Tactics

In order to be able to consciously perform a tactical action, the following mental process takes place before each stroke:

1. Perception
One's own strokes and the strokes of the opponent must be perceived in a game situation. Consequently, the players gain a lot of perceptual experience through varied training situations and the greater their wealth of experience, the better they can judge and decide which strokes to execute.

2. Judgement
The player can develop the ability to judge his own stroke better when he recognises and identifies the stroke from training in a game situation. In this way, the player learns to evaluate his strokes in a more differentiated and less generalised way.

3. Decision-making
We believe that it is a central task of the coach to challenge and motivate the players to make independent decisions. However, we can only achieve this if we seek to develop independent players who can learn and think themselves in a game situation. If we, as coaches, give the players too much in terms of information, corrections and tips, the player can no longer discover and decide for himself.

4. Action
All three aspects mentioned above (perceiving, judging and deciding) combine to the make an execution of the stroke (The action). The result is a action competence, which in the long run characterises a player who is intelligent and self-confident in the game. The tactical action demonstrates just how important it is to include tactics in training an early stage.

• From games with the red/yellow tennis ball, to the orange/yellow tennis ball, to the yellow tennis ball.
• From games in small courts, to games in increasingly larger courts.
• From safe baseline play, to placed baseline play, to offensive play and defensive play.
• From simple game situations, to more complex game situations.
• From a player opening with two decision options, to a player opening without decision options.
• From a player opening with time for the first shot, to a player opening under time pressure.

Zone division
The games are structured in such a way that the advantageous zoning always gives your players creative leeway to make their own decisions without losing sight of the training aim. Only in this way do the players understand their stroke technique (tools) as a means to an end in order to solve game situations profitably.

Rewarding scoring
The games in tactics training are very versatile. There are additional points for zone hits, ball change targets or additional tasks, always in connection with winning a ball change.
This rewarding scoring has a challenging and motivating effect on the players.

Tennis coach
The player must learn to perceive correct and incorrect stroke decisions. This only works if you as a tennis coach do not immediately "help" with corrections and tips. The player then relies more and more on you and stops thinking about his tactical game behaviour. However, if the player makes repeated and grossly incorrect decisions, you can take the player out of the game for a short time and help him or her with tips on the right way.

Game analysis
You should only do the first game analysis with the players when half of the game time has been played.
The second game analysis should be done at the end of the game.
A game analysis should not last longer than 5 minutes, a break for a drink could be used here. During the game analysis, it is important to note that first the players can give their thoughts on the game and then you can give your external impression.

Zoning helps to understand the intention to hit the ball
It is often not so easy to understand the player's stroke intention from the outside. This is where the zone classification helps you. It determines the training aim of the game and gives the player, but also you as a tennis coach, a good orientation for the stroke selection.

Anticipation
Learning to play with foresight means thinking 1-2 strokes ahead.
What happens if...?
Players learn to anticipate when they perceive, judge, decide and learn to play their shots very early in a game situation.

The serve and return should also be learned and trained as early as possible in tactical training. For this reason, we have coordinated the serve and return games with the serve and return drills (technique training). This gives you the opportunity to carry out a targeted tactics training of the serve and return play.

Tactical connection to follow-up strokes
In order not to train the serve/return as a single stroke, the training of the serve/return in connection with the follow-up strokes is very important. Especially at the beginning of a tennis career, the serve/return is not yet effective enough to lead to a direct point. In this case, learning cleverly played follow-up strokes is crucial in order to gain an advantage from the serve and return play.

The Playstyle is a player's favourite game. The playstyle is a result of the player's strengths and weaknesses. There are six different playstyles:

1. creative baseline player
Safe and placed groundstrokes, many stroke variations, no powerful strokes but many moments of surprise in the game.

2. offensive player
Powerful and well-placed groundstrokes, high time pressure, early hitting points, high willingness to take risks.

3. offensive players with an intensive attacking game
Powerful and well-placed groundstrokes, early hitting, frequent attacks at the net, high willingness to take risks.

4. defensive players
Safe groundstrokes with good tempo control and good stroke adjustment, a lot of patience, will and fighting spirit.

5. defensive players with good counter-attacking skills
Safe groundstrokes with good switching to offensive or defensive play.

6. allrounder
Good offensive play, good attacking play, but also good defensive play and counter play.

The technical and tactical "running through" of all long-term training aims shapes one's own playstyle. At the same time, the players get to know all the other playstyles and how to deal with them in a playful manner. In the process, Brad Gilbert's question "Who does what with whom?" (from Winning ugly) hovers over the pitch.

Over many years of training, we have found that we can teach the kids much more about tactical play than was previously thought. Of course, it depends on how early the kids start tennis training and how intensive the training is. However, the decisive factor is how playfully we teach the kids tactics.

Kids are not little adults
The games in the kids' training should be designed differently than with the juniors/adults. For a game to make sense from a child's point of view, it should be packed into an imaginative story. It is not enough to give a game a great name. Kids, just like us adults, want to understand what they are doing and as soon as they understand the gameplay, they are very motivated.

Playing strategically means playing according to plan. Before the match, the player thinks about how he wants to play in order to win. However, playing strategically is only possible if the player is aware of his play style. In addition to the first playstyle, the player should always have a second playstyle in mind in order to be able to change his game if things do not go well.

The playstyle gives the player a good orientation, a lot of support and security. He trusts his planned game, which he has optimised through game-based tennis training in countless training sessions.

We would be happy if we could win you over for a tactics training, under the aspect of game-based tennis training, and would like to support you with our Tennis Zone games.

Especially when it comes to tactics training, we are convinced that we can learn the most from exchanging ideas with other tennis coaches in order to improve the Tennis Zone app together. Every constructive feedback from you helps us to do this.