Barefoot Tennis

If you've read Christopher McDougall's book "Born To Run" (if not, I strongly recommend that you do), you will understand that humans are literally made to run. That is, our ancestor ran a lot in order to survive (be it after food, away from predators, and as a way to cover distances for various reasons). And, guess, what?! They did not possess the latest shoe designs with air pockets, straps, ankle support, inserts, or other bells and whistles. Their footwear, if they possessed any, was nothing more than a piece of leather which protected the foot from scrapes, blisters or cuts. As a result of this lifestyle, their feet (and, as a result, OUR feet) were shaped to resemble carriage springs (upside-down "U" shape). Accordingly, when people run barefoot, the forefoot tends to strike the ground first which then automatically propels the person to "spring" forward again.

However, due to technological developments (and our sedentary lifestyle) our feet have not only been weakened but our stride has shifted from toe-to-toe running to heel-to-toe rolling. The problem is that spending too much time on your heels is not good for tennis. Tennis players need to be EXPLOSIVE, they need to SPRING to and away from the ball. That's why coaches emphasize  "playing" or "moving" on your toes. This is that same movements that boxers use in the ring and, consequently, why boxers AND tennis players need to spend a lot of time jumping rope (in order to strengthen the muscles in their feet and ankles - which allow them to bounce around the court). 

A good way for players to understand what "moving on the toes" means, is by having them take their shoes off for a few drills (they can keep the socks on). These, obviously, don't need to be very difficult drills. Just some basic side to sides, inside-outs, up-and-backs, returns, etc. By being barefoot, the player will NATURALLY grasp the concept of shifting the weight forward onto the balls of their feet and keeping the feet "under their bodies" (as opposed to sloppily getting off-balance). It will be very uncomfortable for the player to lean their weight back on their heels and, God forbid, actually land on their heels. The players will try to avoid this pain at all costs and move the way nature and evolution intended us to move - on our front-foot. After the player feels that she has learned the concept, re-do the same drills and have the player explain the difference. This is a very fun way for players to learn proper footwork and balance. 

Who Does Roger Federer Practice With?

Parents usually have the best intentions in mind for their children. When playing practice sets (or even tournaments), they sometimes believe that the best strategy is to have their children practice with players who are of a higher caliber. When feeling like you're getting sucked into this mentality stop and ask yourself: WHO DOES ROGER FEDERER (OR WOZNIACKI, NADAL, SHARAPOVA, DJOKOVIC, ETC.) PRACTICE AGAINST? I guarantee you that the answer is not one of the other players  are of the same caliber. Often times,  Federer actually practices against juniors. The fact is that there are a lot of good players that someone can, and should, practice against in order to improve. 

I believe that the best option is to play 33% of the time against players who are "worse" than you. These are the players who might not give you all the pace, spin and consistency you want, but against whom you can play your game and work on certain components without worrying about hurting their feelings. For example, when playing sets, you can practice serving and volleying, hitting no forehand winners, chipping-and-charging, hitting mostly backhands, hitting only slice backhands, finishing the point in less than 3 (or 4, 5, 6) strokes, hitting only second serves or slice serves, working on not hitting winners, etc. These opponents will push you just enough if you don't pay attention but, overall, you can use them as a way to boost your confidence and develop feel. And remember, the way you "zone" against better players (because you have nothing to lose) they will be "treeing" against you. 

33% of the time, you should practice with players at or around your level. These are the players who will beat you even if you're only 2% off your game. These practices are often very competitive and, unfortunately, a lot of juniors tend to shun them because they are afraid that their confidence will be ruined if they happen to lose. Losing and winning is part of the game and you can use these matches to constantly fine-tune your game during drill workouts. 

33% of the time, you should play against people who are better than you. Unlike the players who are your level, these players will give you more pace, spin, consistency and accuracy so you really have to be on your game in order to even come close to them. But, beware! Just because you play well against them doesn't mean that you are AT their level. Sometimes, weaker player step up the game because they feel that they have "nothing to lose". But this is not always the correct attitude. Often times, during a match, you will play against people your level and there is something to lose even if that one thing is pride. Therefore, you should practice under pressure as well as when there is no pressure. 

