 Hello and welcome to another video. Thanks for watching and so I've wanted to put this video together To talk about motor skill development in children In tennis in particular, but it can definitely be transferred into other sports So, you know, if you're working in football if you're working in rugby, hopefully some of these concepts will help you too I'm going to be talking about motor skill development Rather than working on different techniques and different shapes of swings Because it's hugely important in developing Well-rounded and robust tennis players that will be able to to last the test of time You know that we will be able to to compete and perform under pressure You know, it will it will help them to be Have longevity in their tennis careers or any other sporting careers Because they have solid foundations Now hopefully this video will be useful to you if you're a coach give you some ideas as to how you can slightly adapt Maybe the way that you're working or or it might just consolidate some of the ideas that you're already thinking But also it will definitely help parents to have some ideas and a better understanding as to how they can help their children to Progress in sport whether it be at home or you know in the sporting arena on the tennis court or on the football pitch and that sort of thing So first of all I want to talk about why motor skill development rather than technique and shapes Recently went on the LTA youth course and really scary stats that I saw One of the slides and I'll share it with you now The UK population of children over the last five years have declined in their levels of physical literacy So we're looking at the average child in the country. So we're not looking at tennis in particular, but children in general their balance skills have dropped by six point two percent in the last five years and They're aiming and catching Skills have dropped by nineteen point seven percent now That's huge almost twenty percent decrease in levels of ability to aim and catch So for tennis players, it's one of the key skills being able to to receive and send a ball is a huge part of the game so if The population as a whole has decreased by twenty percent There's a lots of work that we need to do when we get them on the tennis course so as tennis coaches our role is obviously to develop the Rounded athlete not just the techniques but everything that encompasses being a tennis player Physical mental tactics tactical technical and all of those things are hugely important So obviously motor skills is going to be a good place to start I'll use this analogy if you were a builder and you were to build a house You wouldn't build a house without putting foundations down first if you did That house would soon fall to pieces under any pressure You know whether it came from a storm or just pressure of time itself Eventually that house would fall down and it's the same in developing children in the sports if us coaches Got one of these children. They came to the tennis courts Without the ability to receive of all and send the ball without the ability to balance on one leg If we just go straight into teaching forehand and backhand technique they may look Really good initially, you know, it might be a quick win in making them look like good tennis players mini pros with really good shapes And those sort of things but if you haven't Put in the fundamentals beforehand if you haven't put in those solid foundations Eventually that player will fail whether it be on the match court when they start to feel pressure their technique will break down Whether it's because they've been put on the run and they're not used to being in that situation If they've only trained fixed movements, they'll look great from here But any time they have to move into a difficult situation, they'll break down They'll also be more likely to get injured because they haven't got that physical backing of that foundation that we put in the start So hugely important and as coaches It's our role to make sure that all of these things are put in place But also as parents you've got a huge opportunity to to help in your child's progression Whether it be at home or if you take them to the tennis course or the football pitch or whatever If if you can really help to develop the key motor skills and the fundamentals Then actually teaching the techniques going to be a doddle if a child can receive a ball on the move Catch it and throw it back you put a racket in their hand and they're easily going to be able to hit a forehand on the run So hopefully this video will kind of give you some better ideas as coaches and parents as to what you can do to Really benefit your child's progression So a quick question for you How many professional tennis players do you know that have the same technique? If all of these professional tennis coaches out there were teaching Technique and shapes of swings 24-7 then every single tennis player would look the same So it just goes to show that actually Technique is not the number one priority being effective is so I Think to think about now when we're developing our players whether we're a tennis coach whether we're a parent trying to help our child to progress The order in which we should be thinking about developing our players motor skills skills for tennis tennis skills That's the way that we progress them Focus on the motor skills first. Okay. Can the child perform key motor skills are they able to balance are they able to change direction effectively are They able to read an oncoming ball are they be able are they able to send it back? All of these basic things are the keys first of all So, you know if you're a parent you could be playing tag at home A simple game of tag is going to help your child to develop very good agility They're going to be able to react quickly and actually they're not going to know it because they're going to be having so much fun It's the best way to learn if the child has to think about something that you've asked them to do It's going to be a lot tougher for them to develop the skill But if you set up a drill or a game that will put that child into the situation that they need to be in They're far more likely to remember it because is they've had fun thinking about it in a tennis perspective Let's take a tennis ball for example. So developing a motor skill with a tennis ball could be You roll the ball to the child. They catch it and they roll it back as simple as that Okay, now the next progression to that if that's too easy you can then roll the ball from side to side So the child is now moving laterally and trying to track the ball, stop the ball, roll it back, track the ball, stop the ball, roll it back Again, if that's too easy and they're finding that very easy and you know, no pressure at all Then you can introduce a bounce potentially. So can the child catch an oncoming ball after a bounce? Mix up the heights of the bounce. Can you do a high catch, a low catch, a medium catch? Then add the width into it again. Can they catch out wide in the middle? Can they catch out wide up high? Can they catch out wide down low? So you can start to see how a very simple game of rolling the ball back and forth can be Progress to make it tougher and tougher. So that's motor skill development Now how do we develop that into a skill for tennis and quite simply we do it by adding a racket into the hand So can a child now receive a ball on the floor with a racket, stop the ball with a racket, roll it back Move out to the side, stop the ball with a racket, roll it back. Can they now do it with a bounce? Catch between the hand and the racket, drop and hit it back Again, out wide, up high, down low, all of these different areas So we're developing skills for tennis. If it were football skills, you can develop it into a football game Finally, tennis skills. So at this stage, this is the final stage This is when you can start to look at technique. If you need to Hopefully though, if we've done a good enough job in developing the motor skills and in developing the skills for tennis Actually by the time we start to look at tennis skills in particular, all of that work should have been done Our kids, when they get a racket in their hand, will be ready Because that's what they learned from catching the ball. They need to be ready to be able to move and catch They will already be in an athletic position They will already have a dynamic first step because when they were playing tag in the garden When they were playing that game where you were throwing and catching out wide into the high positions They had to do an explosive first step to get there. We didn't tell them. We didn't teach them They've learned it through experimenting. So now they've got a racket in their hand. It's very simple We just need to add the final details Okay, and hopefully like I say, there won't be too much work to do at this stage But sometimes you may need to tweak a grip slightly. You may need to try to Increase the amount of rotation they get but if we can do it through the drills beforehand Hopefully it's going to be easier for them to learn that muscle memory without it having to be in here It's in their body Hopefully that was a useful video for you You know, there's plenty more I could talk about I could go on for hours But that gives you a hopefully good idea as to how motor skill development can really help to develop robust and well-rounded athletes And help them to have longevity for the future They'll be able to, you know, hit that forehand on the run when they're playing, you know In a three-set match in the last set There'll be less injury prone because they'll be athletic They'll have all of the muscles, you know strong enough and Flexible enough to be able to do the moves So, um, yeah, if you like the video make sure you subscribe to the channel and hopefully see you back here again soon. Take care