How to - Improve Your Tennis Skills

Recent research shows that reinforcement involving feedback and praise within sports such as swimming, football, and tennis differs according to the type of attention given. These differences depend on the type of attention given, whether it is given to correct behavior or wrong behavior. Sports are quickly becoming more competitive, and it is becoming harder to reach the professional leagues; therefore, it is important to educate young athletes about ways to improve their athletic abilities. A research study, “Differential Reinforcement in Coaching Tennis Skills,” focuses on major tennis skills (forehand, backhand, and serve) while implementing different reinforcement types. The study participants gave both positive and negative feedback to the tennis players. Positive reinforcement is a behavioral technique used to increase desired behavior, whereas negative reinforcement is a technique involving a desired performance increase by avoiding poor performance. Both studies show that positive reinforcement along with negative reinforcement, rather than negative feedback, greatly influences and increases tennis abilities when considering forehand, backhand, and serve.

To obtain information for the “Differential Reinforcement in Coaching Tennis Skills” experiment, previous studies concerning the correlation between physical performance and reinforcement were researched. Discovered studies have shown that positive feedback/praise improves a young football team’s performance (the feedbacks provided included both verbal and visual). Other studies included providing monetary reinforcement, positive practices, and time-out procedures, hoping to improve athletic ability. These reinforcements have proven that when altering motor behaviors, greater improvement can be observed with positive reinforcement.

For the tennis behavior modification experiment, the experimenter picked three female students, beginners, to join a tennis class. The class implemented the three main strokes: forehand, backhand, and serve. The tennis class lasted thirty minutes, daily, instructed by a female tennis coach. Two people observed the class because “correct” strokes could be of varying perspectives; the observers did not interact with the players. Each stroke had specific criteria, which the observers used to judge the improvement over time. After each shot the players received either praise or negative comments for their efforts. Positive feedback included: “good shot” or “you are starting to bend your knees”. Negative feedback included: “that was a bad shot” or “you are not listening to me”. The observers noted the final increased ability after ten repetitive shots.

Final results showed that positive praise for correct performance increased the three tennis students’ correct performance by approximately 30%. The two observers converted every ten shot observations into statistical data: ability to hit the shot, and percent improvement. For student 1, correct performance without praise ranged from 6% to 17% while with praise the percentage increased to 42-52%. Student 2 had a smaller performance range: 8-15%, before the experiment. After positive feedback, her performance increased, 24-31% performance ability. The third student experienced a similar increase; 7-18% before, 40-66% after. The coach reduced negative feedback through out the class, but increased positive feedback. The experiment showed that positive reinforcement, while coaching, drastically improves performance. As a result, to improve their student’s ability in athletics, coaches should give positive comments and ignore the negative performances.



Buzas, Hilary P., and Teodoro Ayllon. Differential Reinforcement in Coaching Tennis Skills. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 5:372. Web. March 15, 2012.