This section sets out how the DRH curriculum ties together with the mid term assessments, the points the players achieve, along with how those points go onto the termly leaderboard. As tennis is an open sport with infinite variations, it can be challenging to track how and whether a player is improving. This can be the case all the way until a player becomes good enough to regularly compete, where matches become the player's way of grading their level.
The Badges - At DRH Sports, we've created an exciting solution to this challenge by introducing our tennis award badges. These badges are based on tennis relevant skills tests players take part in throughout their coaching sessions. Each badge a player earns represents either a new skill or a certain score of a new skill the player has earned. The different badges take into consideration all the elements of the tennis game. From rallying, to serves, to racket skills to athletic ability.
Assessments / Scores / Points / leaderboard
There are 4 main assessment categories
RACKET SKILLS:
Within the Racket Skills assessment, there are 3 variations. Tap Ups, Tap Downs and Twisties. All 3 of these assessment variations are intended to identify how capable the player is at maneuvering the racket through various movements along with the ability to control the tennis ball.
Although these skills are not a definite measure of a tennis player’s overall ability, it will help coaches to understand a player’s level of co-ordination, racket control, balance and focus.
RALLY WITH COACH:
When developing the initial tennis skills for young players, it’s important to understand that tennis to a beginner player (and a parent new to tennis), is a very simple concept. 2 people hitting a ball over the net to one another. To begin with, it doesn’t need to include serving, return of serve, volleying, spins, angles or depths. Rallying with a coach will, for many, be their first chance at playing what most people call ‘tennis’ and is a major milestone in gauging a player's level. Therefore, it’s so important to assess this skill for beginner players.
RALLY WITH PLAYER:
The Rally with Player assessment is thought of as the next step up from Rally with Coach. When performing Rally with Coach, the coach is in control and will generally be able to place their shots in such a way whereby the skill for the player is made much simpler. With Rally with Player, the unpredictability of each player’s shots will make the skill considerably harder and therefor will test the player to a higher degree.
SERVING:
Serving is obviously extremely important as it allows a beginner player to go from playing ‘tennis’ to playing a ‘game of tennis’. This is very powerful in ensuring that players stay within the game longer term.
By assessing serving along with the other assessments, the coach/player/parent will be able to have a very clear idea of how close a player is on their development journey towards playing matches.
Assessments / Scores / Points / leaderboard
When the mid-term tests are performed, the players get certain scores depending on how they perform. Depending on the score that the player get’s there are a certain number of points attached. When the coach uploads the player’s scores, this will equate to points that get automatically attributed to the player's online account.
The points on the player’s account will only last for as long as that course is active. For example, a summer term course will generally run from between April – July. Once the course is not active, then those points will fall off the player’s account and the players overall score will drop. The player’s objective is to score as many points as possible within the term.
Assessments / Scores / Points / leader board
The leaderboard is a fun tool that’s linked to the player’s points and is achieved through their assessment score and their badge achievements. After a player achieves a particular badge, the points get added to their total.
The points attached to the player automatically drop off once the course linked to the points reaches its expiry date. The courses expiry date is generally set as a week or two after the course has ended.
It’s important to understand that although the leaderboard is NOT a complete measure of a player’s level or skillset, it does give the player, the coach and the parent a good understanding of how a player is doing on their tennis development journey.
The points can only be achieved by completing skills that are proven to be a positive contributing factor to tennis player’s development.