Two of the most important tools for a successful pro are good drills and well-crafted, productive games. At this year’s convention we have one of the most well respected creators of both drill and games in the nation, Ken DeHart. And the really good news is he is going to share plenty of both at our convention!
Ken starts out on Friday with his “50 Best Drills” presentation, an approach to developing lesson plans for your club players. Included are warm up drills, serve drills, live ball drills, games for skills, and mental concepts for drills. This is a unique way to look at the anatomy and application of a drill. There will be plenty of inventive drills included in this presentation for you to take and use to freshen your daily lessons. Everyone who is planning on competing in our annual Drill Contest won’t want to miss out on this on court session. No doubt there will be some winning ideas for drills to come from Ken’s presentation!
Ken’s Saturday session will focus on games for teaching doubles strategy and tactics. Ken sees games as tools that assist players in discovering how to apply strategy and tactics in competition. His “20 Best Games” presentation will take you through the who, what, where, when, and why of games and their relationship to stroke production.
He will take those 20 games and show you how variations in scoring, introduction of the ball, the type of shots that can be used, number of repetitions, and the position of players on the court can multiply the repertoire and add new twists and fun to your students’ experience.
Ken, along with PNW pro Tracie Mitchem, will be presenting a Cardio Tennis class Saturday morning, and they will conduct our division’s Cardio Shootout. The winner of the Cardio Shootout represents the PNW at the 2011 World Conference Cardio Shootout.
Ken is a USPTA Master Professional and director of tennis at the San Jose Swim & Racquet Club. He is a three-time USPTA Career Development award winner, and a four-time USPTA Divisional Pro of the Year.
Ken DeHart appears courtesy of Wilson
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Featured session profile: Nancy Biggs
If you're looking for a way to reduce your desk time while making more money than Courtside USA is very likely the most promising session on your convention agenda.
At first glance Courtside USA is a tennis social networking program, a place for club members and players to interact with each other in a controlled online environment. A second look reveals the true depth of this programs possibilities. Ladders, tournaments, flex leagues, lesson scheduler, court registration, even club social events are easily managed by the pro and very accessible to club members.
Indeed, the single most attractive feature of this program is its member friendly online operation. Once you set up your event you can email blast to your entire network list or target a segment of the network that makes the most sense, e.g. email the 3.0 ladies information specific to 3.0 Ladies Day.
There are many more components in this package and you can check them out by going to Courtsideusa.com and registering yourself as a Pro Account. Pick and choose the components that make the most sense to you and explore them.
Courtside USA is a USPTA sponsor so the program’s access is free to members in good standing. Get registered, take a tour of the site, make a list of questions and bring them to Nancy’s presentation.
She will have online access for her presentation and will take us through the program’s basic operations and then answer your specific questions.
Featured session profile: Craig Jones
Your USPTA/PNW board recruited Craig Jones to present at this year’s convention because he is a well-known industry leader in the Quick Start / 10 & Under Tennis program. These initiatives are at the heart of the next big push to grow the sport and will receive substantial marketing and promotional budgets and resources from the USTA in the coming year.
Craig Jones is someone who has come to know these initiatives through application and experience. Each of his two presentations is built on his day-to-day successes and failures…what went right and why, as well as what went wrong and why. His two presentations will be a complete and detailed roadmap on how to implement the programs at your club and how to profit from their operation. No need to reinvent the wheel!
On Saturday, there will be a round-table forum where Pros can discuss what steps PNW clubs can take together to maximize each program’s value to their club, its members and to the Pros.
Craig Jones appears courtesy of USTA and USPTA/PNW
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Featured session profile: John Yandell
John Yandell’s incredibly informative high-speed, high-def filming technique forms the basis of his on and off court presentations at this year’s convention.
NO, this is not another “how to develop the elite player” presentation. Yes, John is going to use his high speed, high def filming to show us the commonalities great players share when hitting a forehand. But, that is where the elite player focus ends and the club player focus begins.
John will then demonstrate how to apply the classroom analysis to your club player/student on court. How you develop drills in a progressive fashion that will communicate those fundamental components to students and at what levels.
John will also show us how to use video feedback as a critical component in the process, and how ball machine feeding is critical to allow the instructor to work directly with the student.
John promises only three benefits from his presentations: extremely powerful teaching, less physical drudgery feeding balls, and the opportunity to charge a higher rate appropriate to the value of the methodology.
John is a cum laude graduate of Yale University, the editor and founder of Tennisplayer.net, and a published author.
This session not only promises to be a great in depth look at stroke production but just as interesting and important, the methodology of “how to” and “when to” teach these fundamental components to your club players.
John Yandell appears courtesy of Head/Penn and USPTA/PNW
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