Nonlinear pedagogy in tennis coaching. Developing and improving double skills and tactics. This drill should lead to a better view on cross court play in a double. This is helpful for a greater variation in tactics from serving, returning to using the volley and lobs.
Nonlineare Pädagogik im Tennistraining. Eine Übung zur Entwicklung eines erfolgreichen Doppelspiels durch die Ermöglichung eines veränderten Blicks auf die Bedeutung des Crossspiels im Doppel und die sich daraus ergebenden Varianten in der Taktik. Aus den veränderten Rahmenbedingungen ergibt sich ein impliziter Zugang zum Aufschlag, Stellungssspiel und Einsatz des Volley im Doppel.
Some things are wonderful 🙂 . One of them is to find somebody, who shares my convictions. Matt Kuzdub, tennis coach, and a facebook friend, has written a wonderful statement about non-linear pedagogy and the dynamical systems theory and what it means for learning and coaching in tennis. I am working with kids and players, who come for one or two hours in the week to play tennis under the guidance of a professional coach. Matt is working with very ambitioned players and goes with them significantly more intense. But he shares my perception: there is a better way to learn and to coach. And it is evidence based!
Changing individual constraints, here: the attentional focus. Focusing on the next point can be difficult. This game can help players to focus only on the next point. Each player is given a set of playing cards und turns over the top card without showing it to the other player. Whatever the number on the card is, that is the number of points required to win the match. The partner does the same. Neither side informs the opponent until the winning point has been scored. (found in Jia Yi Chow et al. Nonlinear pedagogy in skill acquisation, p 157)
„…for most coaches, the design of practice is constructed under the competing constraints of the need for immediate competition success and the demonstration of ability (i.e. to selectors or parents) in practice alongside longer-term learning.“ (Jia Yi Chow, et al: Non-linear pedagogy in skill acquistion, p. 197)
Differential learning:
You have walked only on all fours and now you want to learn to walk on two legs? Then you could proceed like this:
Plan A:
You are looking for a straight line on level ground and a target you want to go to (see graphic) and now you always go from a starting point to a destination point and so on.
This is a view over the plate’s edge. Mark Sullivan on footblogball about non linear pedagogy and what we can (not) learn from a football club that made a „Talent Identification Action“ for 5 year old kids.
„The interactional nature also explains why certain components of performance practiced in isolation, i.e. “technique”, may collapse when task constraints (inclusion of opposing players) and/or individual constraints (emotions) change.“
Such an article is the one I have read this morning, written by Mark O’Sullivan on footblogball about „a quiet revolution in swedish youth football and the idea of avoiding exclusion“. He wrires about the meaning of nonlinear pedagogy in motor learning and what this has to do with a new image of human beings or being human. The swedish revolution weiterlesen →
Two very good articles about nonlinear pedagogy in skill acquisation and about constraints led coaching. As almost coming from soccer!
Mark Upton comes to a likable conclusion:
„The above is not a recipe or blueprint for success, nor is it a comprehensive disscussion of each principle (such as the inevitable “exception to the rule” situations). However, as a starting point they should prove helpful in navigating the complexity of learning design and player development. A useful activity may be to examine your current practice activities against these principles and see how they stack up. What might you do differently?“