Diving Into the Driving Range of Tennis

COACH’S CORNER, Dissecting the Works of Coach Tom Parham
Volume 1-3/4/2024

Foreword

I’ve known Coach Tom Parham since 1976 when I was playing at High Point College. There has always been something very special about our relationship. I randomly took a photograph of Coach at the 1977 NAIA National Championships in Kansas City, where HPC and Atlantic Christion, now Barton College, were playing. I have been carrying that photo around with me since.

Coach Tom Parham has coached a national championship team, been inducted into just about every Hall of fame there is, mentored and given back to the game of tennis like no other.

No, he didn’t pass away. He is very much alive and well. I talk to him as much as he can stand me. Sometimes I think we were related at some point. We’ve learned from some of the same mentors. We see the sport of tennis in eerily similar ways. It’s a little scary at times. He will say thing I am thinking and vice-versa. It’s a neat experience. I cherish every second. All tennis players, coaches and professionals should be so lucky.

Our regular Summits are legendary. I embrace them whenever I can. I learn more in three hours with the ol’ coach, as I affectionally refer to him, than I learned in four years of college. I learn something new from him every time we talk or meet. It always delivers big.

He has asked me to be a part of his team of Shot Doctors to help educate high school coaches in North Carolina and beyond. It’s an honor to be alongside him on this journey. He has written a manifesto of letters, documents and books telling his stories of life, coaching, tennis, friendships, and the art of teaching.

My job, as I see it and he has directed me, is to pan through these hundreds and hundreds of pages and pan for the gold nuggets of tennis information. Once I find them, I translate them into language only mere mortals like me can understand and then distribute them to players, coaches, teaches, parents and anyone else who can benefit from their value and believe me, there is value. Stay with me…

Diving into the Driving Range of Tennis
By Tom Parham

My dear friend and mentor Coach Tom Parham wrote a wonderful article entitled The Driving Range of Tennis. I’m going to attempt to dissect it and expound on some of the key points as I see them. It’s always fun to study those who study our great game of tennis.

I saw a post on Facebook the other day with a photo of Francis Tiafoe. Under his photo was a quote from him stating, “tennis is the hardest sport in the world.” Many time I will just reply to these quotes, not really overthinking my reply in detail but just making a statement that comes at that moment from the marrow of my gut. I responded, well gee whiz Francis, of course it’s hard. If it were easy anyone and everyone would and could do it. The man is a millionaire. Tennis has paid him big dividends for his efforts. But he can't seem to get over "the hump" from being one of the top 25 players to one of the top three or four.

Why? Because tennis is hard.

A teacher of sports skills soon realizes his or her tasks will include:

• Having a concept of what the skill is supposed to look like when executed properly.
• Being able to see where others fail at the skill.
• Being able to correct execution.
• They must be able to lead and develop player skills through proper programming that will eventually lead to proper execution in a practice or match situation.

Tennis is no exception. A good teacher will feed enough balls and demonstrate the tasks at hand so the errors eventually will be corrected. It is an agonizing, sometimes painful labor of love for the pros, coaches and teachers that cannot really be appropriately measured. The art of and work towards perfection is an endless cycle.

Consider thus misconception: No teacher or pro can tell a player how to play. He can only tell the player how to practice. It’s like a person learning how to play the piano without touching the keys. It simply fails. The student will not learn this way. They have to do, not just watch and learn.

Recreational players conceive tennis lessons or clinics as playing tennis.

No, tennis is play. Period. You have to find players to play. Nothing teaches faster than having to play with only the three balls that come in the can. No excuses. Find a friend to hit balls with. Ultimately, you are dependent on other people to improve your game.

However, there are ways around this to a degree. Find a wall to hit against. I learned to play that way. Hundreds of thousands of hits against a carport wall. Over and over. One after the other until I could barely lift my arms. It was almost mesmerizing at times. Ball machines and lessons are the other ways you can get your practice work in.

Playing with better players is not always the best course of action. Players get tired of getting a weekly beatdown by the same players. It takes drive, hard work and dogged determination to eventually catch this player and change those outcomes. Maybe playing with someone more equal in ability is a better way to go at first. Build confidence and skills before taking that next step.

Be careful who you choose to practice with. Your parents, your boss, your girl or boy friends might get a little uncomfortable as these resources can get a little snippy and chippy at times.

Find someone who is reliable and has the same learning goals as you do. Be prepared to make changes along the way. Finding a clone is difficult. You can’t be afraid of parting ways. It happens. One player gets better, and the other one doesn’t. Get over it.

Once you find your partner, make promises to each other. I’ll be on time. I’ll work hard. I won’t spend all our time blabbing about work or my love life. We’ll do drills that benefit us both. You want to work on volleys, and I want to work on backhands. OK, we can do both. Work together. It’s go time so get going.

Drills can be difficult to navigate. A drill is only as good as those who can execute them. If you have four players with one weak link, the drill simply fails or it is severely hampered. One good player and one weak player will fail the same way unless they work together. Remember, drill time is not hit a winner time. You have to work cooperatively. This is the fastest way to even the playing field.

College, tournament and tour level players can fail at drilling just as easily as recreational players. For the second time, work together. Understand what you are trying to achieve. It’s the only way drills can help you learn.

College, tournament, and even tour players are not teaching professionals. They have not taught thousands of hours of drills, fed hundreds of thousands of balls, or had to execute the level of patience it takes to learn at the developmental stages. Most of those players don’t even remember being a beginner or even how they made their level jumps.

In lessons and clinics, serve practice is usually the last thing to be worked on. That’s a shame. Move them up the priority chain. Put out targets. You can use cans, cups, rocks, or candy wrappers to mark the service boxes. Without targets/goals, you’re just swatting balls in a general direction.