Remember, winning can only be LEARNED. It CANNOT be TAUGHT. A coach's job is to help you with technique, strategy, tactics and attitude. But she cannot do the playing for you! You have to learn to figure stuff out (what/when/how to do it) on your own. If you constantly play matches against better players who kick your butt, what are you really learning?! You're learning how to LOSE. Furthermore, once you're content with losing, then turning the ship around is very difficult. All good players have learned how to WIN and have learned how to DEAL with losses. That's why not every tournament is a Grand Slam Event. Some smaller tournaments ("tune-up events" anyone?) are utilized for working on certain kinks and gaining confidence for the bigger tournaments. Same concept applies to practices. 

Cover The Line?

A concept that continues to linger is that a player who approaches the net should "cover the [down the] line". This principle may have been effective when players use to utilize small-headed, heavy wooden rackets where it was difficult to to flip the wrist and hit it cross court. Nowadays, with improvements in technology, I am not sure if blindly following the "cover the line" rule is such a good idea. A player doesn't have to be Nadal in order to squeeze a tight, cross-court passing shot by the attacking player.

I believe that a better strategy would be for the attacking player to think in terms of BISECTING THE ANGLE. That is, position herself in such as way as to cover just as much of the cross-court as well as the down-the line (and possibly the lob). In addition, the player's chest should be directly square to the opponent's shot (i.e. the shoulders should not be parallel to the net but an angle facing the oncoming ball) thereby enabling the player to move equally fast in either direction.

As a matter of fact, I would recommend moving slightly more towards covering the cross-court and thereby tempt the opponent to go for the low percentage down-the line (i.e. over the high part of the net; "short" side of the court; and, perhaps, while being on a fast run). When attacking with a cross-court, it is important to understand that the opponent's movement to cover the approach coupled with aiming for the down-the line will, in a lot of situation, "vector" the ball out wide. In other words, the momentum of the opponent's movement combined with trying to hit down the line will often result in the ball being "dragged" wide (if only slightly, but wide nonetheless). Therefore, it is often a better strategy to tempt the player to hit the down the line passing shots. If he beats you with shots that go in by mere inches (as opposed to feet), then it was simply her day. However, more likely than not, the chips will fall in your favor when you attack the opponent and force him to take chance after chance by going for the line.

Pre Tournament Practice: One Week Before Event

Every player is different so every player will require a different practice regimen during the week leading up to a big event. I venture, however, that the routine for most high level players often follows a specific pattern (unless the player needs specific work with a part of her game). 

In a previous tip, we have covered the practice regiment that the player should follow in the 2-3 months leading up to the main tournament. Here, we are focusing on the week immediately prior to the event. I would recommend that for a Saturday/Sunday event, the practice schedule should be tailored to achieve peak performance for the weekend of the event as follows:

1. Monday - Monday is you basic "consistency" day; this should be your longest workout day of the week. In these practices, your focus should be on long rallies and high percentage plays. You are reinforces the foundation that you have established in the prior week. Imagine studying for the bar exam or the boards - although the main work is done, you are trying to establish feel, timing and consistency with all of your shots. You should do a lot of cross-courts, down-the-line and figure 8s. In addition, infuse some side-to-side drills, inside-outs, volley-overhead repetitions, and serves. You are laying the foundation for your "C" game. 

2. Tuesday. Tuesday is your an intense day in that you are incorporating more pattern drills into the practice and transitioning from more artificial practices to point-playing. If possible, drills should alternate between high-intensity feeding drills, to rallying drills and points. Rinse and repeat until you are comfortable implementing the plays and pattern into your game. 

3. Wednesday. Wednesday is your match day. Here is where you play 3 sets (I never recommend playing less, regardless of score) and see how all the things that you've practiced come together. By analogy, this would be your practice exam day. Coaching should be relatively minimal so that you can learn to teach and correct yourself. At the end of the practice, work on serves and returns and go over some of the points. The coach's job is not to judge you or "put you down" but provide you the quick-and-dirty criticism on the points. 

