Play & Stay in Tennis with LTA Youth
Article by Joel Essex
Matt Smith, LTA Coach Development & Learning Manager, talks about how his coaching method evolved to help tackle a decline in junior participation.
Approaches to coaching children and young people across sport are increasingly moving towards a child-first and person-centred approach. LTA Coach Development and Learning Manager Matt Smith, one of the architects behind the groundbreaking Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Youth programme, shared his thoughts on how the new approaches are changing the role of the junior coach.
The Play Their Way movement was launched following research highlighting enjoyment as one of the biggest motivators for children and young people to get active alongside evidence from Sport England’s Active Lives survey highlighting the number of children saying they enjoy sport declining, contributing to a drop in participation levels.
The movement aims to address this by transforming the way children are coached through a child-first approach that prioritises their rights, needs and enjoyment to help increase activity levels and, as a result, help them develop a lifelong love for sport and physical activity.
In 2017, the LTA recognised their own need to change their approach to coaching children and young people to help tackle a decline in junior participation, a journey which culminated in the launch of the LTA Youth programme in 2021. Matt, who was the LTA Coach of the Year in 2011, explained why such a fundamental shift to coaching and engaging young people in the sport was needed.
“Trends were dropping in junior participation and the research at the time was telling us that motor skill development, including the fundamentals of throwing and catching had dropped by 30%, so we needed to help develop the motor skills of children, putting them at the centre of what we do whilst ensuring they are having fun. LTA Youth was created out of that premise and developed on the principle of helping children play and stay in tennis”
Driven by a joint research paper with Loughborough University on Effective Coaching, which included face-to-face consultation with over 60 leading grassroots and performance coaches across the country, the LTA Youth programme principles were born and then tested with around 1000 coaches at forum events.
This culminated in five, core player centred principles aimed at tackling deteriorating physical literacy and activity levels. The F.E.D.A.L. model includes the principles of making sessions Fun and engaging, ensuring Everyone is active, integrating Decision-making, ensuring an Appropriate level of challenge and making sure sessions Look and feel like tennis.
Both Play Their Way and the LTA Youth programme mark a shift in the way children and young people are coached – putting them at the centre of their sporting experience and journey. The LTA Youth wheel has the child/young person in the middle of their model to depict this child/young person-first approach for coaches and parents.
Matt, explained how this has meant a re-thinking of the role played by the junior coach delivering tennis.
“The days where you just adopt a directive approach of exclusively ‘telling’ a child or young person are over. You can only get so far by prescribing – it will only lead to more young people dropping out. Coaches must give children more ownership of their learning and truly ‘coach’, to help the child help themselves. That means giving them some element of decision-making and choice to give more ownership. This therefore encourages coaches to create an on-court experience where players can play, discover and develop skills through well designed exercises and challenges, supporting players to explore and problem-solve through trial and error. All of this, whilst keeping the activity within the child’s zone of proximal development (the appropriate level of challenge), this is the art of coaching. To aid, I’d encourage engaging the children in the creative process, using their imagination and giving them a voice, coming up with their own names, games and levels. This helps build their interest, make the learning more intrinsic and keeps them coming back for more.”
“An example could be how we use red and blue wristbands with children (an external focus), red for their right, and blue for their left sides. Children are then tasked with receiving a rolling ball on their red side, having to move and create space to allow this, and then sending the ball to their partners red or blue space, their choice. Last time, the children decided that they would be frogs, the red and blue spots were their lily pads and the ball was a torpedo, with them trying to save their pond. Brilliant.”
The middle ring of the LTA Youth model looks at the holistic competencies for an all-round player and person, including Tactical, Technical, Mental, Physical, Social and Competition. With the outer ring covering the stages of play blue (ages 4-6), red (ages 6-8), orange (ages 9), green (age 10) and yellow (age 11+), covering the journey of a player.
Matt adds:
‘This is all part of a journey, and although many coaches use the different ball colours and court sizes for certain ages, these can be seen as a transition and learning aid as the player develops. It’s important that the child and the parent/carer know that this is all part of a longer-term journey of development and that ‘success’ should be seen through this lens.
This child-first approach and what they see on-court, may be different to what parents/carers are used to from their own experiences and may need some education and support when starting.”
Matt Smith, LTA Coach Development & Learning Manager
“Players are motivated by their own reasons to play, whether that is to meet new friends, be active, learn a new skill, compete, all of these are just as important when knowing what they need from a session and how to craft it, and these could also change as they grow. All players will come on court with their own social baggage and it’s important that we met them where they are at, to help them partake in sport and physical activity in a safe place and for the long-term.”
Just over three years after the LTA Youth was launched, junior participation in tennis is at its highest level ever, highlighting the vital role played by coaches and providing useful lessons for other sports to potentially follow.
Indeed Matt, who continues to coach children and young people 20+ years after starting his journey as a coach, believes the player centred, child-first approach is something that should be applied outside of sport.
When I reflect on my own coaching journey, I wish this approach had been introduced earlier."
Matt Smith, LTA Coach Development & Learning Manager
When I look back on my early days, I didn’t enjoy the experience of coaching being so regimented and model-based, so to break from that and embrace the constructive chaos, with learning through discovery, play and trial and error in a safe space, is magical, helping ignite the child’s interest. This is something that I think coaches across sport can embrace more and not be afraid of. In fact, I think the child first or player centred approach should be introduced across education and life more broadly.”
To hear more about LTA Youth visit https://www.lta.org.uk/roles-and-venues/coaches/products-and-programmes/lta-youth/
Matt's Top Child-First Coaching Tips
Be curious. Every child or young person you coach is going to be different. Ask them or the parent/carer ‘what can I do to help you take part in this activity?’ (this works as a general inclusive rule)
Be non-judgemental. You never know what a young person is bringing with them to a session. Your job is to meet them where they’re at and play in a safe environment
Embrace the chaos! Yes, have a lesson plan and theme to the session, but don’t always feel that it need to look pretty, allow for a session to change direction based on the group dynamic and feedback from children.
Bring parents along the journey. This may be a different approach to what they’re used to. Get them on-court to join-in where able to help them feel and understand. Perhaps they’ll even play at home.
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