Effort is a Skill

When asked the question “what skills are needed to be a good tennis player” the first things that come to mind for most of us are athletic abilities such as good eye hand coordination, quickness, agility, or strength and flexibility. Other players may cite more cognitive traits such as being a good strategist, picking out an opponents weakness, or having rock solid mental toughness. Today I’d like to talk briefly about a different type of skill.

I would like to submit to you today that putting in maximum effort is a skill. It’s an athletic trait that can be practiced and learned, not something that you’re either born with or not. This is great news for all of you reading this, it means that you’re capable of great things if you just focus and actually try as hard as you can. I know this may seem kind of corny, and probably overly obvious as well, but please just bear with me for a few more paragraphs.

Separate Yourself

When I graduated from college and started teaching full time I was blind sided by the type of people that I started to work with. I had grown up with a huge appreciation for the tennis lessons I received because I actually paid for most of them myself. I didn’t take a single one for granted, and worked incredibly hard on the court. Imagine my frustration when trying to teach somebody who had shown up at the tennis club that day simply to have something to do with their time, the two of us had completely different ideas about what it meant to “play tennis”.

Many, many recreational tennis players have a very leisurely and laid back attitude about their tennis. Is there anything wrong with this? No, absolutely not. These players have different priorities in life, and tennis isn’t extremely high on their list overall, it’s just a fun activity to participate in. This is where you can gain a huge advantage on the court, by separating yourself from the casual player in attitude and effort level.

Make a Commitment

Next time you step out onto the tennis court, whether it’s for practice or competition, make these commitments to yourself:

• I will run for every ball until I either get to it or it bounces twice.
• When I run for a difficult ball I will actually run full speed, and not slow down at the end.
• I will make at least three steps towards every shot my opponent/partner hits, even if I think it’s going out or into the net.
• I will remain mentally focused on the drill I’m completing or the strategy I’m trying to implement.

If you can make it through an hour of tennis and can honestly say that you’ve completed the above four things I can promise you that your game will advance more quickly. Few people take the game seriously enough to put in this kind of effort both physically and mentally, if you make the commitment to do it every part of your game will be better for it.

Train Your Body

As you continue to follow the four guidelines listed above you will start to notice a difference in your athleticism. Your anticipation and reaction time will start to increase as you build up your habit of immediately making a move for every single ball. Your physical quickness and agility will become greater as you actually try with full effort to run down every single ball, rather than making a subjective decision whether or not you could get there and just watching it bounce twice instead.

These are the types of things that we see in high level players and say to ourselves: “Wow, what an amazing athlete! I wish I could run down shots like that.” The only difference between them and yourself is that they’ve actually practiced running down every ball, over and over, year after year. They’ve built up their reaction time, quickness, and agility over time. You can do the same thing!

At first you may start getting to more shots, but missing due to the difficulty level of them. Don’t get frustrated and stop trying, it will take time to practice the actual stroke needed to make these shots on the run, often times in awkward positions with your body and on the court. Make the commitment, keep working hard, and build your skill at putting in 100% effort!

Play Your Strengths

As a teaching professional I get approached by a wide variety of players looking to improve their game. I see it all, from 3.0 club-level hackers to high level college athletes. And while skill and ability levels vary greatly, everybody seems to be guilty of wanting to only practice the exact same thing: their weaknesses.

I’ll hear, “I really need to work on my backhand, it’s terrible” and “I always double-fault, I gotta work on my second serve today.” And while these statements about the state of their game aren’t necessarily wrong, I think there is an over-emphasis in the desire to work on their weaknesses. Improving what you struggle with is important, but you also need to improve upon what you already thrive on!

Practice What You Do Well

Practicing your strengths is more important than working on your flaws. I would say that you should devote at least half of your practice sessions to what you already do well. Lets say that you have a great forehand and a weak backhand. By all means get that backhand more consistent. But try and get a little more spin on your forehand. Maybe work on stepping up a hitting it with a little more pace. Try and take more balls on-the-rise with it. You already have a good forehand….now make it a really really good forehand.

It’s always good to look to the professionals for guidance. When you watch the greats play, how do they win? Agassi did with his punishing return and steady groundstrokes. Nadal with his great fitness and buggy-whip forehand. Do you think these two have devoted a ton of practice time on their volleys? Even in practice these guys didn‘t spend too much time inside the service box. They both know that they’re not going to match up with the Sampras’ and Federer’s in that department. But Andre knew that he would have to return well to compete with Pete. Rafael knows that his huge spinning forehand gives Roger trouble. These guys have some of the best strengths in history and they still looked to improve on them.

