Late For Match? Quick Way To Warm Up

We live in a highly industrialized world and it's foreseeable that at least a handful of times in your life you will show up just in time for your match or a little bit late (perhaps due to traffic or misdirection by your navigation system). Assuming that you didn't get defaulted, how ensure that you obtain the best possible warm-up under the circumstances? That is, the same, old routine might not do the trick particularly if you're playing against a tough opponent.

I have found that the best routine is one that gets the blood flowing the fastest and also "warms-up" (i.e., focuses) the eyes. First, chase down EVERY ball. If your opponent hits an errant shot, give chase even if the ball is way wide or deep. This is the time to bring out your inner tiger and the ball has blood on it. Don't let a single ball get by you. Second, when the opponent is at the net, warm up from INSIDE the baseline. This will force you to take FAST, SHORT steps and will also serve to trigger your eyes and how they see the ball. Again, NO BALL GETS BY YOU! Get in position and work the warm-up point like a boxer with high intensity. Third, take extra overheads to get some blood flowing to your back and shoulder muscles. This will help with your serves, particularly in the first couple of games. After finishing your net routine, PLAY ONE MORE warm-up rally from the baseline. In this rally, try to hit a lot of "inside-outs". That is, rather than being flat-footed in just hitting the ball back-and-forth to your opponent without rhyme or reason, focus on moving your feet, getting in positing and staying loose. Fourth, as you're warming up your serve, again, chase down every serve from your opponent and see if you can catch it on your racket. If the serve gets by you, don't walk to get the ball - RUN. INTENSITY is the key concept here. You have 5-6 minutes to get a decent warm-up so use every SECOND to getting your body to optimal competitive levels in every aspect. As you're starting to play the match, it's important to keep the intensity flowing for a few games before ratcheting back to more manageable levels. During these 2-3 games, (1) MAKE EVERY FIRST SERVE, (2) MAKE NO UNFORCED ERRORS, and (3) IF POSSIBLE, HIT NO WINNERS. Work hard for every point and establish a pattern for doing battle the rest of the match.

Unfortunately, a lot of players show up late for the match and do the same thing as they have done for previous matches - where they may have had the opportunity to warm up. Unless you're special, this is a misguided approach to big matches. The warm-up is not just for the strokes but, as the name entails, it serves the body as well. If you're starting the match cold (which is something that happens to unexperienced juniors all too often), chances are that you will lose the first few games. In big matches, this may be sufficient to lose the set. Lose the set, and now you have an uphill battles both score-wise and confidence-wise.

Thus, if you CARE about the outcome of the match, enter the arena with the attitude of a warrior - for those first 5-6 minutes, it's not a tennis match, it's a gladiatorial contest. 

Note, however, that this should not be used as an alternative to proper warm-up. This is an emergency routine for those handful of times when you're unable to follow your prescribed regimen. 

Steal This Drill: Aggressive Groundstrokes

Are you the type of player who's been told that you play too far behind the baseline? If so, this one of the drills that you may want to incorporate into your tennis routine. As the first diagram on the left shows, the further back you play, the less court that you have to "work with". You simply cannot generate sharp angles that are designed to make your opponent run. Furthermore, regardless of how hard you hit the ball, the ball takes an extra half-second ( = to distance between your position (red "X") and your baseline) to cross the net - thereby providing the opponent with ample opportunity to recover. Thus you are relegated to being a grinder - welcome to my world. Conversely, the closer to the net you are (blue "X") the more angles you can generate and, consequently, the more court your opponent has to cover (in a shorter time period). The more miles he puts on his odometer, the greater the likelihood the he will run out of gas and bag it. 

Now, you have probably heard this advice before: "you know what?! You play from way too far behind the baseline. You should play closer in." Brilliant, right?! I've heard the same thing many times before. Although the advice is sound, things are not, however, all that simple. First, if you make your home "in the vineyard" (i.e. 10ft+ behind the baseline) your footwork is tailored to long distance running - that is, relatively slow but can go on all day. In addition, your strokes are suited for generating your own pace since, by the time the ball gets to you (or you get to it), the opponent's shot has lost some steam. Lastly, since you don't deal with a lot of low balls, your balance is also a bit out of tune. 

To fix this from a practical point of view (this is what CAtennis is all about), try performing the drill in the second diagram above. Basically, the players stay inside the baseline and, at first, rally to get a feel for the new court positioning; thereafter, they play practice points (either baseline games or figure-8s). The rule, for points, is that you cannot step behind the baseline or you "fall off the cliff" and lose the point (stepping outside the service line is OK). Players should look for rallies and not charging the net off the feed. The beauty of this game is that sometimes you have to "short hop" the groundstrokes and, other times, you must step in aggressively and take the ball out of the air (swinging volley or regular volley). For the most part, however, you can practice hitting aggressive volleys. 

