Degree in Sports Science Course: Tennis Lesson-4: The Art of Teaching Tennis Professor: Ph.D. José Antonio Aparicio Asenjo Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación Física y del Deporte Departamento de Deportes

Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis SPORT TEACHING PROCESS 1.Explanation 2.Performance 3.Practice 4.Correction

1.EXPLANATION – Appropriate space location – Student must pay attention – Brevity and clarity – Understandable within a general context Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis

2.PERFORMANCE – It means the reference model. – It complements the explanation. – It is an image kept in the student’s memory and makes understanding easier (a picture is worth a thousand words). – It is very important to perform the exercise correctly and slowly, emphasizing the important details. – The closer it is to a correct model, the better the student will understand it. Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis

3.PRACTICE – Figuring out an structural organization shall allow the optimum use of time and space Transversal courts Working in pairs Etc. – Having clear What we are going to teach How we are going to teach it – It is important to prepare the lesson in advance Space distribution Time organization (time working, time-outs) Didactic contents Exercises and games we are going to develop – Teacher attitude The teacher must tend to be a guide He/she is not just a ball thrower The teacher must motivate and encourage the students He/she must monitor safety (he/she is accountable for it)

ExplanationPerformancePracticeCorrection STUDENT’S INITIAL IDEA Knowing the result/output Students have two sources of information: - His own body (propioception) - Additional external information (teacher, other students, technological tools) 4.CORRECTION –Students learn better if they receive feedbacks (knowing the output) about their execution –The teacher must find didactic strategies to correct all the students Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis

Some insights about teaching: The student is responsible for his own learning: – No teacher can teach if the student is not willing to learn. It is assumed that the more you practice, the more you know. The amount of practice doesn’t depend on the number of lessons received but on the number of repetitions made in a particular period of time. Effectiveness depends on practice time and teaching quality. It´s important to bear in mind the optimum number of repetitions to learn a sporting movement: – When we deal with a new movement, the number of repetitions may range from 120 to 150 – When we deal with a movement already learned, the number of repetitions to maintain the same level may range from 80 to 100 The frequency of sessions per week is very important. We should have at least 2 or 3 sessions per week to achieve a good progression (withholding or forgetting)

Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis Some insights about teaching: The inner motivation of the student is as important as external motivation from the teacher and the environmental motivation. Whatever is taught by the teacher shall be shared by the whole class, but the act of learning is exclusively individual. We get to progress in our learning process through practice and knowledge. It is important that the student practices responsibly and deliberately in order to improve his/her skills. Learning is social by nature. I do what I do regarding to what other people around me do. There are different types of learning strategies (methods). Versatility shall be made possible.

Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis Some insights about teaching: External information must follow these premises: – Inform the student about how he/she is working, the mistakes he/she is making and how to improve the execution next time. – Reinforce the things the student does correctly. – Encourage the student so he/she doesn’t divert attention and keeps motivated. To achieve these goals, the teacher has a range of correction styles: – Evaluating (differences with the model) – Describing (what has been done wrongly?) – Explaining (why it is wrong?) – Prescribing (identifying the mistake and proposing a task) – Inquiring (asking what have been felt, seeking propioceptive sensations)

Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis Common problems when teaching tennis: Usually we work with large groups made up of people with different level. However, as far as possible, we have to provide an individual method for each student. Sometimes we do not have the appropriate sport facilities or the adequate material for teaching. All these factors lead to an organization problem, therefore we have to prepare lessons in advance and design tasks that will adapt better to the resources we have, increasing the time of practice and improving teaching quality. Sometimes we find teachers with inadequate training not fitting with the level of the groups they are working with. In some Tennis Schools, main objectives and contents to be taught aren’t clear for the different teaching levels.

Lesson-4 The Art of Teaching Tennis 1.- Command of basic skills and abilities 2.- Introducing sport tactics involving few technical elements 2.- Introducing sport technique involving few tactic elements 3.- Introducing in-game situations similar to real game, putting the tactic and technical elements that have been learned into action INTEGRATED MODEL FOR TECHNIQUE AND TACTICS SPORT TEACHING