Practice Avoiding What You Don’t Do Well

OK, so your backhand is weak or your second serve is inconsistent. Just like an addiction, admitting this is half the battle. Now you need to work on ways to avoid hitting those shots. For example, practice your run-around forehand instead hitting your backhand. Improve your footwork and fitness so you have the ability to move around your backhand more often. After all, if you hit your better shot more often, you’re going to win more points. And don’t forget to work on your first serve. It sounds obvious, but you can avoid hitting your second serve by getting your first one in. Don’t go for the tempting ace. Work on hitting it with more spin and placement.

You Get The Idea…

You have to be willing to accept that your going to lose a few points here and there over the course of a match due to your weaknesses….but hopefully those misses are offset by what you do well. I especially suggest practicing your strengths in a practice session before an important match. Don’t frustrate yourself by working on what you struggle with the day before you play. Get your confidence up and practice you’re your stronger shots which you hopefully will be utilizing in your upcoming match. I personally found that this approach has helped my game a lot. And on that occasion when I did lose (albeit very rare I might add), I found that there was some consolation in knowing that I did lose playing my strengths.

So get off your computer, grab your sticks, and get back to the court!

Doubles: Angle Volleys

In doubles the net is the place to be! I’ve written other articles on why moving forward is ultimately the best strategy for you to develop in your doubles game. Today I’m going to talk about one of the big reasons why moving up to the net is a great idea in doubles: greater ability to angle the ball away.

All too often I see average level tennis players do a great job making their serve or return, they move forward to the net and put themselves in a great position to win, they’re then rewarded with an easy volley and move in for the kill only to hit the volley directly back to an opponent giving them an opportunity to stay in the point. Hitting it towards them low and with lots of pace is one thing (we’ll get to that later), but if you’re not at a level yet where you can do that reliably then you need another option to finish the point. An effective angle is any shot that passes freely between your opponent and the net as it leaves the court to either the right or the left. Here are the two most important things to keep in mind about angling the ball away at the net.

Closer is Better

One extremely important thing to understand when it comes to angling the ball away from your foes is how your position relative to the net affects your effectiveness. The closer you get to the net the more options you have to angle the ball away because you’re able to hit directly at more and more of your opponents side of the court. If you’re like most 3.0 to 3.5 level players it’s very likely that a large percentage of your time at the net is spent positioned right around the service line. Some of you may be saying: “Around the service line is close enough right?”. I disagree, at least when it comes to being able to angle your volleys effectively.

There are 21 feet between the service line and the net. If you’re 6 feet tall that’s about four long strides. When it comes to using angles to put the ball away a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that volleying to what you can physically see over the top of the net is going to be your best bet. Again, if you’re 6 feet tall and standing on the service line what you’re able to “see” is about half of no man’s land, the last nine feet of the court before the baseline, not very much space when it comes to creating an angle. Does this mean that the whole rest of the court is completely inaccessible to volleys? No absolutely not, with good enough hands it’s possible to land a volley on top of just about any point on the court from the service line, the difference is that it takes a whole lot more skill and precision to perform that type of touch volley as opposed to hitting directly at your target as you try to put the ball away.

Placement Over Power

The second important thing to understand when it comes to angling volleys away is that once you’ve done the work of closing in and you have a good “look” at your target it doesn’t take a very strong shot to finish a point if it’s placed well. This definitely has to be the other most common mistake I see average level club players make when they’re rewarded with an easy volley up close to the net, they correctly attempt to angle the ball away from their opponents but try to hit a much better shot than is necessary resulting in an error instead of winning the point. It’s often very difficult to do in the heat of battle but you have to try your best to relax and stay calm while executing your put away angle, there’s nothing worse than losing a point unnecessarily when you had an opportunity in front of you.

So there you have it. Close in tight, pick a target that will put the ball away from your opponents and off the court, and then place the ball there firmly but under control. Start practicing these types of volleys on purpose and use them more in your competitive points, it will pay off!

You Can Improve. Believe It.

If you’re like most of the readers of Essential Tennis I know that you’re extremely passionate about the game of tennis. It isn’t a game that you play just for fun, just to get exercise, or just to socialize with friends. Certainly those aspects may enhance and improve your tennis playing experience as well but they probably aren’t the primary motivator. You play because you love it, because you can’t get enough of it, because the very first time you walked off of a tennis court after playing you said to yourself: “Wow, I cannot wait to do that again!”.