The player will notice that a change in positioning will require adjustments in the strokes as well as an attitudinal shift. To master playing from this zone, your footwork must become faster, your center of gravity must become lower (oh baby, do those lunges come in handy now...) and your preparation more efficient. You will learn to use your opponent's pace and redirect without having to generate much of your own. Does this mean that you MUST play from closer in on all points? No, you can do whatever the heck you want. But if you want to be a good player you need to become comfortable playing from everywhere around the court - 10 ft back and 10ft in. Otherwise you are relegated to playing the part of a retriever for the rest of your career. A good tennis player, however, is comfortable under all situations and capable of doing what's necessary to overcome the obstacles that the opponent is throwing her way. 

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Shorter Players Can Have Great Serves

If you are a shorter player, chances are you have been told over the course of your lifetime that you need to give up the idea of having a big serve and settle for getting a high first serve percentage. There is nothing wrong with this line of thinking if you have maxed out all your options (practiced for hours and hours) coupled with intense hunger (relentless energy and willingness to learn), which means you have given it your best effort and your best option is to just start the point with a safe slice serve.

However, if you are hungry enough, young enough (adults, it's never too late!), and lucky enough to have a equally motivated coach who knows what they are talking about (proof is in the pudding, they have a great serve themselves) - shorter players can have great serves. To be honest, the serve is not as complicated as people (usually teaching professionals) make it out to be. Here are some simple tips:

1) Continental grip
2) From beginning to end of stroke, your grip on the handle should be a 1 or 2 out of 5, 5 being tight (Kind of like holding a bird in your hand, don't want to kill it nor do you want it to fly away)
3) Swing as fast as you can (a loose arm and wrist will creat a wrist-snap) 
4) Do not move your feet (simpler-the-better to start, less moving parts that could breakdown)

Without fast racquet headspeed, your serve will never be great. It's as simple as that. The serve is a trust shot, full commitment. Once you get the racquet headspeed, then developing a legit serve can happen. With the racquets of today, shorter players can have monster serves, monster kicks, and monster sliding serves.

Here are some creative ways to improving your pop on the serve: 

1. In the first drill, try to stay close the back fence on one side of the court ("S" for "server" get it?) and aim at first directly into the opposite back fence. Try to hit 10 in a row without any arc whatsoever...that is, straight as a bullet; fence to fence. After you hit ten, aim the next set inside of the opposite baseline (#2). Thereafter, 10 inside of the service line. Again, try to focus on power, not on hitting (reaching your target) with arc. The purpose of this drill is to isloate the fast-twitch muscles in your shoulder and core. 

2. In the second drill, start out at the fence again and hit ten serves inside the service box. After your first set, move in 2 feet and hit another ten. Then move in 2 feet again. Work on hitting "up and through" the ball. As you get closer, that power that you're developing will be channeled into a proper technique.

3. The "machine gun" drill is also a good way to loosen up and isolate the shoulders, arm and core. Grab 4 or 5 balls in your left hand and serve those balls (from service line) in rapid succession: toss and hit; toss and hit. Hence, the name of the drill. Feet should remain firmly planted on the ground. 

4. Reader "tweener" has suggested that to work on pronation, the server should practice serving from the knees. This is also a good way to isolate the shoulders and work on developing the forearm strength. Thank you, tweener, for your advice. This is the type of input that we're looking for on this site. 

5. Lastly, it's important to recall our previous tip regarding power. If you want to improve your serve speed, you must practice hitting fast serves. If you want to run a fast sprint, don't train for a marathon. Speed of the arm and power generated by the body need to be integrated into the motion. Assuming that your serve components are there, start cranking the serve. Since serving "hard" is draining, appropriate rest should be taken until your body builds a tolerance to this type of workout. Bear in mind that a lot of players' career have been stunted by the mentality that "I'm short and therefore I'll never be a good server". This is like saying "I'm tall and therefore I don't need to practice my serve". What's one thing have to do with another?! Sure, certain players might not hit 150mph. But it may be possible for them to hit 120s or 130s. However, they're never going to get there if they settle for 90s in practice. Boundaries of your physical abilities must be continually pushed - little by little.  

If you have the tennis bug and you are willing to put in the work, don't settle for a serve that is slower than falling snow. The time will be well spent and I've never heard of anyone who doesn't like to win.

Tennis Mummies

Does this look familiar (<-)? It's the sight of a run-of-the-mill junior tennis player immediately before the match. If you've been around junior events long enough you will learn to spot the mummies - they are usually wearing track suits, hands straight by the sides, walking aimlessly with stiff legs from bag to tournament desk to bathroom and back. Sometimes they are chatting with their friends although it;s usually in monosylabic grunts. I've always wondered why it is that some kids get so...cold immediately before the match. Why are they shivering so much?! Did the temperature suddenly drop after exiting the car? Weird...

