Observational Learning in Coaching Skill Tim Smith I have never taken a private tennis lesson in my life. In fact, prior to showing up to my first high school tennis practice (after having been cut from the baseball team), I had only played tennis once or twice in a junior high physical education class. Yet, partway through one of my very first drills – volleys – my coach pulled me aside and asked, “You’ve played before, haven’t you?” One of the primary reasons I feel that Coach Judy mistook me for a more experienced player is that I was an observational learner in two ways. First, I grew up watching some of the all-time greatest tennis players with my parents as they cheered on players like Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, and Martina Hingis. Second, anytime I was standing in line and awaiting my turn, I was watching the varsity players on the other side of the fence as they went through their own drills. I watched their footwork, body movement, and ...
First of all, I will fully admit that Adam and Jacob were far more experienced players than their Providence Hall opponents so you can't base conclusions surrounding good doubles strategies and tactics on this match alone. That being said, I think there are still some valuable data points and lessons to be learned here. We're going to take a look primarily at Adam and Jacob's service games, looking at just a few of the numbers and discussing some of the big takeaways from it. One note: all of the numbers below (except where noted) exclude points that ended in a double fault. Formations Adam and Jacob ran two different formations throughout this match: I-formation and standard. Standard Formation Standard Formation: Where the server's partner stands in the service box on the opposite side of the server. Here is a look at the numbers: Points played in standard formation: 23 Points won in standard formation: 18 Already it's not hard to see why ...