Just like anybody else who discovers a deep interest for a certain subject or activity you want to understand it and be able to perform it the best of your ability. After all, the better you can play the more satisfying and enjoyable it will be, right? I know exactly what this drive for improvement feels like. I’ve been working hard at my own game for 17 years now and definitely haven’t had enough yet, there are still many things that I’d love to keep improving and become more competent at.

As you follow this path you may get discouraged or have doubts. “But Ian, I just started playing and I’m 45 years old”. “I don’t have the money for hours and hours of private instruction”. “I’ve been trying to learn topspin for 5 years and I just don’t get it”. I hear these types of concerns and excuses all the time both on the court and in electronic correspondence from web site visitors.

Let me encourage you, believe me you can improve your tennis game. I’ve seen marked improvement in people of all ages, sizes, and ability levels. Over that last year I’ve been extremely excited to see people improve their game without even taken a lesson, just by listening to the podcast and posting on the forums at Essential Tennis. How can this be achieved, even by somebody who may have a few special obstacles in their way? If you put into use and focus on the three things below I can all but guarantee that you will improve your tennis game.

1. Effort Level

Nothing inspires me more than a student who just busts themselves over and over again hustling after balls. This could be the #1 difference maker in your game if you’re not already pushing yourself physically to your limits day after day. Make a commitment to yourself that you will give everything you have on both the practice court and during competition. This will pay dividends in the long run big time both physically and mentally. Just for one hour of practice try springing as fast as you can towards every single ball until either you get to it or until it finally bounces twice. Do this on shots that you don’t think you could possibly get to, do it for balls that go out, run full speed for every single ball. Most likely after an hour of this you’ll be physically exhausted, after doing it many times your conditioning and speed will be improved a great deal. By the way, it doesn’t matter if you get to the ball or not, simply promise yourself that you will run every time.

2. Focus and Concentration

When you walk out onto the practice court make sure that you have goals and objectives for every single thing that you work on. Not only should you have these planned out ahead of time, but once you start a certain drill or rally don’t ever stop until you actually achieve it. No more stopping and getting water because it’s getting too hard only to get off the bench and play games to 10 instead of your drill. No more trying for 5 minutes to rally 10 in a row cross court and moving on to something different because you got mentally tired. Keep your focus, stay on task, build your mental muscle.

3. Solid, Fundamental Information

Anything that sounds gimmicky on the internet, or sounds too good to be true is probably not worth investing time, effort, or money in. Good tennis instructional information should make sense, it should be logical, it should be backed up by specific examples seen in high level players. Ever have a web site tell you that you can have a forehand like Roger Federer for $9.99? Move on. Are you a 2.5 player and being told that you need a windshield wiper forehand or kick serve? Take one step at a time, you have to master the fundamentals first. Everybody on the internet thinks that they’re an expert about whatever they’re talking about. Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots and lots of great information about improving your tennis game. However, be aware that there’s also a lot of poor information as well, and information that can even hurt your game or body if followed. I’m not trying to say that this web site is the only place with good tennis instruction information, not at all. Just beware of what type of instruction you buy into on the internet, check it against reality first and always keep in mind whatever level player you are.

Follow these three important guidelines and you can continue to make steady gains in your tennis game. Keep working hard both mentally and physically and continue to feed yourself good instructional information. You really can improve your tennis game!

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Part of reason why I love tennis so much is that it mirrors life so well. On a daily basis I’m able to teach children and adults alike important lessons that can help them improve not only their game on the court but also their outlook on life.

Just yesterday I was reminded abruptly of one of these examples. In an attempt to gain some strength and weight I’ve been lifting weights with a trainer once per week for the last 8 months or so. My natural body type is very thin and my metabolism runs like that of a humming bird to boot so gaining mass and muscle is extremely hard work for me. Of course I get very little sympathy when I talk about this “problem” and I completely understand why, but just trust me when I say that I really push myself hard in the gym for small gains bit by bit.

So yesterday I was laying on the weight bench doing work on what I’m weakest at: the bench press. Believe me when I tell you this; when I do bench press with my trainer I’m extremely uncomfortable through most of the process. I start out by lifting only the bar to warm up, 30-40 reps. After that we add enough weight that I can only push the bar up six or eight times before I can’t do it anymore with stretching in between to get my left shoulder fully loose.

