HOW I TRAIN PLAYERS FOR PRESSURE: Why 95% of Practice Sessions Build Fragile Players
TRAINING FOR PRESSURE: Why 95% of Practice Sessions Build Fragile Players By Paul Dale | The 3AM Method Most coaches treat stress like a disease to be avoided. They're accidentally building players who collapse in crucial moments of matches. You've seen it countless times: A player dominates in practice, hits every ball cleanly, executes perfect technique... then steps into a tournament and, during those big moments, they fail to deliver. Everything seems to leave them, their decision-making, their self-belief and their survival instincts. Points that should be routine become challenges. Here's what 50 years of coaching has taught me: Stress and its related fallout could be the single biggest factor in poor performance in tennis. But here's the real question that should keep every coach awake at night: What are we actually doing in our practice sessions to prepare players for the stress that will inevitably overwhelm them in competition? The answer, for 95% of coa...