Net Notes: Farewell tips

In my first column for the eagle back in 2004 I suggested some ideas for you to derive the greatest value from a tennis lesson.

Since Wednesday will be my final weekly column in this space I thought it would be appropriate to touch on those thoughts again since the purpose of my articles is to improve your tennis game.

The most important idea is to ask yourself why you are taking a lesson.

• Are you looking for a workout?

• Do you need to add a racket skill to your tool box in order to plug a gap in your game?

• Are you interested in polishing a particular skill to improve your match play results?

• Are you working to gain a better understanding of tactics and strategy for either singles or doubles

• Is it a nice tan you are looking for?

There are many reasons people take lessons and you must arrive with a plan to best benefit from time and money spent.

If you are there to develop a new skill, be sure to allow time to practice what you learn in your lesson. Don’t think that you can hear the information one day and apply the lesson the next.

A few weeks of focused effort will bridge the gap between information and action.

It is very important to understand that adding a racket skill or working on changing your basic technique is a process, not an event, and therefore shouldn’t be implemented just before and important competition or match.

You must progress through a three-stage process to acquire a new skill and be able to apply its use in match play:

• Stage 1: Conscious incompetence.

You realize there is a problem and decide to fix it! This is when you call the pro to schedule a lesson.

• Stage 2: Conscious competence.

A good teacher will guide you through this stage by explaining; demonstrating and having you properly practice correct technique.

• Stage 3: Unconscious competence.

This stage is reached by repeating the technique correctly in practice and gradually beginning to use it in playing situations until it becomes an automatic response. All players have their own timetable to reach this stage. Be patient!

If it is doubles tactics that you are working on, that is best learned in a clinic environment rather than a private lesson so get a few friends together and take a 5 or 10 week drill session to make your responses logical and automatic.

Are you a 4.0- or 4.5- level player tuning up for a tournament? Let your pro know that you just want to rally and work on your movement and timing to sharpen your performance.

An experienced pro will play shots to your weakness to shore it up and help you polish your strengths without making any technical changes.

Be very specific with coach as to whether you’ll be practicing for singles or doubles so the coach can properly tailor your drill session.

All players, from beginner to tournament level, can derive great benefit from a lesson if they inform the pro of the type of lesson they need.

I hope my pieces here have been of some benefit to you as tennis players. The process of building and improving your game is the most important part of any sport so keep working at it and have fun doing it