Now the uncomfortable part comes. We do sets with the same amount of weight that I could only do six repetitions with before but this time my trainer assists me after I am not able to push up the weight anymore with my own strength. I struggle hard against the weight and he helps me just barely enough to allow the bar to raise slowly back up to the top. After doing this four or five times we do the reverse, he pulls the weight up for me up to the top and then I try my hardest to keep the weight up as it falls back down to my chest. When the bar gets to my chest he pulls it back up and I push my hardest against it as it falls again down to my chest.

Please understand that my muscles were maxed out after the first six pushes up towards the ceiling and my trainer just “helped” me do another six on top of that, I’m working at least twice as hard as I ever could if I were working out on my own. This is a huge struggle for my body and it’s extremely hard work, it’s an uncomfortable place to be.

Without this discomfort and effort I’d never see the gains that I want to in my strength and weight. So much of life is this way, to gain what’s valuable we have to be willing to put ourselves out there and pay a price. As the old saying goes: “No pain, no gain” right? Very few good things in life are free, things that we can just walk up and take without any kind of sacrifice.

So let me ask you this: how often are you uncomfortable with your tennis? Are you stuck in a rut with your practice sessions? Have you been doing the same drills and hitting with the same people month after month or year after year? Maybe you don’t even have practice sessions per say, but rather get togethers with your tennis pals to hit balls around and enjoy each others company.

Is there anything wrong with being comfortable or just playing tennis to have fun and enjoy yourself? No of course not, I love watching recreational players play simply for the fun of it. Everybody has different goals and aspirations on the tennis court and if yours is simply to have a good time and get a bit of exercise then that’s great.

If you’re STILL reading this blog article, however, then I’m positive that you don’t fit into that group of players. You want to play the best possible tennis that your body and mind can allow for don’t you? In that case learn to enjoy getting out of your comfort zone on the tennis court both in practice and in competition. Are your overheads the weakest part of your game? Have somebody hit lobs to you until you make 50 of them to each side of the court. Are you scared to sign up for that USTA tournament at your local tennis club because every time you’ve played on you get terribly nervous and choke? Go sign up for it! Do you hate playing certain types of players on the court? Go find some of them at get their phone numbers, start hitting with them on a regular basis. Find what challenges your game technically and mentally the most and then put yourself right smack dab in the middle of it!

If you want to continue growing as a player in this great game you have to put yourself outside of your comfort zone, it’s the only way that you’ll continue to advance at a regular pace. Another great way of doing this is to find a “trainer” for your tennis game, a certified tennis professional. Just as my physical trainer pushes my body way farther than I ever could myself a tennis pro can push your technique, mental game, and strategy to the max much easier than you could yourself. After a while what used to be uncomfortable for you will become routine and no big deal, then go out and find more things to work on!

Now get out and find what makes you uncomfortable! Work on those things and your game will improve.

Excuses: Just Say No

What a crippling habit making excuses can be, essentially what they are is a “get out of jail free” card for not performing in such a way that we know is possible if we just put our minds to it. I’d like to take a few minutes to outline some of the most common excuses that I hear on the tennis court. Along the way I will hopefully also encourage you to start using less of them and empower you to increase the level of your game at the same time.

Around two years ago I actually started keeping track of all the excuses that I hear on and off the tennis court that people give regarding a match, stroke, or ability to execute something tennis specific. I had an idea to create a funny/satirical gift book with cartoon drawings illustrating each tennis excuse taking place with the player giving their cop-out of choice. Once I started listening for them specifically it really amazed me how often excuses were used during the course of just an hour of play and my list quickly grew. I put that project on the wayside, however by the time I stopped working on it I had three main categories of excuses and over 80 of them that I had recorded.

Alright, without further adieu here’s my top 3 excuses:

1. “The shot was was too easy.”

Wow do I hate this excuse and if you’ve used it before I apologize but come on, really? I understand the premise perfectly well but it’s just not legitimate. What this comes down to is focus people, the easier the shot the less excuse there should be to miss it. If you commonly find yourself setting up a long point and finally getting to the pay off where you have the open court and an easy ball only to dump it on a regular basis into the net it’s time you start buckling down and really focusing on only two things: the ball and your target. That’s it. Do not allow any worries or negative thoughts into your head like “what if I miss this! I’ll look like an idiot!”. Conversely don’t take this easy shot too lightly either and lose concentration by saying “Yes, I’ve got them!” only to look away from the ball and shank it off your frame.