4. Thursday. Thursday is the day when you go over - in a focused fashion - on the parts of your game that still need more work. This is synthesized from your previous practices. Maybe you have specific problem with a certain type of shot or ball in particular part of the court. Focus the practice on improving this part of the game but also work on your favorite shots and plays as well. Again, the key is to alternate between feeding drills and live-ball drills but with more emphasis on limited parts of the game. Your weapons - you want to establish confidence that you "still got them". With regard to your weaknesses, you will want to improve them so that, in the worst case scenario, you know what to do to get yourself out of a jam.

5. Friday. Friday is your "fun" day. I am an advocate of a light day on Friday that is focused on some fun shots. Maybe drop shots or drop volleys; doubles; overheads and sky-hooks; jump shots; swinging volleys; etc. Maybe you want to play some tie-breakers, hit some light cross-courts, work on some returns; etc. Normally, you will not try to kill yourself during this practice and are only sharpening your hand-to-eye coordination in order to make sure that you're "firing on all pistons" the next day and seeing the ball nice and big. 

No Pride

A player should be proud of her preparation, training, attitude, passion for the game, etc., but many times certain variations of on-court pride leads to poor results. Obviously, you should always be honorable and seek to avoid engaging in gamesmanship or performing kabuki theater that is so prevalent in modern junior tennis.

By "having no pride", I mean once you step on the court to play a tournament, most of everything that you have learned up to that point is theoretical. Too often, players attempt to actively BEAT their opponents (going for low-percentage winners on every shot); not enough times do they make the effort to allow the opponents to BEAT THEMSELVES. This is not always helped when the player's parents clap for aces or wild shots but are silent when it comes to long points - cleverly thought out and constructed - but not flashy. What message are you sending your player when you clap every low percentage shot?!

For example, not every match needs to be played as if the ESPN highlight real is at stake. In most matches, good, solid tennis is sufficient to pull through. In these matches, don't be afraid to resort to a strategy that is beneath you in the event the gamestyle or strategy that you have initially picked does not pan out. Yes, sometimes you will have to dink, other times you will have to push, some other times you may have to chip your forehand or serve underhand. First, it's obviously important to practice these shots so that you are comfortable executing the same under pressure. Second, it's important to practice these shots so that you can draw upon them by instinct rather than forethought. Third, it is important to understand that these shot have no bearing on who you are as a player. They are just tools for being used at the correct time and discarded. 

On the other hand, however, there are some players who seem to specialize exclusively on these shots. This is not something I advocate although players such as Fabrice Santoro have made a very lucrative career at mastering the odd-ball shots or strategies. Prior to Santoro, there was Karsten Braasch. It seems that Santoro's heir apparent may be Dolgopolov although he possesses more pop and dimensions than his predecessors. However, when you watch Dolgopolov you will notice two things: (1) he's having fun. Tennis does not seem to be a burden for him. He's often smiling and doesn't look like he has too many cares in the world. And (2), he's not afraid to hack, slice, chip, drop shot or hit jumping shots. Although cameras are rolling, he doesn't seem particularly interested in making the highlight real. When the opponent's game calls for a slice, he slices. When the opponent's too far back, he drop-shots. 

Developing players would be well-served by sitting on an outside court and watching a player like Dolgopolov practice his craft. Often times, juniors watch the top players (Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic) and think that that's how the game should always be played. Yes, those guys are certainly the cream of the crop. However, in the trenches of junior, college and low-level pro events, it is often a different type of animal who is king of the jungle. Your objective, as a developing player, is to be able to come up with any stroke, any time. Master all the shots and don't feel like you're too proud to rely on them under pressure. Remember, matches are won point-by point. If you can hit a great shot one point, scrape another point, allow the opponent to miss on the third point and get an easy point on the fourth, you win the game. Like a poker player, don't be afraid to bluff and whittle away your opponent's chips. You don't have to have 4 Aces to win the hand. Sometimes, a well-played weak hand will do.