The Non-Negotiable Truth: Coaches Need Progressive Lesson Plans
If you're coaching without progressive lesson plans, you're not just missing an opportunity, you're being irresponsible. Your students, whether they're just starting out or refining their skills, deserve structured, thoughtful guidance that builds week over week.
And to those who claim "I teach so many hours that I have no time to plan," I say: baloney! The solution isn't to reinvent the wheel daily. Instead, develop master plans based on core themes and critical skills. These aren't one-off documents; they're designed to be reused and adapted across different groups and levels for years. In fact, I'm still using my adult beginner plans from 1985 – even the jokes are the same!
Junior Lesson Plans: Four Essential Pillars for Success
Every effective junior lesson must include:
- Athletic Skill Development: This goes beyond a simple warm-up. It's dedicated time for fundamental athletic movements specific to your sport.
- Review of Previous Week(s) Themes: Learning isn't a one-and-done process. To ensure retention and build a strong foundation, dedicate a segment to revisiting and reinforcing skills or tactics introduced in prior sessions.
- New Skill and/or Tactic: This is where you introduce fresh material – a new skill involving technique and/or tactics.
- Put New Skill and/or Tactic in a Game Situation: Crucially, simply teaching a skill in isolation isn't enough. The new skill or tactic must be integrated into a tennis specific game situation. This means actual tennis game situations, not artificial games like and "tennis baseball," "dodge ball" or “Izzy Dizzy.”
Investing the time in progressive lesson planning isn't just about being a "good" coach; it's about being an effective, professional, and responsible one. Your students' consistent progress and long-term enjoyment of the sport depend on it. What steps can you take this week to enhance your lesson planning?