2. “You jinxed me!”

In my teaching I hear this one constantly and it drives me crazy as well. The scenario typically goes somewhere along these lines: Player hits great shot or is participating in a good rally. Pro or other player compliments said player on their accomplishment. Player misses badly on the very next shot and proclaims “Thanks a lot! You jinxed me!”. Once again this comes down to concentration and focus. Perhaps it’s human nature to hear a compliment and immediately think “Wow I’m really doing it, don’t screw up now!” but you have to start building up your tolerance for outside distractions and mental weakness. Next time somebody compliments you on a great shot or rally instead of expecting the worse say to yourself “Darn right! I’m going to keep it up!” and focus on continuing your excellence as long as possible rather than assuming something bad is around the corner. Basically whatever we dwell on is going to have a strong possibility of actually occurring, what do you allow your mind to dwell on?

3. “I didn’t think it was coming over” or “I didn’t think it was going in”.

Again low focus and concentration. Make a commitment to yourself every time that you step onto the practice or competitive court that you will hustle 100% for every ball. Did I say hustle after every ball that you “think” will be going in play? No, I didn’t. Hustle after every single ball no matter what the circumstance. One of my coaches during my competitive career used to always say “There are no subjective decisions” when it came to going for a tennis ball. When one of my teammates or myself would stand and watch a ball travel out by 6 inches without having moved for it he would become livid. Seem a little harsh? After all, the ball was actually out, we had won the point! But what if we were wrong?

I know that just like myself you’ve literally stood there and watched as a ball landed on the line that you had assumed was going out or was going to hit the net, often times these are balls that we could have easily reached had we not been mentally and physically lazy. So don’t make any subjective decisions on the tennis court, there’s only one response when the tennis ball is hit by your opponent: you WILL move towards the ball. Don’t hesitate or think it over, just move every single time. Not only will you start building better habits but more than likely your reaction time and physical speed will increase as well.

In Conclusion

What do all three of these excuses have in common? They’re mental errors that were made and the player using them has refused to take personal responsibility for them. As long as you continue to let yourself off the hook with these excuses and others like them your game won’t advance as far as it possibly could. Start taking responsibility for your actions and mistakes, your game and mental toughness will be better for it!

Winter Warm Up: Dusting Off Your Tennis

For most of the US the whether is just starting to warm up, and I’m sure all of you are just as excited as I am to get out in the sunshine and play some tennis again! Few things are more satisfying to me than getting outside to participate in some kind of physical activity, especially when it’s competitive in nature.

For a lot of people outdoor tennis is all that’s available to them, or maybe they’re just not able to afford the pricey indoor courts at a local club during the colder moths of the year. Either way it’s very often challenging to get back into the swing of things after a long period away from the game. Today I’m going to write an article covering the four main obstacles you’ll face as well as the best ways to overcome them if you’re just getting ready to get back into tennis after a long winter break.

Physical

Alright, be honest, have you done your best to keep in shape during the off season? If you haven’t don’t feel badly, it’s difficult to stay motivated to work out and stay in optimal shape during the winter. Even if you have made an effort to do so, it’s very difficult to duplicate the dynamic movements and variety of physical skills needed to keep your body in tennis playing shape. So one way or the other you’ll probably have to get yourself back to playing shape quickly. Here’s a few things you can do to get your body ready for hitting the courts.

1. Jump rope. Jumping rope is excellent exercise and will work several different areas essential to your tennis play at the same time including: calves, ankles, eye-hand coordination, and cardiovascular endurance.

2. Agility ladder. I love the agility ladder, we have three of them here at the club and I often use more than one at a time when doing cardio tennis drills. If you’re not familiar with this product check out this video showing some sample drills: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTN7MPFNZ00&feature=related

3. Cross training. By playing other sports you can target different skills relevant to tennis and keep them sharp. My personal favorites are basketball, racket ball, paddle tennis, and badminton. All of those sports have strong conditioning elements as well as footwork/agility and hand-eye coordination.

Technical

Fully expect that after a long break from the courts your technique is just not going to be what it was before. Tennis is a very complicated sport, made up of countless motions and motor skills. Without regular practice our feel, timing, creation time, and muscle memory all suffer.

