Tennis Strategies Made Simple

Often times, developing players step on the court before a tennis match and have no idea what they want to accomplish in terms od strategy. The reality is that you can be the best ball striker in your division but if you have no idea how to use your weapons you will lose. A tennis player without strategy is no different than a warrior without strategy. Having the best equipment and training is not always sufficient. A player must know how to use his weapons to the most effect in order to be successful. Now, without going into great detail and creating a road map for every single point, the best strategy in tennis can be summarized as follows:

1) hit it away from your opponent; and

2), if you must hit it to your opponent, do so in such a way that s/he cannot hurt you: high, low (slice), hard or with a lot of spin. The objective being to draw a response that exposes the opponent's open court. 

Tennis is often times compared to chess in terms of formulating a gameplan. Unfortunately, tennis players must make decisions on the spot and react to what the opponent is throwing their way. As a result, it is often important to view the opponent's side of the court as a chess-board; squares of 4ftx4ft on the other side of the net.

In trying to implement the first prong of the strategy, vizualize one of those squares "light up" whenever you manage to hit it. After that, try to hit a square that's as far away from your first target and yet still a relativey safe shot. As you get better, you will be able to hit targets that are further and further apart. If you're really good, you will be successful in making the opponent move laterally, forwards and backwards, as well as diagonally. A moving opponent is more prone to break down - even with his/her weapon. Lack of oxygen, elevated heart rate, fatigued legs, core and arms (consequences of having to keep covering the open court) will force the opponent to go for riskier shots thereby generating more unforced errors. 

One of the best drills to implement would be the "figure 8" (or "envelope") drill where one person hits down the line and the other hits cross court. Try practicing 1-2 warm-up points and then play baseline games while doing this drill. This drill will teach you not only how to move, but also how to adjust to your opponent's shot. Furthermore, because everyone knows where everyone else is going, you are forced to hit a variety of shots in order to prevent your opponent from hurting you (prong #2 of our basic strategy). In addition, you will become much more adept at reading body language (i.e., seeing how your opponent sets up in order to hit down the line versus how s/he sets up while hitting cross-court). To spice things up, throw in a serve: if the returner returns the first shot cross-court, the server is the down-the-line player; conversely, if the returner returns down the line, the server is on the cross-court for that point. Also, you can set up certain "zones" (with tape or plastic lines or cones) where the player cannot hit (e.g. middle of the court) or risk losing the point and/or also zones where the player can hit and win the point automatically (e.g. deep corners). 

We will be revisiting the figure 8 drill in future articles. 

Comments

[CAtennis]

Figure 8 game is great, but I keep losing?

There are a couple of prerequisites one needs in order to be successful at the figure 8 game (which is a microcosm of winning in tennis).

A) willingness to run for every ball. Since you know where every ball is going, there is no excuse to not reach every shot.

B) willingness to outlast your opponent mentally. Again, with two world class players, it should be very tough to hit winners- therefore, you strategy should be a shift from trying to hit winners but to mentally find their breaking point. Is it the 5th ball or is it the 13th ball?

C) Feel for the ball. Just because you are changing direction of the ball does not justify hitting harder and closer to the lines. A stable player will only assume enough risk to complete the shot effectively and nothing more. Again, the object is not to hit a winner, it is to make your opponent move. The moment someone sees a down-the-line opening, one tends to think extra juice instead of moving the opponent.

Playing this game with the idealism of "playing big" defeats the purpose of the game. If you are the one hitting line shots, what type of shots can you hit that will give them enough trouble and buy you enough time to cover the crosscourt? However, if you get two world class players together, I would argue the crosscourt player should always win. But if a world class player is the down-the-line player versus a good player who is the crosscourt player- I will take the world class player everytime despite the disadvantages of court geometry. The world class player will hit the ball in a way that is uncomfortable for the good player and wear on them mentally with their relentless consistency.

[CAtennis]

To keep things interesting, try putting targets that the players can hit during their figure 8 game. For example, use athletic tape to mark 3ftx3ft boxes deep in the corner (for the down the line player) or somewhat further inside the baseline (for the cross-court player). This should ensure that both players are pressing the opponent in uncomfortable positions and that they are both aiming away from the middle. The object of the game could be that the first player to hit his/her target 2 (or 3, 4 times) wins the point automatically. Additional variations include games where the down the line player wins the point automatically if s/he manages to hit 5 (or more) forehands from the backhand side. This punishes the cross court player for hitting too many balls in the middle of the court. Lastly, to ensure that the down the line player doesn't hit too close to the net (skimming the top thereof) - particularly on the backhand - the player can insert a broomstick or a 5ft PVC pipe in the net (perhaps with a cone, can of balls or broken tennis ball - for visibility) about 1 foot from the sideline over which the down the line player must or should hit. Again, the object of these games is too keep things exciting and practice with a purpose.