The weather gods were n't quite kind European Tennis Academy Since it was just 8 degrees plus at 10 a.m. and an icy wind was blowing, coach Alex decided to move the training indoors. It's great that this was possible - the beautiful and bright 4-seat hall with carpet and granulate is of course ideal for this.
After the warm-up with ball coordination exercises, the kids were not only warm, but also completely “there” in terms of attention. Today the topic was “Minimize Unforced Error - Gain More Security” . Loose hitting in a small field with directions worked quite well without errors with the goal of playing 3 balls back and forth at least 60 times.
The children hit each other from the baseline according to the same principle: first forehand cross, then backhand cross.
It continued through the middle - the kids played back and forth and had to say after each shot how high the ball flew over the net on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the edge of the net and 10 being almost the roof of the hall. So a new focus point was set. It was funny to see that the children suddenly made almost no mistakes during this exercise. After the exercise, Alex asked at what height the children would make the fewest mistakes. The ideal height was set on the scale between 3-4.
The same pattern was followed not only in height, but now also in length: the tee line was a 5 on the self-assessment scale, the baseline was a 10. The children also had to assess their shots in terms of length after hitting them; target markings helped with them. The length between 7-8 was considered ideal for more safety.
To the left and right of the middle of the net, Alex then inserted two rods into the net, which were approximately 1.5 meters higher above the net, which corresponded to a height of 3-4 on the ball height scale. Now the children played about the height of the pole with the aim of achieving at least a length of 7-8. With these two focus points, the kids managed to keep the error rate really low at a great pace.
In order to minimize the error rate when playing on the sidelines, Alex placed markings about 30 cm inside the sidelines: the kids were not allowed to play there. So cross duels were fired again.
Finally, points were played, whereby unforced errors were always counted twice for the opponent and the length and height should still be taken into account.
At the end of the 2-hour session, the kids practiced serve and return. Serve with kick, return not so close to the sidelines - these focus points should also increase safety here.
It was interesting to observe how the children suddenly assessed themselves and reflected on their game and their shots. Alex demanded this from the kids throughout the entire training and asked for this again and again in the feedback discussions. This was visibly new for the children, but they did quite well - the result was right!
Our daughter took a break today and watched the training with me. At some point she suddenly asked: "Mom, why does Alex correct so little about the technique?" European Tennis Academy differs from many other Cmap training concepts. Since the technology in a camp cannot be changed within a week, we try to work in a solution-oriented manner with different focus points on certain subject areas. The children get the technical fine-tuning on their exercise bikes. A not so wrong concept in my opinion!
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