Unfortunately the only really good way to combat this is just to get back out onto the courts again as soon as possible, and as often as possible once you do get going. When you do get out there and start to hit make sure that your practice time is well spent and focused. Give yourself specific targets to aim for, and a specific goal to obtain for each stroke that you drill. For example, rally cross court forehands with your practice partner until you’ve both hit 20 of them inside the singles court and past the service line. This kind of purposeful repetition will get your game back to feeling normal much more quickly than just “hitting around” without any focus.

If you have the ability to, go take a group or private lesson from a certified tennis professional. They’ll give you practice in a more controlled environment, and can suggest ideas to help improve your technique and strategy as well.

Mental

In my opinion it’s very important that in general you don’t come back to the court with unreasonable expectations. Often times I have private lessons with players who have taken several weeks or even months off without hitting at all who are annoyed and even angry at their performance on the court. I’m not saying that you should expect the worst, and go out with a negative attitude, hitting the net with ground strokes and thinking “see! I knew I’d be no good!”. But on the other hand you must realize that you simply won’t perform at 100% your first time out after a long break, and most likely not for several other practice sessions after your first one either.

One of my favorite things to talk about mentally is just the simple ability to appreciate being on a tennis court in general. You’re outside for the first time this year, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the air is fresh. You get to run around outside and participate in a sport that you love! Rather than set your focus on performance and how good or bad you feel your first few times out keep in mind how great it is just to be there instead. Eventually I want you to shift your focus over to your performance, but only after you’ve given yourself ample time to get comfortable on the court again.

Equipment

This one is kind of a no brain-er, but I wanted to make sure I covered it quickly. If your racket has been sitting in the garage or (God forbid) in the trunk of your car for five months it should definitely be re-strung. Tennis string naturally loses it’s tension and feel over time, make sure that before you head out and play for the first time some fresh string is put in. If you have more than one racket get them all done at once so that if one breaks two months from now you’re all set.

Other equipment to check includes: grip, sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, water bottle, and shoes!

By following some of the suggestions above I hope that your transition into the outdoor season is smooth and pleasurable.

Is winning the "only thing"?

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “winning isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing”. I must admit that in the past I pretty much subscribed to that sentiment, being a naturally fierce competitor and having taken my tennis career very seriously. After all winning is the point of competition right? Why would you go out to play if you didn’t want to come off the court the victor?

Well I’ve matured over the years since college, and have started to change my attitude towards losing tennis matches, or paddle matches, or even at paper/scissors/rock.

Losing: better get used to it

We’re going to go ahead and get the biggest thing out of the way first here. Losing is just a natural part of competition, if somebody comes out a winner, then clearly there must be a loser as well. I don’t care how good you are, or what it is you’re the best at, eventually you’re going to lose. Please don’t misunderstand my point here, I’m not stating this to be negative or pessimistic in the least, I’m simply stating the realities of participating in a competitive sport. The sooner you accept this the better. Why? Because it gives you permission to play freely on the court, it relieves pressure when you no longer feel that if you lose you’re a bad person because it should never happen to you.

Does this mean that you should be satisfied and OK with losing a tennis match? No, certainly not, you should never be satisfied with a loss. The best players in the world continue to win because they absolutely hate to lose, and fight with everything they have to keep it from happening. But wait, didn’t I just get done telling you to get used to losing?

This is the most difficult part of being involved in anything competitive and striving for excellence, the balancing out of these two ideas. Once you accept that losing is just the way things go for you improvements will cease, after all why try if you just lose all the time? After a short while with this attitude you will begin to actually expect a loss every time you walk out on the court, and this attitude rarely results in a win. If you don’t feel like you should ever lose and it’s just unacceptable, when (not if) you do lose your attitude and emotions will be terribly negative, and you’ll probably learn nothing from the experience at all, you’ll just walk away saying “he got lucky” or make a long list of excuses.

So learn to balance these things in your head, the earlier you can do this the better. Fight with everything you have both physically and mentally each and every time you step out onto a tennis court to play a competitive match, leave everything on the court knowing that it’s always possible to come away the victor. On the other hand when the losses do come take it in stride, understand that it’s just part of the process and do your best to learn as much as possible from the experience. Putting your finger on a specific reason why you lost will give you something to work on the next time you hit the practice court.

