BTA Coaching Team: Andrea Ribalta

As part of our blog series presenting our coaching team, today our focus is on the profile of Andrea Ribalta, who is both a tennis coach and a sports psychologist at our academy.

Being a psychologist, Andrea not only can offer invaluable insights on the players’ performance both in practice and matches, but also has a great connection with all the players, both as their coach and friend they can share their feedback with.

The idea behind this series is to present our coaching team at work, so in this blog Andrea will show how she works with players to develop their skill of on-court decision-making.

Exercise 1:

The coach places 4 different colours around the court. The coach feeds the ball with the hand on different parts of the court, and the player BEFORE hitting the ball has to SAY out loud what color is going to hit the ball to.

GOAL: to decide and think faster about where to place the ball. To start thinking and having a plan.

Exercise 2:

The format is the same, but now, the player behind the one that is hitting is the one SAYING out loud the color that the other player has to hit the ball to.

GOAL:

Player 1: listening to the instructions

Player 2: decision making

Player 1 & 2: cooperation