There has to be someone though, who coaches beginners who are getting their first impression of tennis, and that is where I would choose to stay. I did not become a good tennis coach for first 25 years of my life though I was enthusiastic and as knowledgeable about the game as anyone, or so I thought. I thought Braden and Bollettieri knew how to teach tennis to beginners, as well as the USPTA and PTR, and of course, we know millions of tennis players took lessons and found the game too difficult.
I simply teach that tennis is simple, three basic fundamentals of find the ball (as if you were going to catch it with your hand), feel it (by moving across it) and finishing over the shoulder learning to associate the racket butt with the direction of the ball. I am known for getting every player to not only get better, but to think that tennis is a far simpler game than they ever realized, but because they enjoy instant success, ignition often occurs.
I make no secret I am helping reform grassroots tennis instruction by partnering with Oscar Wegner, who still plays a pretty mean game for a senior citizen. I do think anyone pretty knowledgeable today about how the modern game can play can coach the most determined and better athletes, but tennis will only draw those better athletes if the grassroots proper techniques allow a player's natural instincts and athletic potential to prosper. This is proven not to happen through strict, mechanic based teaching.
I will say this, I have spent thirty years studying and teaching this game off an on, and thought I would never be comfortable coaching tiny tots and beginners; I used to prefer coaching the intermediates, ages 9-12, and motivating them to want to be the best tennis players they could be. Now I seek to make the game boom again, and I think that is a very important role. I could have stayed in California after 2007 where I had the privilege of working with high performance juniors (you had to have a national ranking to be in the two day clinics I taught with former Davis Cup Chinese player Lin Di, known as the Pete Sampras of China). I got to work with many great juniors, and it was a pleasure to feel like I had however small a part in helping players like Emily Inge scholarship at Pacific Azousa, given her full time coach Dan Mainzer, Head Pro at Long Beach Tennis Center raised her on Oscar Wegner's MTM to a #27 USTA ranking at one point, but I returned to the midwest because my son is still young, and I know that my role is best served at the grassroots, with players and particularly in helping reform grassroots tennis instruction. I help train grassroots coaches looking to simplify tennis instruction and find the quickest way to help their players get better faster.
I want to thank Bubo and Tennisking1 for their incredible experience and sharing their insights. Though I think tennis should be taught as simply as possible, it is true that tennis excellence is a long journey, but then tennis is never about tennis, is it. It's a great vehicle to ride in our journey through life.
Keep in mind tennis is not only filled with misconceptions, but it is filled with revisionist history. I hope my History of Tennis Instruction posted on
www.moderntenniscoaches.com/forum (in the MTM library) helps stop that. Revolutions, even in teaching tennis, are never without spilled blood, so I also tied the History of Tennis Instruction into the biography of Oscar Wegner, given there is so much misinformation about him, and as has been noted elsewhere in this site, some people tell lies enough until they are believed. As a tennis historian, I know I have to be careful as to may claims which is why before I publish the complete book I am posting excerpts and timelines on the internet for free to allow any corrections to be made.
I hope you look at it and offer any insights or feedback as to anything I may have left out given tennisking1 and Bubo remind me of Bungalow Bill in your long history in the game as well as your extensive astute insights. Everyone has their role, even the greatest marketer of the tennis academy, Nick Bollettieri, though he is far from without his critics. I read your extreme Academy discussion and you (tennisking1) are funny. If you want to read a very witty tennis blogger, the funniest tennis analysis on the internet might be found on
www.tennisterritory.com. Hilarious sight and the Letter to Rafa in the archive left me rolling on the floor. His nickname is so right on for Rafa "John Rambo with a racket." By the way, Tony Roche as a player and Nick might not belong in the same sentence as far as players.