What Is the Analogous Tennis Teaching Method?

Transcript

I've been teaching this game for a very long time. More than I hate to admit. But what I've come to learn is, if you're a teacher and you're trying to teach someone anything, it's good to know what they know.

So often, when I get a student on the court I ask them what other sports do they play? What other disciplines have they mastered, if any? And, let's say I get a musician. Someone who plays the piano. So what I now go through my mind is I take out all the cards in my brain about how to teach tennis with music analogy.

For instance, I might tell them that hitting a tennis ball is often like plucking the key on a piano. You want to make that stroke of the tennis racquet like a whole note in tennis. Not an eighth note but a whole note. Okay? So I'm using this teaching, I call it the analogous teaching method. Find out what they know and use some of that knowledge to help them understand the game of tennis.

If I've got a skier who does a lot of skiing, I might talk about how when a really expert skier goes down the mountain, they barely look like they're moving. There's no superfluous moves.They've got great balance.They're just barely moving their hips. So what I tell them about tennis is that you want to get the best shot with the least amount of effort. And that's the goal. To have a nice, balanced, smooth swing with very little superfluous movement. And I'll use the analogy of the skier.

So that's the analogous teaching method.