DO THESE 4 KEY THINGS IN PRACTICE TO DOUBLE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS IN MATCHES
It's no secret that if you're looking for ways to improve your results, any improvement in your game will start on the practice court. Any positive change in your game will have to be practiced and worked on for at least several weeks.
But there are some changes you can make that will take less time, and that you will see immediate improvements to the way you are competing in competition.
1. EAT BETWEEN CHANGEOVERS
This first tip may surprise you a bit but it has had a huge effect on many of the players I have trained. I encourage many of my trainees to take snacks during the changeovers.
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| Use the changeover to take in some food so that your blood sugar levels remain stable |
I'm not just referring to snacking at change-overs during matches either, I want players to snack during breaks in practice sessions also. I want them to operate at 100% during practice because I need them focused.
There's a little bit of history to this particular tip which I think is important for me to cover.
Often, some of my trainees used to fade both physically and mentally in practice sessions. It was the mental spaciness in practice that troubled me the most because I knew that if my player was spacing mentally in practice, they would almost certainly be doing it in live matches also.
I also began to notice that many of these particular players (because not all my trainees had this problem), were similar in nature. They were what Indian Ayurvedic medicine calls Vatta's. In the Ayurvedic tradition, there is a system of categorizing people within the context of 3 Dosha's, Vatta, Pitta, and Kapha.
If you're someone with Vatta tendencies, or you are coaching someone like this, I suggest that you begin to carry enough fruit and food with you to last the entire session.
From experience, I have found what you most need is food, and that drinks can't help you much once the mental fogginess begins. You'll need something solid to eat.
Here in Thailand, it's easy to walk out on the street and find Sticky Rice. It's literally on every corner! It's cheap (5 Baht, or about 16 cents) for a small bag. It's easily digested and light, yet still gives you that satisfying feeling of having something in your stomach.
Whatever you decide to take with you to the court it needs to be easy to digest and not too heavy, oily, or sweet.
I recommend that you take an Ayurvedic Dosha test to find out if you are predominantly a Vatta type person.
2. IT'S A MENTAL GAME... TRAIN YOUR MIND!
Any player who trains with me knows the emphasis I place on the mental side of tennis. For me, it's the most important aspect of training a player, even more important than technique.
During practice sessions, you should begin to include more points. Whatever you are working on at the time should include point play. Put everything you do under pressure so that you're priming yourself for the pressure you will experience in matches later.
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Stress is a part of competitive tennis whether we like it or not. Let's include more stress in our practice sessions so that we can learn how to deal with it. |
If your matches don't include stress, you're probably not playing in the right tournaments. Stress is as much a part of competitive tennis as Forehands, Backhands, and Serves, so you need to add lots of practice sessions that have elements of stress present.
Throughout the world, players are training wrong. They're training their strokes in an effort to become more confident. They believe that confidence leads to better results. It's the reason we have so many players competing who are not able to handle the stress of live matches.
if you begin to include stress in your practice sessions you will begin to feel much more comfortable competing. You'll have a definite advantage over your opponents who will be devoting most of their practice time to stroke mechanics.
3. BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT YOU WORK ON
Too many players don't have a specific topic that they're working on during practice. They waste too much time ion grooving their strokes, in the mistaken belief if the stroke feels good, then it will hold up under pressure and you will play well.
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Always have a Macro (long-term) and Micro (short-term) topic to work on |
If you're spending lots of time on your groundstrokes and very little time on the necessary parts of your game you need to change that now!
What are the necessary parts of your game you need to practice more?
- Practice Constructing the Point
When you're involved in a match one of your biggest tasks in a point is to construct opportunities for yourself to win the point. Points don't just get given to you (ok, so sometimes against an easy opponent it happens), they have to be earned.
Practice creating opportunities to win the point so that it becomes natural.
- Practice Decision Making
Let's imagine you're creating lots of opportunities to go on Offense during the point. We still need to have the skill of choosing which ball we will attack, change down the line on, or hit for a winner.
Practice making good decisions on the correct balls during practice sessions so that in matches your shot selection is appropriate for the occasion.
- Perfect Execution
Finishing that final winner in the rally is often the most difficult stroke of the rally. Of course it is because you never practiced it under pressure enough in training sessions!
Include lots of points in your practice and turn those shakey "finish shots" into reliable winners.
Long-term, you need to be always looking at improving something in your game. Develop Macro and Micro training topics so that you are constantly working on things that can help for today and into the future.
4. BE POSITIVE
Don't allow yourself to be undisciplined emotionally in practice because a lack of emotional discipline in practice will seep into your matches. Discipline is a habit, if you practice with the wrong attitude enough times, emotional issues will start to appear in your matches.
So stay aware of where your mind goes during practice sessions. It's easy to clown around or react negatively to something that has happened on the practice court but every reaction has repercussions.
When I was a junior player back in the late 70's the top players I looked up to were Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase. Both of these players were famous for their crazy behavior, and general disrespect for the tennis establishment. Later, John Mcenroe joined these two on courts around the world and tennis was never the same again!
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| Romania's Ilie Nastase was considered the Clown Prince of Tennis in the 1970s. |
But guess what? During this period junior players were throwing racquets and shouting obscenities on the court, just like their idols. It was the thing to do at the time.
My point is, be careful about the way you act in practice. The time to create habits of positivity, determination, and perseverance is on the practice court. Stay mindful.
SUMMARY
Your practice sessions may only need a bit of tweaking to get them to where you're getting the maximum value for your time and effort. These 4 suggestions will make your sessions on-court much more effective and help you to produce the type of results you know you are capable of. Here is something Writer James Clear said
"You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems"
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