# @mytenniscoaching on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcHmA51AG8q
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69372504-mytenniscoaching-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/36c435d42d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-16T23:00:05.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Steve Whelan | International Tennis Coach Developer (@mytenniscoaching) — https://gondola.cc/mytenniscoaching

## Caption

Conversation 29/30 

Tennis Coaches ….you cannot critique a player’s movement until you understand what they are trying to achieve.

Yet tennis coaches regularly judge technique against an ideal movement model without considering the problem confronting the player.

Take the so-called “perfect C-shaped” groundstroke.

That movement might be functional when the player has time, space and a manageable incoming ball.

But what happens when an opponent drives the ball at maximum speed?

The player has less time.

The available space may be reduced.

The intention may shift from attacking to surviving, redirecting or neutralising.

In that moment, attempting to reproduce the same large C-shaped action may be inefficient. A shorter swing or block might be the most functional solution available.

The movement has changed because the problem has changed.

That is not necessarily a technical fault.

It may be intelligent adaptation.

Movement only makes sense in relation to the intention, information and constraints shaping it. The same action can be effective in one situation and completely inappropriate in another.

Before correcting a player, ask:

What problem are they trying to solve?

What information and time are available?

Is this movement helping them achieve their intention efficiently and effectively?

If you ignore the situation and judge every stroke against one ideal model, you risk correcting the very adaptation that allowed the player to solve the problem.

Stop judging how movement looks in isolation. Start evaluating what it allows the player to achieve.

The conversation continues tomorrow for Day 30.

Follow mytenniscoaching for evidence-based coach education.

#TennisCoaching #CoachEducation #SkillAcquisition #EcologicalDynamics #EcologicalPsychology

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## Tags

ecologicaldynamics, coacheducation, ecologicalpsychology, tenniscoaching, skillacquisition

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