talking to coaches) the second being more user friendly (more helpful for children). As you look through the photos and check out the videos, I imagine you will have many different ways of explaining the pictures. It would be great if you send us your explanations so we can include them on the web site. If we can build up a library of explanations for the huge variety of shots, we may be able to cover a wide variety of learning and communication preferences.