Few things are more satisfying than an hour on court hitting beautiful baseline shots to your partner. Each ball seems more perfect than the last, and soon you feel ready to take on the world. Then you play a game……and your world comes crashing down around you. What went wrong?
Maybe this is a good time to mention the P word…. Pressure. Anybody can, with a little bit of practice, hit a beautiful shot. Its not rocket science, although some of the videos on YouTube might make you think otherwise. Introduce a little pressure, however, and you’ll be following generations of sportspeople as you watch your performance collapse with all the grace of a sidewalk drunk. Pressure causes the body to tense up, affecting you movement and timing. Suddenly balls are crashing into the net, or sailing long.
Unfortunately, its not just the body that reacts to pressure……the tennis part of our brains has an annoying habit of turning to mush just as we need it the most. We overthink strategy, select the wrong shots, go for too much or too little, become dispirited and generally tie ourselves up in feeble knots of our own making. On a positive note, you’re not alone. All professional players suffer nerves, but the very best are the ones who have learned to deal with it.
Before we go any further, lets add another factor to the equation: the nature of practice itself. We’re on a court with another player who we respect. Their time is just as valuable as ours, and we rightly feel obliged to present them with ‘good’ shots. Go for a winner too often, and we feel bad as the ball rushes past them or buries itself into the net. We apologize and, often as not, resolve not to do that again. Practice, as normally carried out, is a highly regulated affair, with enough conventions to give even the inhabitants of Downton Abbey a headache. We become masters of the medium pace shot back up the center of the court, served up with a complete lack of passion and purpose.
So…..what to do? The messy world of match-play requires a great variety of shots, often taken out of position, played with an underlying tactic in mind. You can’t just turn up your practice routine a couple of notches and focus a bit harder. Winning match-play starts on the practice court, and its all about simulating the game ahead. Here are a few things to think about:
- Select your practice partner carefully – ideally you want somebody who’s also wanting to improve and doesn’t mind getting a little sweaty. But beware of only playing with one person – you need to be exposed to different styles.
- Don’t obsess about long rallies from the baseline: most points are short – less than five shots. Try a routine where the fifth shot in a rally has to be an attempt at a winning shot
- Practice serve and return of serve – the two most important shots. Get a bucket of balls and each serve 20 or 30 shots in a row. Keep track of successful serves and returns. Be careful not to trip on balls lying around.
- Don’t be lazy – focus on good footwork and the correct swing….every shot. A match is no time to be perfecting your technique. Remember that good movement around the court allows you to play a similar stroke each time, leading to consistency.
- Match play is varied, and your practice should be too. If you want to play a drop shot in a match, you’d better practice it beforehand.
- Force yourself to play to a target on the court: having to put the ball in a certain place encourages good footwork and creates pressure.
- Play mini competitions where, say, one player uses topspin for every shot and the other plays slice. Countering a nasty slice with a topspin return is challenging, and very useful in a match.
- When your partner plays a weak shot, don’t be lazy and let it bounce twice before you hit it back: practice moving up the court and hitting with spin and angle.
Do the above and you might notice a difference in your next match. Going for shots under pressure is the hardest thing to do, so give yourself some latitude to fail. And when you make a mistake, try to let it go. If you dial back, you’re giving your opponent license to hit winners and ramp up the pressure on you. Endless tweaks and corrections will drive you mad – if your game sucks, go back to basics. In other words, footwork.
Finally, remember that, at its heart, tennis is just a game, and if it was easy, we would all have moved on long ago. This wonderful sport of ours has enough complexity and challenges to consume a lifetime, so get out there and play!