I have just finished Drive by Daniel Pink…another great recommended read from e9. The book is about motivation and the value of intrinsic over extrinsic rewards when dealing with students, staff, kids etc… It was a really valuable read and I took many lessons from the book on how to deal with my coaching students and also my coaching staff.

The premise of the book was immediately reinforced to me when running a tournament last week.  An eight year old had entered our tournament, it wasn’t a sanctioned tournament or anything too serious, but is was a big deal for this eight year old.  And he was having a ball, winning 1 match and losing 2 close ones in a round robin format.  One of my measures of enjoyment in tournaments is how kids come off court, do they run off to report their score, or do they ‘droop’ off…this kid was running off whether he had won or lost and was enjoying a great social time with the other kids in between matches.  At the end of the tournament his mother asked if he had won a medal for competing.

From the lessons learned from “Drive” I knew this was classic extrinsic motivation – a carrot to get the horse to perform.  According to the research from Daniel Pink’s book this type of motivation will only work in the very short term.  This boy and his mother were used to everyone on the football team getting a medal for participation.  But surely the best motivation was the challenge and enjoyment of competing and playing the tournament.  I felt like the mother had let her son down, he didn’t want a medal…he wanted an entry form for the next event.

I’ve been trying this intrinsic type of motivation lately.  When kids ask “what do we get if we do / win this???”  I reply “you get get the satisfaction of knowing you’re improving, your skill level is growing and you’ll be in your school ‘A’ team if you keep working hard.” 

A drill I have been using lately with green ball kids [aged 9 - 11] is the 30 second drill – where players must hit as many shots with a partner from the baseline in 30 seconds [it is a drill copied from Andre Agassi] practising consistency with intensity.  The goal was to reach 20 shots [Andre usually got 30+].  The kids were getting 17, 18 all the time, they couldn’t quite reach the goal.  They were determined, desperate, focused…it was great training.  They didn’t reach the goal – but they weren’t disappointed, they were positive they could achieve the goal next time they worked at the drill.  And the next day we worked at the drill and they did achieve it… there was no reward…except for the great satisfaction the kids got from their ability to reach a goal that seemed just out of reach, and the confidence that gave them.

By Rufus Keown

Melbourne, Australia

Its a challenge .. for sure. What to teach, how to teach, when in priority order? But sometimes I despair! To be human is a quite amazing thing! The most complex animals on the planet with a huge variation in us all.

So what about “Tennis in a Box” .. I use this phrase to discuss the need for some coaches to but what is an amazingly fluid skill development process into a regimented structure that they can measure with absolute clarity and precision.

This week I discussed a young player who I havent seen for a while with another coach. He was one of the most able (I dont use the word talented) children that I have seen and yet after 12 months of tennis in a box he plays with less flair, less invention and less skill based competence than he did before. Sure he is bigger,stronger and has better match craft but the simple fact is that some of his ability has been coaches out of him. All for the sake of the coach who wants a stroke to look like this or like that.

Human nature says that we want to make things orderly, and yet why. Maybe it’s because we are by our very nature craving the very thing that we are not? While I like tennis slo motion websites as much as the next coach I can’t help but wonder if they send a message that things should be imitated rather than created. Things should be imposed rather than grown.

I remember that this young player could do almost anything with the ball, make it go anywhere but I am not sure that tennis in a box has really helped him. And I know that it hasn’t helped many others.

Let me know what you think is the balance between technical conformity and tactical effectiveness… It’s a great discussion for us to have!

Hi…my name is Rufus and I’m addicted to evolve9 and the e9 facebook page. These resources are crucial to all coaches who deal with young kids because there is so much more to Hot Shots / Mini Tennis / QuickStart than just different balls, racquets and courts.
This weekend I was forced off the court but it gave me the chance to observe some other youth sports in action which reinforced how tennis has come along way and how it has a long way to go, in Australia in any case.
I walked past an Oz Kick clinic for ages 7 & 8, for non-Aussies this is Aussie Rules Football, our most popular sport. 8 different games were crammed onto one full sized field with kids “playing” 6 a side. That’s about 100 kids [plus about 100 parents watching and helping] on one field – it was brilliant. The coach / umpire seemed very well versed in how to run the match, with such small teams everyone got an opportunity and those with poor skills the coach / umpire made sure they got an opportunity. I’m pretty sure everyone scored a goal – but I couldn’t see any score being kept. I walked another 500 metres and another Oz Kick clinic was being held on the next oval – we have some stiff competition in Australia for the best young athletes.
The next day I wondered past the same oval where a “full sized” game of soccer was being played between kids no older than 10. 11 a side, although it may as well 3 or 4 with a few big, strong, fast kids controlling the game. The coach patrolled the side line with his arms folded yelling himself hoarse; “Timmy I told you three times, Johnny stay on side – stay on side” he screamed. Aside from the select few there was no skill on display – kick the ball as far forwards as possible with no passing or tactics.
I walked away, still hearing the coaches yelling for several blocks thinking how we can give our young tennis kids a better experience. In the space of 2 – 3 years kids had gone from a modified experience to the full blown struggle – to my coach’s eye the enjoyment level was at polar opposites. This is not dissimilar to general practice at our tennis academy, not so long ago. 1 – 2 years of modified tennis [Aussie Mozzie or Mr Pee Wee] and then straight into to it…want to play competition – “can you serve, rally and score on full court using adult rules?…NO…oh well give it another couple of years.”
I don’t go to junior state and national tournaments much anymore, when I do I see coaches and parents with arms folded as close to the fence as possible, kids just hitting the ball forwards and tournament referees and directors with the most threatening manner. This is the experience we have to avoid and I have many players who as soon as they are exposed to culture are put off [some thrive of course.]
I understand that at some stage the jump has to be made to these cut throat events [this goes back to Ronald’s question of how long can we keep kids on Green balls] – but let’s prepare the kids first, at least so they can pack their own tennis bag! I am suggesting smaller team based events – managed by skilled coaches to get these kids on the competition pathway and sent into the great wide world when they are ready, remembering that chronological and biological age can be a very different thing.
One thing I hate about our sport is a perception [right or wrong] that to make it you have to give up everything else before you are a teenager, call it the Agassi / Sharapova / Kournakova syndrome. If you’re not hitting 1000 balls spat out by a coach with a shopping trolley of balls [or a ball machine called “dragon”] per day you can forget about making it to the pro’s. It is perhaps the individualistic nature of the sport – the battle at a distance – that makes players, parents and coaches so fixated.
This is why evolve9 is my great hope. I believe a player can come through this system building skill upon skill; learning how to play the game; building a love for the game; competing in positive and challenging environments and end up a really well rounded athlete with “normal” parents [who don’t watch every ball you ever hit] and no obsessive compulsive behaviours [bouncing the ball 23 times before serve]. They can have other interests; they can have an off season or at least not play competition every weekend; they can develop their own individual style based on mental and physical strengths and embrace the great role models competing in the sport today and in the past.
I urge you keep adding your thoughts to the e9 facebook page and sign up to the e9 webpage – download “Growing Kids, Growing the Game” [which got me started] and keep giving kids the best chance to love tennis.
My final story I wish to share with you regards two of my best clients. They gave up AFL as they were in a team [18 per side] where no one would pass them the ball, they were often on the bench and the coach ranted and raved to the point where players were left in tears, these guys are 10 year old twins. Now they take lessons, compete and practice their tennis. They aren’t the best athletes – but recently one of them won our “Future Stars” modified competition season [out of over 50+ competitors]. This is a separate issue to performance players which I know many of you are passionate about – but this is a great story for my program!