How to Teach Lead-Up Skills Part 2

Joe Dinoffer: We just covered some of the basics in Simon says, but we still need to get people hitting balls. Other lead up drills include basic ball control skills that we all know, like downs and ups. You can also bump a ball back and forth in the alleyway and even create team relay races, but here is yet another way to keep players interested while they gain ball and racquet skills. Picture the exercise you are about to see take place on a court with 16 or 32 players paired up hitting back and forth across alleyways or using mini nets. The concept can be used with hundreds of different exercises. It emphasizes control and cooperation. Okay, now consistency drill spelling, you have got children, both their parents be happy if you help them with a spelling or counting backwards. With every kid, we are going to spell out, tennis, ready. T. What comes after T? We need to hear that. Here nice and loud, T. Speaker: E Joe Dinoffer: N Speaker: N Joe Dinoffer: I Speaker: S. Joe Dinoffer: Now, what if you had more competition on multiple courts and you had everyone spelling out tennis ball or tennis court, or service line, or single side line. Please give out name and then it can learn the parts of the court, they can learn how to spell it, they can learn how to spell drop shot, all of a sudden learn volley, or they it can learn how to spell more quickly. Ready drop shot. D Speaker: D Joe Dinoffer: I said D. Speaker: Alright, that's a D to drop shot. -- Joe Dinoffer: Ready, D. Speaker: R Joe Dinoffer: O Speaker: P Joe Dinoffer: S Speaker: H Joe Dinoffer: We will start again, that wasn't drop shot. And that was a drop but ready, D. Speaker: R Joe Dinoffer: O Speaker: P Joe Dinoffer: S Speaker: Forgot. Joe Dinoffer: There you go. Ready, not so easy. We get the idea to spell out names, you can do continents, you can teach them geography, it's been constant to integrate learning with your lessons. Further possibilities for spelling includes solo drills like this, for example we could spell the state Texas, T, E, X, A, S, and you can do those with downs or ups, like I just did, or how about maths skills. For example counting by twos, this example would be, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and so forth. The point is, if you are working with children and you can help them with their spelling and maths skills, while they are in the tennis class, their parents will absolutely love you for it. We are just about to move now to the next part of this video with exercises that teach more of the real game of tennis. Keep in mind, when watching these segments that we are addressing the issues of what to do, when you have 10 or 20 or more students on a single court, and we are trying our best to avoid having students standing in lines.