It’s not that I don’t believe kids should get private work in with a coach. On the contrary, they need to get as much of that as they can.

But I think it’s pointless if a player spends one day a week privately with a coach, but then never sees them during group clinics. The coach never gets to reinforce what they worked on! So as soon as the player gets to the group clinic, they’ll revert back to old habits, and work on the things those other coaches are asking them to do. This means the player will never develop enough muscle memory in the things they’re working on privately to make the changes permanent. 

It will take a forever amount of time for the changes to finally become muscle memory.

So if the coach isn’t working with the player in some other setting throughout the week, the work will not be very impactful.

It’s better for the player to take privates with the coaches that work with them during clinics.

And that’s why I stopped doing weekly private lessons.

I don’t have a full time academy in person. I work with kids privately. And up to a few months ago, I was doing the weekly private lesson thing, and I wasn’t seeing improvements fast enough in the technical things we were implementing.

I was definitely seeing strategical changes in matches, but strategy is the easiest thing to change.

Technical changes such as better follow through on a forehand, new trophy position on the serve, and footwork patterns require thousands of repetitions. 

And getting thousands of repetitions on something when you only see a player once a week will take a very long time. And since they weren’t working on that stuff without me, the changes weren’t happening fast enough. In some cases, nothing was happening at all.

That’s when I decided to make a change. 

After taking some time away from the court, I decided to only work with kids if I saw them 4-6 days a week. Even if it was for 1 week a month, I could get a significant amount of repetitions in for the player in a short amount of time. This would make it easier for muscle memory to be created faster.

So far, I’m really happy with the change, and I do not expect to be doing the 1-day a week private lesson model again without setting proper expectations with the family.

And I suggest all families take this approach. If you’re child is not seeing the coach that gives them private lessons consistently through the week, I would switch coaches. Change probably won’t happen fast enough. Start working with the coaches in the group clinics.

If you’re a coach, please be honest with the families and manage their expectations. Tell them the truth. If you only see the player once a week, change will take a significant amount of time. The only way to work around this is by being in consistent communication with the coaches that do run the drill groups, and letting them know what the player is working in. Then, ask them to do 1 or 2 drills that specifically help the player work on their areas in need.

Good luck out there.