Topball · English through sport
ESL / ESP English
Tennis · free sample chapters
English Through Tennis
A CEFR-mapped English programme built on the tennis court. Every lesson trains listening, instruction, self-commentary and match-talk English while developing the player.
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Sample 1
The 70-minute lesson as English practice
Every Topball session is a language lesson dressed as tennis. The player speaks English before, during and after each phase.
- ▪0–10 min · Movement prep and racket-head warm-up. The player names each movement pattern aloud in English.
- ▪10–25 min · Theme block. The coach explains one idea; the player repeats it back in their own words.
- ▪25–45 min · Live-ball application. The theme must be described before the rally and reviewed after it.
- ▪45–60 min · Pressure block. Score, time or target constraints — and the player calls decisions in English.
- ▪60–70 min · Review. The player states what worked, what failed, and the single focus for next session in English.
Sample 2
Taster lesson · Serve +1 with English calls
The most valuable pattern in the game, trained as a speaking task as much as a tennis task.
- ▪Set-up: serve wide to the deuce court, partner returns cross-court only.
- ▪Task: the server must step in and hit ball two to the open court, forehand where possible.
- ▪Scoring: 3 points for a won pattern in two shots, 1 point if the rally is won later, 0 if ball two goes to the wrong side.
- ▪Progression: alternate wide and body serves so the +1 decision changes each rep.
- ▪Language: the server calls the intended target before the toss — 'wide, then open court'.
Sample 3
How to use this manual at home
The manual is a language workbook as much as a tennis programme. It is designed to be written and spoken.
- ▪Choose one theme per week and keep an English log of every session: new words, phrases used, mistakes corrected.
- ▪Fill the review box after each practice in three English lines: kept, lost, next.
- ▪Use the CEFR rubric in the appendix once a month to track the English alongside the tennis.
- ▪Bring the completed planner to your next block of coaching so the programme continues rather than restarts.
In the full manual (8 parts · 40+ sections · A4 print-ready)
- ▪Part 1 — How the lesson works — The 70-minute session as a language classroom: warm-up calls, theme explanation, live-ball dialogue and the English review.
- ▪Part 2 — Technical English — The vocabulary of grips, contact points and swing shapes: describing faults, giving corrections and asking for help.
- ▪Part 3 — Patterns and decisions — Serve +1, return +1, short-ball attack and the drop-shot change-up — spoken through before each ball.
- ▪Part 4 — Body and recovery language — Movement prep, hydration, injury-prevention routines and explaining how the body feels after play.
- ▪Part 5 — Match craft and psychology — Score-based talk, routines between points, and the competition debrief in English.
- ▪Part 6 — English for Specific Purposes on court — The self-commentary, instructions and match-talk used in every session, mapped A1–C1.
- ▪Appendices — Printable drill cards, a 12-week planner, a tournament diary and CEFR self-assessment rubrics.
Pay $19 USD by PayPal and the full manual is released instantly — no waiting and nothing to email. Free updates for twelve months. Paying by Wise instead? Send the reference to coachjcl@cordentennisacademy.page and the link is issued by hand the same day.
From manual to campus
The manual is the programme. The camps are where it is coached.
Topball teaches this curriculum 365 days a year at the Cebu campus, at satellite learning camps in Oxford and Sussex, and online. Students and parents working through the manual at home can join the same programme in person — accommodation included on the Cebu retreats.
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