Allon Rock
South Africa
Pickleball Annual coaching program for schools
40 weeks: 1 hour lesson
Week 1
Warm up, stretch. Hand eye co-ordination exercises (throw, bounce catch balls). Introduce the bat/ paddle; bounce the ball on top of the bat, then let it bounce on the ground for 5 to 10 shots and then partner up and do the same with a partner before going over the net. If there’s time, go over the net for 5 to 10 shots. All is age related according to upscaling and getting through the program quicker.
Week 2
Warm up, stretch. Hand eye with bat and ball for 5 minutes. With a partner over the net rallies in the kitchen and once they get it, move them halfway back and get them to rally as many as possible.
Teach rules and scoring. Teach the serve and all the techniques around the stroke. Try a match with the serve.
Week 3
Warm up, stretch. Drills session with forehand and backhand. Teach them volley and smash and get them to volley with each other and then finish off with volley and smash drills. If time play matches and get receiver’s partner to start up mat kitchen now that the volley and smash has been introduced.
Week 4
Warm up, stretch. Drills incorporating all the strokes, including the serve. Introduce play based drills and finish off with matches.
Week 5
Warm up, stretch. Start introducing moving through transition zone and learning half volleys and split step and then do drills around these strokes and end with a match that showcases the new strokes.
Week 6
Warm up, stretch. Now that all the strokes have been taught, we go through all of them again with drills around them and end up with a match.
Week 7
Warm up, stretch. Once you have seen that the students have mastered all the strokes to a certain degree you can start introducing spin and backhand serve. This is also a good time to work on the return of serve and end off with a match.
Week 8
WU, S. Erne and ATP and drills around these strokes until the end of the session.
Week 9
WU, S. Match week.
Week 10
WU, S. Going over all the strokes and working on those students that need a bit more help .Match week to end the term for those more ready.
