Express News Service

CHENNAI: Right from the British era, tennis has been a popular sport in Chennai. From major clubs to various academies there are many caterers to this sport. YMCA is home to Match Point Tennis Academy. Manoj Balaji Kannan, the head coach of the academy, has been teaching children, professional players and tennis enthusiasts the ropes of the game for two decades. Players like Sai Samhita, VM Ranjith, Sasi Kumar Mukund, Somdev Devvarman had benefitted from the tutelage of Manoj. 

Coaching strategies

Manoj, a former national level player who has won the TN state championships in Salem and Tiruchy has a unique style of coaching where the non-dominant hand takes over in case of an injury or sprain. This helps a player to continue the match and also go for a win.

“When it comes to tennis, your dominant hand is everything. But what happens if the player suffers a minor shoulder or elbow injury mid match, do they forfeit the match and let their years of training go to waste? Which is why, I have also trained them to play with their weak hand. This at times is a key factor for professionals,” said Manoj.

Taking us through some research the ITF Level 2 certified (advance level) GPTCA coach explained, “Research says that people decide which hand they will play with by the time they are three years old. And 85-90% of us are mostly right-handed. Fine motor skills start developing in children and the dominant hand learns to be more efficient. In other words, when a child begins to grasp objects, they develop the hand-eye coordination and eventually they gain better coordination with their dominant hand. This means that even an extraordinary tennis player becomes a beginner when hands are switched. I train my students to develop their non-dominant side coordination through certain styles of practice.” 

On ground training

To make the non-dominant hand as effective as the dominant one there are various unconventional techniques. “For a serve, I make the players undergo throwing old tennis rackets drills with their off-hand. This helps to simulate the same movement as serving the ball. Usually, this is not the recommended coaching technique when it comes to teaching a beginner to serve with their regular hand. Swinging one’s non-dominant arm fluidly to hurl a racket involves a complete range of motion that is easier to culminate effortlessly. Based on the players’ expertise, I make variations to get them used to the back scratch serve, trophy position serve or the abbreviated serve. Ball bouncing and throwing using off-hand is also encouraged regularly at  30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees,” revealed Manoj.

Footwork and ball sense is also important when a player is learning to be ambidextrous. “When the player switches hands, they are also switching footwork. Hence it is important to watch oneself in a mirror as they are transitioning. Wall practising is recommended since the ball coming back is slow, soft, and predictable. That’s a perfect sparring partner for someone who is not so confident with their subordinate hand. The player is also made to train using the traffic light balls.

Step 1: Reduce the net height and make them play with a red ball, which is soft.

Step 2: Increase the net height slightly and make the player play with an intermediate amber ball.

Step 3: The player rallies with green hard balls at regular net level. This practice session is performed by both the players using their non-dominant hands to ensure no one is at a particular advantage until they pick up the skill,” he elaborated. 

Manoj trains about 70 players regularly at Match Point Tennis academy and Just Tennis academy.