Learning how to be a winner

Everybody knows at least one person in their club, community, or general tennis circle that just seems to win more than everybody else. When they do lose it’s generally a pretty big deal, and whoever caused them to fall did something exceptional, at least in the eyes of everybody else who usually loses to this player. It’s important to understand that this isn’t an accident, when somebody creates a pattern of winning over and over it’s because they’re a great competitor, they’ve learned how to win. Don’t put it in your head that you always lose to this player because “they’re just better” than you are. Clearly if you don’t ever beat them then they are, however don’t think that just because you haven’t beaten them before it means you can’t pay close attention to their tendencies, weaknesses, and strengths to create a battle plan.

Each time you lose you should be paying close attention to what’s happening all around you, both on your side of the net and the other. There are many specific reasons why you’re not ahead at any given point in time, learning to identify them is the first step to winning more matches. If you figure the reason out but you don’t have the skills or abilities to counter the cause of you being behind then make sure this is the first thing you work on improving next time you go out to practice. This process of self awareness, analysis, and subsequent work on your weaknesses is how you can build yourself up and learn to be a winning tennis player.

Fuel Your Motivation

Lastly, when you do lose, not only should you be taking away technical and strategical elements to work on and improve, but you should be taking that healthy disappointment of not coming out on top and funneling it right into your practice sessions. Let that sour taste in your mouth motivate you and use it to ramp up your effort level and focus. When you lose a match don’t dwell on the fact that you lost, but rather quickly shift your focus to what you’re going to do that will cause you to win next time, and then take that fire in your belly out on the court and give it everything you’ve got.

Lots of great things can come from losing if you’re just paying attention and have a healthy attitude about it. Don’t be satisfied with it, let it drive you and motivate you, then get out and work on improving your game!

Tennis Strategy: Pay Attention!

By nature I typically approach my teaching very technically, I enjoy analyzing technique and building a solid stroke for my students one correction at a time. That’s all well and good, but there comes a time where technique will only get you so far. Yes of course without good technique hitting effective shots is much more difficult, if not impossible depending on exactly what shot we’re talking about. However, the ways in which you specifically use your technique during points can be far more important than how you actually swing at the ball in terms of actually winning or losing a tennis match. At the club level we see this play out all the time as the scrappy player with terrible technique beats a much “better” opponent than himself.

Before I get into how best to build a strategy and play smart tennis I’m going to give an example of how this looks when done poorly. This instance happened during a lesson I taught recently, and is a great example of a tennis player just not paying attention to whats going on across the net from them.

Not Paying Attention

I typically see this student 6 or 7 times per month, and his strokes have improved a great deal since we started working together about 6 months ago. Currently he’s playing at around a 3.5 level, maybe a lesser 4.0 on a good day. I’ve recently been taking note of his point play when I see him competing against other members, and decided to give him a little test during our lesson.

After doing our typical warm up and several ground stroke rally drills I told him we would be playing a baseline game up to 10 points. We both started in the middle of the baseline, I fed him a ball right down the middle of the court, and then we played each point out. It’s no secret to anybody that I like my forehand better than my backhand, but today I switched things up to make a point. I made up my mind before the first point was even played that I would take every backhand and hit it very aggressively cross court to my students backhand side. On my forehand side I would open my racket face up, and push a high floating slice right to the middle of the court.

We played out a whole game with me sticking to this strategy, attacking on every backhand to the same place, and not hitting one forehand with any strength or depth what so ever, just pushing it back in play.

I won the game 10-3. Over and over he fed me backhands which I crushed over to his weaker side. Over and over I floated my forehands harmlessly to the center of the court. When it was all said and done I probably had hit about 75% backhands or so, and needless to say we had a long talk after the game was over.

Paying Attention

This player lost a game to me badly simply because he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. In our talk after the game I asked him why he had lost. His first answer was “I just made too many mistakes!”. Well yes, he did make some technical errors during the game resulting in unforced errors, however that was definitely not the biggest problem here. Not even close. I asked him what his strategy was. “Well I was trying to hit it to your backhand, it’s your weaker side.” Well usually it is, he was correct. However in the past 13 points he had failed to notice a complete reversal in my baseline game, that’s three games worth of points!

So often players are so caught up in their own game and the most important information during a match completely passes them by. What you should be watching for is common sense and may be shrugged off as obvious by many readers, but let me encourage you to make a mental note of these things and actively search for them next time you play competitively. The more serious you take this topic the better of a competitor you’ll become.

