3 UNSPOKEN SECRETS THE PROS WON'T TELL YOU ABOUT

      


If you've ever been lucky enough to attend a professional tennis tournament and watched the pros playing up close and personal you've probably marveled at how good they are. 

You can't help but be impressed with the effortless way they generate power and the degree they throw themselves into every rally is hugely impressive.

Like most people you probably left the tournament hugely impressed by what you just witnessed. 

I've been around players like those for many years and I can tell you that the pros are different from us, at least in the way they approach their tennis.

Here are some of the things I have observed about our top players.


1.    GET YOUR S#@$ TOGETHER 

The pros are completely dedicated to performing at their best for every match. That involves everything from the food they consume to how they schedule their days.

Eating the correct diet is an important 
ingredient of a players day

The days, weeks, and months, of a top tennis player's life are completely dedicated to scheduling their tournaments and their practice sessions. For the top players, tennis comes first, and other parts of their "life" are squeezed into the gaps of what's left of their day.

The mention of practice for most people means on-court time. For professional tennis players' "practice" not only includes on-court work but also visits to the physio, stretching, and work in the gym. 

The best players in the world have meticulous warm-up and warm-down routines they adhere to daily. Consider whether you personally could maintain this schedule every day.


2.     LEARN TO DEAL WITH LOSING

I was listening online to the great Indian tennis player Leander Paes several days ago. Now retired, he mentioned during his online talk that throughout his career he had lost 74.4% of his matches. 

The point Leander was trying to make was that even with all the success he enjoyed during his playing days, in tennis, you lose a lot. It's not like that in many other sports.

Just look at what happens at a normal tennis tournament. More than 64 players (124 players in a Grand Slam main draw) begin the event, but only one player can finish the tournament without being beaten. Every other player in the draw experiences failure.

What the pros do well is put the losses into a "melting pot" that helps them rationalize the "failures". 

Top tennis players are extremely resilient and can take the inevitable losses and use them to channel ways of improving, to gain more experience, and point them in a better direction. 


3.    BE FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND

I can't stress enough how important it is to make your game fundamentally sound. It needs to be technically sound so that you can withstand the many years of playing and practicing. Any faults in your technique will result in career-damaging injuries.

A coach can install good fundamentals 
to help with your development

Your game also needs to be biomechanically correct so that you can create easy power without needing to use too much effort to do so.  

Become strategically smart so that you can read and react to your opponent's game. If you have ever played against a top player you know that you leave the court feeling like you were always under pressure on every ball! This is because the top players quickly understand your game and adapt accordingly!

Time spent in the gym will ensure a body that can
withstand the rigors of professional tennis

The pros have the luxury of being around the best coaches who can help them with their techniques and their match strategy. If you aspire to reach the top, you will need to get this part of your development in order also.



 

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 handle (grips); it's having complete control
Read more

BUILD YOUR TENNIS ON A DEFENSIVE FOUNDATION

Image
  You could be mistaken for thinking tennis is all about aggression. At the top level, players are pounding the ball at every opportunity. You'd be surprised then if you learned that my goal when coaching advanced players is to first have them develop a defensive mental foundation.   I'm not suggesting that I teach players to send up continuous lobs during the rally or for them to stand at the back fence to retrieve balls. My goal with advanced players is to change the internal mental dialogue all players experince before every stroke.  A PLAYERS INTERNAL DIALOG BEFORE SHOTS Every player has a continuous mental dialogue inside their head when they play a point.  "How aggressive should I be on this ball?", "Is this the ball to change direction down the line?" etc. The internal dialogue inside our heads drives our decision making There's nothing wrong with this type of internal dialogue, but there are better questions to ask yourself before each shot. So,
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