Modern Technology Improving Tennis Coaching

April 3, 2015 | By Brian Coleman
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There is no doubt that technological developments are always at the center of change, and that is no more evident than in coaching and teaching.

Over the last couple of decades, advances in technology have changed and shaped the way some of the top tennis coaches in the country teach their players.

“One of the first ways I can remember was through the use of video,” said Ken DeHart, a Professional Tennis Registry international master pro and United States Professional Tennis Association Master Pro. “My dad built me a homemade camera unit on the court hitting. We were able to record players and play their favorite music next to the video so they could see themselves in their greatest hits and create a positive NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) anchor with the music.”

DeHart has been a certified coach for more than 40 years and has seen how effective video analysis can be.

“Pictures are worth 1,000 words,” said DeHart. “We cannot see ourselves play, so we think we look like the picture in our head. The coaches use their best choice of words to try and create a word picture for the student. They are often amazed when they see the actual picture of what the coach has been trying to describe.”

Using video to see yourself on the court has gone a step further with the development of tablets and apps.

“Now on the iPad, I use a program called Vstrator which allows me to draw lines, arrows and diagrams right on the screen,” said DeHart. “From the video picture, you demonstrate, in super slow motion, the skill you were focused upon, put a voice over to it, and e-mail it to the player or parents so they can see it. The point is … instant feedback equaling instant performance is both meaningful and measurable.”

Beyond the use of video, other products have come along to enhance on-court teaching, such as the radar gun. The days of using expensive radar guns may be gone because of new inexpensive and more accurate alternatives.

“Things like Pocket Radar are great because it’s the size of a cellphone and fits right in your pocket,” said DeHart. “You can see how fast your serves or groundstrokes are instantly. For example, if you’re hitting first serves at 90 miles per hour, but not accurate enough for the results you want. You drop the measured speed down to 80 or 85 miles per hour as measured by the Pocket Radar to become more consistent. When combined with your video you are able to demonstrate a technical adjustment and measure the results instantly.”

They also provide more features and capabilities than your prototypical radar gun, and can be used from essentially any area on the court, and measure more than just serves.

“I now use it to monitor all strokes, not just serves. I am able to compare things like groundstroke speeds of my players to the pros speeds,” said Mike Gennette, USPTA California immediate past president and current head coach at California Lutheran University. “I also noticed that the speed of an incoming ball affects the outgoing speeds too. All of that data can then be used to steer our practices.”

The science and technology behind working out and training have also seen tremendous strides. Things like vision training and performance analysis isolate and specify your work out to increase its effectiveness as well as injury prevention.

The technological innovations will continue to improve and enhance the way coaches engage with their players and students. The development of video analysis and the technological advances of radar guns are at the cornerstones of coaching change, and it will be interesting to see what new advances come along that continue to build on that as we move into the future of tennis technology.


Brian Coleman

 Brian Coleman is the Senior Editor for New York Tennis Magazine. He may be reached at brianc@usptennis.com

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