COORDINATION (part 2)

ANALYZERS

            The tools that the body has to make an analysis of the environment and the situation, are the Analyzers. They are five: Visual, Tactile, Auditve, Kinaesthetic, and Static dynamic.

            With the Analyzers we get the information about the situation and depending of the quality of the reading will be our decision. Then is clear that more information from the environment we can get, the decision we going to make will be much better. With good analyzers we gona be able to have a better feedback.

Feedback

            In my opinion, the feedback is the most important concept to understand. Without a positive or productive feedback will be impossible to learn. To have a good feedback we have to get a good reading of what happened and the analyzers are who make this work

It is very checked that the player cant do nothing to change during the shot. Once the player decided to hit, doesn’t exist the time necessary to make a correction. But what the good players do, is a feedback of this shot to do the correction. Whit this is clear that the decision of the shot is always before the shot and is a mental project

The tool the body has to get a feedback are the analyzers

FEEDBACK CYCLE

            Now we going to deepen in the Analyzers

Visual

            The vision is the most important analyzer for tennis. The vision has influence in a lot of aspects during the match, reading the opponent body position, reading the racket, reading the shot, watching the ball, etc.

            Follows we will see different aspect of the vision:

1-    Eye/hand coordination: is the capacity to put the hand in the right way and right moment to catch, hit or block something in simple or complex movements. It is very important for tennis and the coaches have to develop from the beginning.

2-    Eye/foot: is the capacity to put the foot in the right way and right moment to block or hit something in a simple or complex movement.

3-    Dynamic vision: is the capacity of the eyes to follow something in movement.

4-    Focal vision: is the capacity of the eyes to get the focus in a object

5-    Peripheral vision: is the capacity of the eyes to see what is happening around and sometimes keeping the focal vision.

6-    Stereopsis: is the capacity for the eyes to calculate the depth, speed and direction of a object

7-    Ocular laterality: like we are right or left to write, everybody have one eye stronger the another one. If we can identify which one is the worst eye to improve it.

Tactile

            The tactile analyzer is also very            important for Tennis. All the information coming from the racket after the shot is finishing in the hand, understanding this, is clear if I have good quality in the tactile analyzer, we will be able to have a much better feedback in the next shot. A lot of times we saw players with "Touch”, this kind of players have very developed the tactile aspect.

            To develop the hand skills, the coaches should start from the very beginning with all kind of exercises with the fingers, hand and racket, no just looking for the tennis shot if not looking for the sensitivity. To understand this we have to remember that "every new coordination is based in a old coordination” The hand exercises are the basic coordination of the tennis shots.

            This is the list of skills to develop first with the hand and after with the racket.

Hand

1.    Hand touch

2.    Throws

3.    Controls

4.    Directions

5.    Depth

6.    Height

7.    Hand speed

Racket

1.  Skills

2.  Controls

3.  Direction

4.  Height

5.  Depth

6.  Racket speed

In all the cases we should practice all the skills with preponderance in one or two of them. 

Auditive

The audio is not very important in tennis but what is true, that if the players don’t hear the sound of their shot or the opponent shot, the tennis quality will go dawn. 

Kinaesthetic

It is also very important for all the sports, because identify the movement and if tension of the muscles. Through Propioceptors take the information from arms, legs and the body in general, as well as the strength they are doing. The propioceptors are situated in the muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. To understand easily the kinaesthetic analyzer is the tool we have to feel the body.

Reading this is easy to confuse the tactile and the kinaesthetic, working together is the aptic sensitivity.

Static Dynamic

Also named Vestibular system, It is situate in the internal ear, and give us the information about the position and the movement of the head. Is the responsible of the balance. This is very important considering the 90% of the errors in players under 14 are coming for balance problems.

Static Balance: is the capacity to be in balance when the body is static. Could sound easy but try the be in balance over a medicine ball its very difficult.

Dynamic Balance

            The dynamic balance is very important in tennis, when the player is running he has to keep his balance during all the sprint to get the right position. Also in the far volleys a lot of times the body is out of balance but the good players knows how recover it.

Co ordination roll

            For the exposed, is easy to get the conclusion about the importance of the coordination. Richard Schönborn said : the coordination is the bridge between the technique and the physical qualities. Without the coordination is not possible to play any sport in the high level. For this must be taught from the beginning and including before the technique. The coordination is the foundation of the high performance.