Overview of our Annual Plan for the Tennis Academy
Our main goal is to provide quality training to junior players of all levels of play. All of our programs will
be designed to fit Tennis Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) curriculum. We will run the
full year academic/tennis boarding academy program for students from the elementary school grades
up to graduating and post-graduate students. For more information regarding the LTAD and its content,
please visit the Tennis Canada website at:
http://www.tenniscanada.com/index.php?title=LTAD&pid=2100
Our academy program will run from September until June, with two daily practices of an hour and a half
each, plus a fitness component and mental toughness group training for a weekly average of 16 hours.
Students are encouraged to take at least two private lessons a month on weeknights or weekends. Our
tennis program will be split into three terms, the fall (September, October, November), winter
(December, January, February) and spring (March, April, May) and will include the first four stages of the
LTAD program (FUNdamentals, Developing, Consolidating and Learning to Perform).
The fall term will consist of establishing strong fundamentals, such as having the right athletic and
psychological mindset to becoming a high performance athlete. Our second priority will be to set
technical and physical goals, as well as to lay out the work plan for the first few months. During the
winter term we will concentrate on consolidating the work done in the fall with high volume and
repetition training. We will work primarily on tactical elements, such as hitting patterns and situational
play which includes building, developing and finishing the point during cooperative and competitive
training.
The winter months are the busiest in terms of tournament play according to the Ontario Tennis
Association Calendar. Our focus during these months is to prepare our students tactically and physically,
as well as psychologically, to compete well, especially in late December, January and February when the
tennis calendar includes the Selections, Provincials and Nationals. Individually, we will work on polishing
players’ strengths and attacking their weaknesses, while helping them define, develop or consolidate
their game style. During the spring term, we will work on reviewing the performance results at
tournaments to be able to set up technical, tactical, and physical goals to be applied during spring
competitions. We will continue helping our players to develop timing and change strategies, as well as
how to better manage positive and negative emotions during competitions.
Group Training Methodology
During the fall, the objective for on-court group training is to establish good practice habits, such as
running and dynamic stretching prior to hitting tennis balls. During their on-court warm-up, students will
be required to focus on a particular task which will help improve their fundamentals skills and their
performance. In addition, a high-intensity atmosphere will be created to ensure students are constantly
improving their footwork, reaction speed and changes of direction, so that they can set up properly and
hit the ball early. Time will be spent working on the proper set-up, finding a consistent impact point and
sending good quality rally/neutral/academy balls. Tactically, students will concentrate on making the
appropriate neutral, attack or defense shot selection with situational play, while at the same time,
improving their court positioning and anticipation. Also critical for their development is the concept of
keeping the ball in play with quality shots, while waiting for the best opportunity to attack.
Psychologically, students will be taught how to adopt a routine with a series of rituals prior to beginning
a point and right after they win/lose a point, game or set. Methods, such as visualization, self-reflection
as well as selective focus, will help our players develop better emotional control and deal with pressure
during practices and competitions.
Individual Training Methodology (up to two players per coach)
Each student, head coach, and go-to coach will select a specific area to work on within each of the
following four priorities - the forehand, backhand, net game, and serve or return. In some cases if
he/she considers it best for the player’s development, the go-to coach will decide to work on a specific
area, such as the approach shot, slice, footwork, net game. During October and November, the player
and the go-to coach will make improvements to specific strokes or skills for 30 to 40 minutes three times
per week. This amount of time will help consolidate these specific skills. It would, however, benefit
students to occasionally have an additional one-on-one private lesson with their go-to coach.