How Long Before Baseline Rallying

[ralph]

Just looking for opinions about how long it should take to get a reasonably athletic jr. High player to rally from the baseline who takes one lesson a week - 6, 8, 12 months? The lessons are 1 on 1 for one hour.

[tennis_chiro]

It's about the time hitting balls

Just looking for opinions about how long it should take to get a reasonably athletic jr. High player to rally from the baseline who takes one lesson a week - 6, 8, 12 months? The lessons are 1 on 1 for one hour.

If he/she only spends that one hour a week, 12 months will probably not be long enough. On the other hand, if they practice quite a few times each week in an effective practice situation or even just hitting on a wall with good focus, it might only take a few weeks. Stoke mechanics will take years to refine. We measure progress in terms of thousands of hour. Five thousand to make a player, ten thousand to make a champion. But I can get a good 12 or 13 year old athlete into a good rally, although probably only three-quarter court, in their first hour on the court with me. But that is a little false because I am controlling the ball and it really means only forehands.

But it is reasonable to think someone who spends about 10 hours a week hitting balls could actually be rallying at full court in about 6 to 8 weeks, probably a little longer for a one-handed backhand. But if practice means going out with equally inept friends to "play at tennis" a couple of hours a week, it's going to take much longer.

don

[don_budge]

Cut down the learning curve…with an intensive first week

Just looking for opinions about how long it should take to get a reasonably athletic jr. High player to rally from the baseline who takes one lesson a week - 6, 8, 12 months? The lessons are 1 on 1 for one hour.

If he/she only spends that one hour a week, 12 months will probably not be long enough. On the other hand, if they practice quite a few times each week in an effective practice situation or even just hitting on a wall with good focus, it might only take a few weeks. Stoke mechanics will take years to refine. We measure progress in terms of thousands of hour. Five thousand to make a player, ten thousand to make a champion. But I can get a good 12 or 13 year old athlete into a good rally, although probably only three-quarter court, in their first hour on the court with me. But that is a little false because I am controlling the ball and it really means only forehands.

But it is reasonable to think someone who spends about 10 hours a week hitting balls could actually be rallying at full court in about 6 to 8 weeks, probably a little longer for a one-handed backhand. But if practice means going out with equally inept friends to "play at tennis" a couple of hours a week, it's going to take much longer.

don

That depends upon a number of things…the age, ability and motivation of the student being foremost.

But these are relatively simple motions and there is no reason that it should take much more than a month for a half way grown up, and highly motivated individual.

I think that the one hour a week lesson regimen might have some serious drawbacks however. I would prefer to have a rather intensive initial introduction followed by the one hour a week schedule…or better yet two hour a week schedule at least for the first month. Otherwise you spend so much time just trying to regroup the information that has already been dispersed…rehashing. More intensive intro pays dividends by instilling the necessary reactions in a shorter period of time.

What if a student gets a one hour daily lesson five days in a row? This is a better process to install the initial software. Did I just say that…that's scary.

[lobndropshot]

It depends.

I once had a girl that was a total bookworm, but, had no interest in tennis. It took a month to get her to hit the ball over the net. At first I had to trade chapters with balls over the net one chapter for every 10 balls over the net. A year later she was at the point where she could do Jr team tennis. She made a friend at team tennis and started hitting and talking (more talking than hitting) with her 3 times a week and here level of play jumped to the point where she started signing up to tournaments and now loves the sport. She won't play pro tennis and she won't play tennis in college.

Your kid is at the age where peer relationships are very important motivator and maybe time in a lesson will be better spent with a buddy or a couple of buddies. Then after the lesson get hour of court time and stick them out on the court alone. Maybe they practice or maybe they just hang out but they will be safe and they will have a good time. Imagine that! Fun on a tennis court!!!

[ralph]

Thank you

Thank you for all the responses. I was looking for confirmation of my own projections. The eight grader I am working with is an above average athlete. I have done 8 sessions with her. Her ground strokes from fed balls look very good. Regarding adding more sessions per week, I think she is testing the tennis waters and is unsure of her interest. I hope after 6 months we will be able to maintain moderate baseline rallies.

[lobndropshot]

At 14 that shouldn't be a problem. Just remember 6 months is 24 hours.

[bottle]

I'm especially amused since other than myself I don't have any pupils right now but hopefully still have some in my eyes.

My instructor in Virginia who had partnered with Navrattleova and John M. would always have a great head session at the beginning of the relationship with each student with questions along the line of, "What do you expect out of your tennis? How many times do you think you'll play a week? Is it the recreational angle, the social angle, for business connections? Do you just want to have fun? Are you doing this for health reasons?"

Viktor Roubanov, former coach of Tim Henman and Anna Kournikova, is rather opposite, I've heard. Any student he takes on he thinks should go for the singles championship at Wimbledon since doubles doesn't pay enough.