BECOME A MORE DIFFICULT OPPONENT



,

You may have been looking at competition all wrong. Maybe competition should not only be about throwing the "kitchen sink" at your opponent to try and beat them down.

Even if your strategy leans towards all-out offence: relying on a big serve and a dominating forehand, introducing some subtlety to your game might produce surprising results.

After all, why would you want to play an opponent at full strength? Wouldn't it be better to neutralise their strengths first before playing them? 

While that may seem overly simplistic to most, reducing your opponent's effectiveness is possible and entirely necessary if you want to reach the top. 


STRATEGICALLY SMART

"The first job of any army is to 
make themselves unbeatable first"


You must have a plan before every match that addresses your opponent's strengths and weaknesses; otherwise, you're inviting trouble. Without a plan, every match could be a battle because you could be allowing for the best version of your opponent.

Ideal strategy is about neutralising your opponent's strengths and, at the same time, trying to create havoc with their weaknesses.

Tennis matches should never be about giving your opponent a "fair chance" and competing with them on a level playing field. Find ways to play them from a position of advantage. 

The "8 Opposites" is a system of assessing your opponent's strengths and weaknesses before matches. 

Create a habit of going into matches with a clear plan of what you want to do for each individual opponent. 




MENTALLY RESILIENT

"...to keep your head when all those 
\about you are losing theirs."

Tennis is such a tough game mentally! The pressures on competitive players during matches are immense, and if I were to sum up what is needed to succeed in tennis in one word, it would be Resilience.

The ability to overcome setbacks during matches is crucial to success. It will also make you a much more difficult opponent.

The mental dips you experience in matches are culprits that kill your results.

Resiliency comes from believing that what you are doing during the match will eventually work and that rather than focusing on the setbacks, you remain focused on the processes you have in place, such as your strategy.

The "will to win" has nothing to do with it. Every player starts the match wanting to win. However, during the match, events can occur to weaken your resolve. This can lead to you finding excuses why this is "not my day".

Your mentality is 90% of winning or losing and you need to develop an iron will that is founded on resiliency.



PHYSICALLY PREPARED

"I realised that if I trained harder 
my results improved."

A young player asked Paradorn Srichaphan (former #9 ATP) what propelled him into the top ten in the world. His answer had nothing to do with developing a bigger serve or any new strategy. He answered, "I realised that if I trained harder, my results improved."

Your chances of winning increase when you are stronger, faster, and have greater endurance than your opponent. Your self-confidence will also permeate throughout your game. 

Getting in the best possible shape for your matches is not dependent on talent. Getting in shape is about your commitment and motivation to improve your results.


TECHNICALLY SOUND

"Great technique should act like your armour, 
it should keep you safe under pressure."

.
I spend a lot of time telling people that technique is not as important as we think. I'm trying to pull the tennis world away from the belief that tennis is a closed-skill sport and that if the stroke is perfect, then that will translate into perfect tennis, and that's not going to happen. Technique is one of several pieces that must be present to compete well and win matches.

So, when is technique important?

Any junior wanting to reach the top must have a great technical foundation. Once they have established solid reliable technique, they will be able to adapt their game to each opponent, 

Your technique must be versatile. You must be able to attack and defend the points. Your technique needs to adapt to each opponent's many different game styles. Most importantly, your technique must hold together under pressure.

Great technique should act like armour; it should keep you safe under pressure. That means your technique for various strokes should be your technique, not a technique adopted from a YouTube video just because someone online sold it to you, or a player ranked in the top ten is using it.

The technique you adopt for each stroke should be suited to you and never be "cosmetic": a stroke based on
how it looks. Base your technique on solid fundamentals and let your form evolve naturally. 


Location: Bangkok, Thailand

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