CURE MISTAKES




MISTAKES IN TRAINING

During matches, all players face repercussions for their errors from the first point. There's no "play it again" or "continue the rally" in real match-play so don't allow for it into your practice session.

Players must face repercussions for any mistakes they make in practice, otherwise, they'll get lazy. I detest when players want to continue playing if the ball goes a little out during practice drills or points. Their reasoning is that continuing the rally or the point makes for a better practice. That's the wrong way to look at it.

An important goal of any practice session should also be to create a stronger mentality for upcoming matches. That means adding pressure, decision-making, and unpredictability to your sessions. Look for any way you can to achieve this, it's really important!

Reproducing the mentality of real match-play
during practice sessions is one of the most
important ingredients of my training  


I like to play lots of points during practice. I'll often teach a specific skill or strategy and then subject that skill to the pressure of points. By switching to points quickly after teaching anything I'm adding those important elements into the mix such as point construction, unpredictability, and decision-making. I'm almost inviting mistakes to enter the practice session so that the players experience likely areas the technique or strategy could break down and learn how to deal with them.

Another large component of my practice sessions involves patterns. Players who understand how, why, and where to hit the ball will be better prepared than players who decide on their shot selection just before the ball arrives. It makes sense that players who are mentally prepared ahead of time will make better choices and therefore fewer errors than those who are less prepared.
A player who works from established patterns during matches will be better prepared mentally and therefore less prone to errors.



MISTAKES IN MATCHES

Mistakes in matches should have, as much as possible, been dealt with in the practice sessions in the weeks before the tournament. 

Coaches need to take full responsibility for any mistakes that occur in matches and for that matter, for the match result as well. Ultimately, accepting responsibility will force a change in the methodology of your practice sessions. 

Match-play is full of information. Watching your players compete will show you the direction your teaching needs to take and will also help you continue to develop as a coach.

Apart from changing the methodology of your sessions to include more pressure, decision-making, and unpredictability, there are other ways to help a player with their errors.

A fit player makes good decisions and stays in the fight longer! Nothing eats away at your discipline as much as being tired in a match. It will affect your concentration, motivation, and your self-belief.

Nothing breaks down your game and your
resolve more than fatigue. Being in great
shape is like your "protective armor"


Over the past few decades, the importance of being in great shape and able to withstand the heavy demands tennis places on the body has become enormous. There is no substitute for being in great shape for your matches.

Players who go into matches with a strategy will do a lot better than those without a plan. Without a plan players are fine until they are under pressure in a match, then things will go from bad to worse. 

I like to give my players a small piece of paper with 2-3 instructions for the match. The instructions will include a specific strategy to use against our opponent and sometimes a work-on for the match concerning a new technique or pattern.

After the match, we always review the piece of paper and talk about the player's performance based on the instructions.  


LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

Players and coaches waste so much valuable information within live match play. Real learning, the type that makes you better for future tournaments, comes from your analysis of previous matches.

How accurate you are at analysing your results will correlate to how long you've been doing it. The more time and effort you put into match analysis the better and more accurate you will become. There's also the skill of taking problems to the practice court and doing a good job of strengthening the problems you saw earlier.

Mistakes don't have to wreck your results. They can be mostly eliminated with good analysis and targeted practice

By now you should be seeing that mistakes should be treated holistically. Mistakes can be related to mental, technical, or strategic issues, but in each case, through a process of observation, analysis, and correction they can be reduced.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KEYS TO THE TWO-HANDED BACKHAND

Image
This article aims to provide you with 5 ingredients to help simplify the  two-hander and give you more control and versatility.       1. THE BOTTOM HAND The bottom hand on the grip controls the length of your contact zone.  The further on top the knuckles of the bottom hand are positioned, the longer your contact zone. The further around to the front of the grip the knuckles of the bottom hand are positioned, the shorter the contact zone will be. The Djokovic bottom hand is positioned almost on  top of the handle.  This would indicate that he intends  to hit down the line.   Positioning the knuckles of your bottom hand on top of the handle makes it a lot easier to hit your down-the-line shots, while placing the bottom hand in the front of the handle makes it easier to hit extreme cross-court angles. Y ou  need to play your backhand in various grip positions on the handle. The important thing is not the position of your hands on the...
Read more

CAN YOU PLAY YOUR BEST TENNIS AT 3AM?

Image
Several years ago I was on a practice court with Tamarine Tanasugarn. She was part of a team that had traveled with me overseas to compete. It was 7am and everyone was taking time to adjust to the unfamiliar conditions. Everyone except Tamarine that is! This was our first practice session after the long flight. Tamarine was striking the ball as cleanly as ever.   Her timing was perfect from the first ball until the last. What created her ability to adapt so well to the conditions and thrive? Later Paradorn Srichaphan, who reached a career high of #9 ATP had the same adaptability. I began to ask myself what this quality was and more importantly whether I could actually teach it to my students on-court. I began to formulate what I called 'The 3am Theory', the ability to play your best tennis at anytime, anywhere, on any surface, any, any… even at 3am in the morning.   Imagine you were woken from a sound sleep at 3am and asked to play a tie-break against a tough ...
Read more

WRITING A PROPOSAL FOR TENNIS SPONSORSHIP

Image
When tennis players begin to compete internationally the expenses involved in traveling overseas to events such as airfares, accommodation and food are quite high and put a significant strain on most family budgets. Players and their parents often try to off-set some of this financial burden by looking for sponsorship.  Here are some important points to consider when approaching companies or individuals for tennis sponsorship. It's important to put yourself in the shoes of the head marketing person of a big company. He/she are busy and any proposal you develop should be clear in what you want to happen . Don't presume that they know what you want. You need to tell them in a clear and precise way. A sponsorship proposal that is vague and lacks a clear description of what you want and how you will use the sponsorship will not send the right message to a busy Marketing Manager The head of marketing has the responsibility of planning a yearly marketing campaigne that f...
Read more