Weaknesses

If you’re playing below a 4.5 level, your opponent will most likely have at least one part of his or her game that is significantly weaker than whatever their strength is. Very rarely do club level tennis players have a completely even game in terms of competence in every type of stroke and skill. Your job is to find this area or areas as early as possible, often times this can be done in the warm up before the match even starts. Do they avoid their forehand or backhand during baseline rallies? Do they skip warming up their volleys or overheads? Do they miss a certain shot more than others or seem uncomfortable performing a certain type of stroke? Once you find out what their weakness is, exploit it as early and as often as possible, and keep going to the well until either they lose the match or adapt and adjust.

Strengths

Equally as important as noticing weaknesses is becoming aware of what the strengths in their game are. These are parts of their game that you should try to avoid as much as possible, unless you’re hitting there in order to set up a chance to hit at their weakness more easily. Seems obvious I know, but I can’t even begin to count the amount of approach shots I see hit from the middle of the court to an opponents stronger side which come back as passing shots. Find out what your opponent prefers, and make sure they get to use it as little as possible.

Patterns and Tendencies

The vast majority of players have a certain direction they prefer to hit most of their shots, like a forehand cross court, a backhand volley angled sharply, or an overhead hit inside out. Pay very, very close attention to this so that you can start anticipating your opponents shots as early as possible, and begin reading their intent with each shot. Also many players have certain combinations of shots that they enjoy hitting, like an approach shot down the line and then a volley cross court, or a cross court forehand followed by an inside out forehand etc. Your job is to notice these targets and patterns as quickly as possible so that you can start to cover the court more effectively and get more comfortable on the court.

Put it All Together

Using all of the information gathered in the areas above you can start to put together a strategy to beat your opponent, one that’s actually appropriate and effective! Individually each of these ideas is quite simple in concept, but so few players are truly good at putting them all together to defeat another player. So start paying closer attention on the tennis court to whats happening across the net, you’ll win more matches!

The Change We Need? Don’t be Insane

I’m not sure where this quote originated from, or even what the exact wording is, but I’ve heard it several times:

“Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.”

I’m sure this isn’t anywhere near a clinical definition of the word, but you can certainly see the point of the original author. How can you think your results will be any different if the process you follow is the same?

Unfortunately this is often the attitude many tennis players take regarding their games, without really knowing it or thinking about it. These players fall into two main categories, and I’d like to spend a few minutes writing about one of them. These players get trapped doing the same thing again and again and again, stalling their improvement and sticking themselves in a rut. Hopefully reading about this type of player will motivate you to work on your own game!

Old Dogs and Old Tricks

I used to deal with these types of players all the time in my lessons, however after being at my current club long enough to build a reputation for my style of teaching I see them less and less. These players typically are somewhere around middle aged, and have been playing tennis for at least a couple years, often times a decade or two. When I first graduated from college and started teaching, the “Old Dogs” would drive me absolutely crazy. Why? I couldn’t believe that an active tennis player would sign up for a private or group lesson, and then tell me that they didn’t want to change their strokes. What?? Isn’t that the point of getting instruction? To learn new information, and then apply it to their own games in order to improve? How can you possibly improve without making a change anyway?

Often times the Old Dogs will tell me: “I don’t want to mess up my game trying new stuff, I just want to get better at what I already do.” *sigh* Is it possible to improve your game by getting better at what you already do? Well sure, technically it is, but are you going to jump to completely new levels of play? No, you won’t, not unless big changes are made to your game. There are large fundamental reasons why one player is at a 3.5 level, and another one at 5.0. You can’t take 3.5 level technique and skills, and make them successful at a 5.0 level of play, changes must be made in order to move from one level to the next. Sometimes those changes are substantial, and they may feel uncomfortable at first, but without making them at some point you will get stuck where you are.

One Step Back, Two Steps Forwards

You probably wouldn’t be reading this blog unless you were pretty serious about truly improving your game, the “jump to another level of play” type of improvement. So let me encourage you heartily: have long term vision for your tennis game! Fully expect that when you make changes in your game to conform more closely to high level players thing won’t feel comfortable right away. In fact I’d recommend expecting that it won’t feel comfortable at all for several weeks depending on exactly what the change is, how different it is compared to what you were doing before, and how natural of an athlete you are. Just because it “feels wrong” to you initially doesn’t mean it isn’t technically correct. Trust the person who’s instructing you, assuming that they have the credentials and experience to make them worthy of your trust. Take what they say and go with it completely, commit to the change and give it your full effort. Only then will you get the full potential out of your lesson and out of yourself as a player.

So if you’re truly serious about improving your tennis game, don’t be insane! Find out what changes you need to make, and get working as soon as possible. You can do it.