Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

" Most practice sessions prior to competition  often  revolve around  perfecting strokes  and gaining confidence." The biggest misconception among players and their coaches is that practice sessions should create comfort. Most practice sessions prior to competition often revolve around perfecting strokes and gaining confidence. However, relying on comfortable practice conditions and seeking to develop confidence during practice sessions will later hinder performance in real match play. In this article, we will explore the significance of making practice uncomfortable and focusing on mental toughness, decision-making, and adapting to unpredictable situations to achieve success on the match court. The Illusion of Comfort: Many advanced players approach practice sessions with the goal of making their strokes feel good and comfortable. They believe that by grooving their strokes in ideal conditions, they will automatically transfer that confidence into match play. Unfor...

Within a match, winning a point can be achieved in two ways: hitting a winner or capitalising on your opponent's errors. While hitting winners may give you an immediate sense of satisfaction, strategically drawing errors from your opponent can greatly impact the match.  1. The Psychology of Errors: When your opponent makes an error, it not only adds a point to your score but also creates a sense of frustration and self-doubt in their mind. You can disrupt their rhythm and confidence by consistently putting pressure on them and forcing them into making shot-selection mistakes or rushing them into technical errors. 2. Building Pressure: Drawing errors from your opponent requires you to analyse their game and give them the speed, width, height and placement they least enjoy.  Combining these factors means you constantly force your opponent to make difficult decisions and never allow them to feel comfortable. When building pressure in a match, the ultimate goal is t...

If you're an advanced competitive player, you must constantly seek an advantage, continually improving your game. Just one strategy or technical change can make all the difference to your results. One area to work on is your shot selection, When, why and where to hit the ball. Great shot selection can compensate for a lack of power and help you attack and defend the point better. Many players focus primarily on two basic targets: hitting the ball wide to the baseline corners during ground-stroke rallies and serving wide or "big" down the "T." However, a third target often goes unnoticed and can be a game-changer – the "body target." There are significant benefits when you target the body and adding this dimension to your game can make you a more versatile and unpredictable player, The Body Target: A Game-Changing Strategy Hitting the ball wide to your opponent's baseline forehand and backhand corners is a well-established tactic. It forces your opp...

Many coaches believe that all points are the same, but in reality, there are normal and "Big" points. Your ability to distinguish normal points from the big points and take the necessary steps to win the big points more often than your opponent makes you much tougher to beat. The significance of a point can vary depending on the context of the game, match or set. For example, a point at 40-15 in a game may be less crucial than a deuce point, which can determine the outcome of a game. This ability to understand what is "normal" and what are Big points is called good Game Management. A player who understands Game management constantly adapts their shot selection choices throughout the match. Game Management has nothing to do with age, but everything to do with maturity Game Management also involves the score, match stage and a point's psychological impact on the opponent. If you're facing a Break Point near the end of a set, serving an ace to bring the score b...

To improve your game, you must begin to shift from reacting emotionally and use your brain more. The emotional realm is when you play points with doubt, a lack of confidence, fear, and even anger, and you are often overcome with insecurity and frustration. Sound familiar? Even at the top level, tennis players deal with many negative emotions that conspire to wreck their game. It's just that the top players can override the negative emotions better, or their more brilliant intellect takes over art practised in crucial times and saves the day by helping them complete the win. But at the lower level, players are overwhelmed by all their negative emotions, which subotage their game. It's not surprising then that tennis, and many other sporting pursuits, can be very frustrating for most and gut-wrenching for others. The continual emotional conflict between what you want to do and what you actually do in reality can result in us having a mental meltdown during the match. When our int...