It turns out that shivers are actually reflexes - controlled by the nervous system - produced automatically by the body to keep us safe. When your body temperature drops below a certain level - say 98° - your nerves send a signals saying "I'm cold". What happens next is that your muscles contract and loosen really fast (causing friction which increases body heat slightly) causing you to shiver. What does this have to do with tennis? Researchers have conducted many tests on lab animals to see how their body temperature changes with fear. In these lab experiments, scientists use infra-red thermography to get images in skin temperatures to see the animals' response to a fear agent. What they have generally found is that the animals usually froze into immobility with a significant drop in skin temperature. It's the same with people faced with fear, anxiety and nerves - although some may experience a rise in body temperature a lot of players will experience a drop in body temperature; their feet and hands become cold; body trembles. For some players, muscle tension will increase and breathing will become shallow (i.e., less oxygen entering the system) and labored.

In a match, this usually translates into 3-4 poor first games. But here's the kicker: rather than doing something productive to keep warm and "stay loose", some of these player will continue to walk around stiffly all bundled up in their track suits. I never understood why these players - if they care about the outcome in the first place - don't engage in some productive exercises to warm-up and "shake off" the anxiety. Jog in place, jump rope, run some sprints, play some practice points...anything to keep the blood flowing to the limbs and oxygen entering the system. Perhaps nobody told them regarding the physiological importance of "being limber". Warming up is not just important for the strokes but also for the body...the heart, the lungs, the muscles, the eyes, etc. As a player, it's important to enter the tennis court "firing on all pistons". If you wait 3-4 games to find a way to settle down, it may already be too late. As you get older, "comebacks" from 3-4 games down will be much more rare. Therefore, if you're the type who freezes under pressure, find a way to stay loose and limber. Start setting warm-up rituals early. All the "great players" hame them (I bet that even Nadal's pre-match sprint is a last second way to burn off some extra nervousness. And his jumping and running in the locker-room before the match is legendary).

Initially, it's better if you (junior player) get on the court sweaty (and perhaps a little tired) than "not warmed up at all". At  least you're ready to pounce on the ball from the word "GO!" As you get older and more experienced, you will be able to fine-tune your warm-up rituals to suit your needs and energy levels. But don't wait until the start of the match to do something that could have been addressed without a racket. 

Practice Makes...Imperfect?

Let's study these two pictures of the GOAT in action. Besides his impeccable preparation and picture perfect timing can someone tell me if they notice something that stands out?! I'll give you a hint...the head. Still not enough? OK, how about this - the eyes. Specifically, which eye is in front on the backhand and which eye is in front on the forehand?

After studying the picture for a few seconds, you will notice that the right eye is in front on the backhand while the left eye is in front on the forehand. Immediately before the contact point, let's try to guess which eye "sees" the ball first? I think that we can all agree that, under most circumstances, the eye that's in front (linearly speaking) of the other picks up the moving object first. Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye dominance, is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other. According to the article from Science Daily, "[i]n normal binocular vision there is an effect of parallax, and therefore the dominant eye is the one that is primarily relied on for precise positional information. This may be especially important in sports which require aim, such as archery, darts or shooting sports."

Why is this important for tennis players? Well, for one thing, much like baseball players, tennis players are engaged in a hitting activity. As suggested in the psyched.com article, a study of several University of Florida baseball players suggested that the best players were cross-eye dominant (i.e., batted right; but had a dominant left eye - the eye that saw the ball first): "College varsity level baseball players are twice as likely as the general population to have crossed dominance. The incidence of central eye dominance is considerably higher than the general population. The best hitters were centrally eye dominant or crossed eye-hand dominant." See also this abstract.

Much like hand-dominance, eye dominance is both innate but can also be trained. For example, Nadal is a natural righty but he has learned to play tennis left-handed. With respect to eyes, a player may very well be naturally right-eye dominant but by practicing a certain way - for example, hitting thousands of forehands (on one side of the body) and only a couple of hundred backhands (on the other side of the body) - it is possible that the player will train the left eye to take over. This could be detrimental to the backhand since, on the other side of the body, the left eye may be "further back".

As a result, it's possible that the player may be seeing the ball - and striking it - early on the forehand but late on the backhand (i.e.,  hitting it only when the ball has entered the field of vision for the left eye). If you suspect that this may be the case - for example, if you find yourself striking certain shots "off the front foot" and others "off the backfoot" - then, perhaps, your stroke is not to blame... maybe you've practiced a certain shot so much that it has had an effect on the eyes which, in turn, have affected when and how you hit another shot. I mention this because, often times, I see juniors hitting forehands in a 4:1 ratio to backhands (backhands are, sometimes, a mere "afterthought" if the forehand doesn't work out). There is at least some risk that disproportionate training - intentionally or inadvertently - on one side of the body may lead to an imbalance in perception which can have a detrimental effect on your strokes (and what you can do with the ball - i.e., someone who sees the ball late and hits it late might be unable to go down the line very well). The good news is that it seems that occular dominance (or balance) can be restored. Some baseball players use eye patches when doing their batting-cage practice (see The Baseball Coaching Bible by Jerry Kindall and John Winkin, p. 138) so there's no reason why a tennis player with a similar issue can't do the same (i.e. put an eye patch over one eye in order to train the non-dominant eye to see the ball sooner) on the ball machine or backboard.