Health: Can Cancer be Contagious

Contagious Cancer Spread by Human Activity

ATP Forehand

So what is the ATP Forehand?

Here is a good primer online that I came across. 

ATP Forehand

As the discussion of wrist lag indicates if you want reliability and precision then you might best consider what has been a standard take-back for a long time.  Rules about keeping the swing on the hitting side of the body are standard for all good and effective forehand strokes. 

Another concern is when you reach wrist-lock.  This is ideally between the forward part of the swing and the contact point.  In many cases and especially from older styles is remained firm from beginning of the backswing to the finish, (follow through).

Tennis Coaching and Teaching - Avoiding Misunderstandings

How a Tennis Coach or Instructor Interacts With Students Can Make all the Difference

Your Personality

First off we all have a template of behavior formed by our upbringing and sometimes that is helpful in teaching and other times it must be overcome.

Self Assessment

Here is how I see my own actions over four plus decades of teaching:

For me, looking back at my early teaching compared to now I was a hard case drill sergeant and I didn't care who was on the other side of the net, they all needed to work. It was probably because I was raised in a military family where discipline was everything. I've softened up a lot and now think happily of my last twenty years of teaching where I just loved being out on the court with anyone else who wanted to be there.

You can adapt and change

To me if we aren't all laughing at least part of the time I wasn't doing it right. As for exposure to varied groups of people, my last post retirement gig was teaching at a college where I had exchange students from all over the world including Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South and Central America. Treating everyone with respect worked well and I can say that everything came down to careful communication to avoid misunderstandings. If you're smiling, laughing, and people see in your manner and behavior that you are genuinely happy to have them out there with you there never seems to be a problem.

Focus on the Job - Teaching Tennis

Focus on getting the job done of teaching tennis rather than taking sides in the current social issues. That to me is how it should be handled.

Health: Increasing Oral Cancer Rates

Cancer Rates - Oral Record High

Teaching Ratios - Group to Private for a tennis pro

3 to 1 ratio of groups to private lessons

That's my recommendation. In the early days where I taught I learned that groups paid the best even when you consider the amount of time needed to organize them. In those times we paid a flat rate for the court no matter if it was a group or private. I focused on groups and that ratio if managed well was probably 75% groups with the remainder private lessons. It was much more lucrative but then I was also willing to spend Sunday evenings making calls to schedule more groups.

Group Size

I stayed with max 6 students per instructor and if we had enough sign-ups and space we'd run 3 or 4 courts at a time. The idea that a pro would get paid the same rate for a groups versus private is great for the club but bad for the pro unless he's already well compensated with a salary. There is little incentive to organize and run groups if you can go with privates and receive the same pay.

Private Lesson Pros

Some pros went the other way and ignored groups and preferred to get paid to go out and hit. Not to be mean, but I looked at them as surfer dudes with no long term plan. A 40 hour week on the court is hard enough and will crush you physically over time so I'd be looking at 30-40 max and organize as many groups as you can and consider the privates gravy.

Burnout and How to Thrive

It's very easy to get burned out with a heavy teaching load so my focus would be on a mix between adults and juniors with varied categories of skills. More importantly, you'll notice that the Marquee named pro will often be the head pro and just cherry pick the advanced players and let the assistant pro's handle the beginner to intermediates and also pay them to either run or assist in the groups. Everyone has their place in the operation this way.

Health: Aspirin can fight Depression, CBD Snake Oil, Cannabis Mental Health Improvement Questioned, Protein, Foot Pain

Aspirin


CBD This generation's snake oil


Mental Health improvement from Cannabis - Studies show poor evidence


Narcissists Happier


What Protein Does for your Body - WebMD


Why your feet hurt - WebMD

Green Dot Balls for Players below 4.5 - one pro recommends

Green Dot Balls

Anything that helps players enjoy the game makes sense but I suspect this idea will never catch on among regular players since it will stigmatize those as needing training wheels.