Tennis is an open skill?

Tennis is not diving. Diving involves performing precise movements at the perfect time. There is no decision making, perception or reaction in diving. Much like tennis is not the "forehand" or the "backhand". Model based coaching teaches players the stroke as if it were like performing a dive. The problem with model based coaching is tennis is an open skill and diving is a closed skill. Open skill meaning players have to constantly react to changing situations.

Some believe the game based approach is just about playing games and ignores technique. The (GBA) uses technique as a way to improve tactics. There is no one size fits all stroke in tennis. Technique and tactics are never separated in modern coaching.

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Holistic-Global Approach?

Tennis involves much more than technique. The game based approach also incorporates mental, physical & tactical elements. These elements are not trained separately but instead are all interconnected. For example, a player may be struggling with a certain forehand groundstroke. That player may look to a coach for help and traditionally that coach may bring out the basket, feed a few balls to the players forehand and look for technical issues. The players problem may be completly unrelated to technique. What if the player had been repeatedly told they were a choker on the big forehand put-a-way? That mental conditioning could lead to a physical "tightening up" during the shot. What if the player was just using the wrong tactic? The player may be trying the wrong forehand in the wrong situation. The point being, without observing the player in the situation, the coach can't determine which is the weak link in the chain. Tactics, Technique, Mental or Physical.

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Tennis is an open skill..