BEGIN TEACHING AT THE FINISH

HIDDEN POTENTIAL

In his best-selling book Hidden Potential, author Adam Grant describes a previously unknown chess team that surprised everyone by winning the US National Schools Chess Championships. To do so, they overcame schools that had been playing chess much longer, and that had been much more successful. 

It turns out that a teacher at the school decided to introduce chess to his students for the first time. Initially, his goal was to get the children enthusiastic about chess. He achieved this by having them start matches from the game's final stages rather than from the beginning. He guessed that starting from the beginning with all the pieces on the board would be boring to them and perhaps turn them off chess before they fully understood the game.

The children soon began to enjoy playing chess and as his young players got better, he would add more pieces at the beginning until finally, they were starting normally, with all the pieces on the board.

TRADITIONAL METHODOLOGY FOR JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT

Contrast this to traditional junior tennis development. 

Traditional training methodologies often emphasise building a solid foundation in consistency and control before progressing to more advanced skills like finishing points with volleys, overheads, or half-court forehand winners. 

Recently, I have been having success with a junior team I coach. They have been setting up points well, but unfortunately, their finishing has been poor, particularly around the net.

I realised that working with my players more on the finish of the point, as with the school chess team, might be the answer.

FINISHING FIRST

Often, we as coaches make consistency and control the main focus of every on-court session, in the belief that once consistency and control of the ball have been mastered, the player will automatically know how to finish the point. We all know that this is not always the case. 

Teaching tennis from the finish first involves focusing on the last few strokes of a typical rally.

That means introducing drills into the practice where the first ball is an attacking opportunity, a stepping stone to finishing the point. I began by feeding the first ball of every rally and creating the stepping stone opportunity;

            1.     A high, floating mid-court ball that simulated a defensive ball from an opponent in trouble. The attacking player had to take this high volley and decide what to do with it: either a sharp-angle winner or a deep corner target that would help set up the next ball (which was hopefully an easier finish). 

            2.    A first volley that needed to land deeper than the Service Line, followed by a second ball lobbed, and the point to be played out.

            3.    A sharp-angle feed was provided for the player to volley. They played either of two options: a deep volley down the line or a reverse short angle and then played the point out.

            4.  A mid-court ball to play and then continue to net (using only the two diagonal halves of the court)

In these drills, the attacking player not only got opportunities to attack and finish the point, but the defending player was also learning to anticipate better and look for opportunities to pass the player at the net or lob them. The Finish applies to both sides of the net, not just the attacking player!

Although the rally is important to setting up
the point, are we paying enough attention to
actually finishing the point?

The results during the first day were not encouraging. I witnessed the same sloppy finish to the points, poor anticipation, and slow decision-making. But by as early as the second session, everything improved dramatically. There was a vast improvement.

When you focus on the finishing portion of the rally, you're actually working on two crucial aspects of the game. First, by practising these finishing moments, players learn how to construct the rally effectively because they carry the 'finish' in their minds. 

The purpose of the rally is to create opportunities to finish the point.

Practising the finish of the point helps a player
understand the purpose of the rally.

Next, players become more comfortable mentally when they practice finishing the point first. The stress and decision-making involved during the execution of the final few strokes become more familiar and thus calmer.

BENEFITS OF THE FINISH FIRST APPROACH

            1. Enhanced Tactical Awareness:

This "Finish first" concept helps players understand the strategic importance of positioning, anticipation and shot selection. Practising like this encourages players to think quickly several shots ahead, which is the key to proper shot selection.

            2.  Boosted Confidence:

Mastering finishing strokes boosts a player's confidence. Knowing they can close out points decisively empowers players to take calculated risks during rallies, fostering a more aggressive and proactive playing style. I witnessed this by the second day of using this method.

            3. Improved Mental Toughness:

The mental pressure present when finishing the point is often the most taxing. By practising these high-pressure scenarios frequently, players develop the mental fortitude required to perform under stress during competition.

            4. Accelerated Skill Development:

Focusing on the finishing strokes can accelerate skill development. It's essential to give the players some time to make errors. It won't be perfect initially, but with mistakes comes learning and confidence. 

I tried to use "Fun Games" like those mentioned to encourage failure. We used scoring and time constraints to increase the fun factor. Soon, errors were replaced by clever anticipation and increased courage to finish the point decisively. It was apparent that the players had learnt multiple skills quickly with this approach.

CONCLUSION

Teaching tennis from the finish first offers a fresh perspective on player development.  My training sessions are now structured to include a mix of finishing practice and foundational drills. This balanced approach helps players develop a well-rounded game. 

While traditional methods have their place, integrating a finish-first approach could revolutionise how you train your next generation of tennis champions.