Take Away Half of the Court

One of the most frustrating things I see weak-minded players do is give up on a play. I understand not everyone is wired like Rafael Nadal with a relentless attitude to chase down balls from seemingly impossible situations. However, here is a good trick that makes logical sense and something you can implement into your game right away.

Lets say you are in a tussle and slowly your opponent pushes you deep into the corner. Without meaning to, you cough up a short ball so short, you quickly calculate the odds of winning the point to be less than 10 percent. One option is to give in and just turn around. Another option is to run to the center of the court and see what happens. The BEST option is to guestimate the one place the winner will go and run to that spot. This means taking half the court away and take away the easiest shot for them to hit.

Standing in the middle of the court opens up the edges. However, most people who play great defense have a knack for guessing right. What these players are really doing is reading the ball, the opponents body language, and checking where the most probably place the next ball could potentially go and taking that option away. Make them hit the most difficult shot and maybe if you are strongly covering one-half of the court, good things could happen- like the ball coming onto a crash collision with you.

Like chess, you always want to apply pressure and think a couple steps ahead. Now if you continue to chase these balls down (Lendl said: "I run after everything, even if I think that I can't get there"), however dire the situation may be, and continue to take away half of the court- they will start to feel the pressure deep into the set or match. Easy shots suddenly aren't so easy, muscles start to tighten, and shots that were once manageable without blinking start to feel like catching a mosquito with chopsticks (well maybe not that hard, but anything is possible when you get underneath someone's skin). Good things can happen and these types of points can switch the momentum and cause rookie players to crack mentally.

Situational Awareness Practice

There is a distinction between cockiness and true confidence and it rests on the latter's knowledge the she has done everything possible to improve herself as a tennis player. A cocky player is often full of bravado that masks phobias and lack of confidence. A confident player does not need to shift attention away from her insecurities because she knows that she has practice for every situation imaginable. By having practiced under every condition, she can often identify the key points and adjust her game accordingly. In this regard, I would suggest playing practice games as follows:

a. Set where the server starts down 0-30 in every game. This is a normal set, but when you think how easy it is to get down 0-30 (e.g., a double fault and a good/lucky shot by the opponent), it is surprising that more players do not practice being in these situations and learning to win. Another variation would be for the server to start at 15-40. For advanced players, I recommend that the returner runs a sprint before his return game (e.g., a ten-ball). This will teach the player how to regulate his adrenaline and channel the energy towards winning the next critical points. 

b. Set where the server gets one serve. This is a variation on the 30-point game. To spice things up, I suggest adding a component where the returner has to do kangaroo jumps (or other form of physical exercise) for (i) every return missed or (ii), for advanced players, every return that lands inside the service line. 

c. Set where the server has to serve-and-volley on the first serve and the returner has to come in (chip/topspin-and-charge) on the second.

d. Set where the server has to win 6 points (rather than 2) in order to improve stamina. 

e. Set where the players start off at 30-30 every game. This is a great game for emphasizing the first 2 points of every game (since, in this instance, if you lose the first 2 points, you lose the game). 

f. Set where, except for the return, the players MUST use their slice backhand when the ball comes to their backhand. 

By placing yourself in these situations over and over again, you will be in a better position to (i) identify the situation when it surfaces during the match, (ii) identify the critical obstacles, (iii) determine what you have to do in order to pull yourself out of the situation, and (iv) figure out how to win the point. Lastly, these points are a great way to shift the focus away from winning or losing (particularly if you have only 1-2 practice partners) to actually improving as a player. 

Ingenius Way to Defeat a Counterpuncher (aka Moonballer)

I always hear people say, "I can't play pushers.  They get everything back and give me no pace!"  There are a few remedies you can practice to solve this dire situation (heaven forbid someone makes 10 balls in a row against you).  The easiest solution is to suck up your pride and do to them what they are doing to you.  Are they giving you no pace?  Give them no pace back.  See how they respond to generating their own pace.  See if they can create enough pace to hit some winners by you.  In fact, let them hit some winners by you.  Give them no pace to work with and let them overwork their muscles while you just block the ball back.  Take immense pleasure in their struggles and chuckle at yourself inside.  Think about what you will cook for dinner in-between shots, really have fun with it.  Matter of fact, plan your dinners a few days in advance and all the ingredients you need to shop for.  Try to nudge them towards the edge of the cliff and dare them to do something uncharacteristic like swinging for the lines.  And if they say something along the lines of "I'm playing soooo bad!" you are starting to get under their skin.  Keep it up, keep pushing them towards the edge of the cliff.  To really tickle them, give them even more time in-between shots (not points, but shots) and see how they like tasting their own medicine.  Now if they slam a ball into the fence or hurl the racquet towards the bench, you are doing FANTASTIC!  

Sure they might hit a few winners here and there out of frustration, just ignore it.  Its part of the master plan.  There will come a time in the match, the tipping point, where your opponent will realize their is no easy way out.  That is when you will need to double-up your efforts as he/she will decide to engage into a battle of mental and push the ball back with you, trying to outlast you.  This is when you need to stick to your plan and match them.  Doesn't matter if it takes 10 balls, 20 balls, or 60 balls- you do what it takes to extract as much mental energy from them as possible.  Sure they might win that point, but then make them do it again, and again, and again.  You really should have the next months' worth of dinners planned out, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Really take extreme pleasure in their suffering and pain- then after you crush their spirits and have them succumb to your master plan, I am willing to bet they will never "push" with you again.  And if they do, you will practice some of these other solutions to the ever annoying "Moonballer"....

LEGO Approach

As a child, I was fascinated with LEGO building blocks. I loved how combining pieces of different shapes and sizes could be used to construct elaborate projects. I believe that the same concept could be used in understanding and improving one's tennis game. As a player, it is important to figure out how to combine the weapons in your arsenal to the maximum effect. Be it serve-and-volleys, chip-and-charges, forehand cross-court (topspin) followed up by backhand cross-court (slice), or swinging volley (FH or BH) followed up by "regular" volley (BH or FH), a player should know how to create the best "plays" with his/her shots.

Often times, it is impossible for a player to construct a complete point from beginning to end as it's the opponent's primary obligation to put up obstacles and defenses ("you're only as good as your opponent allows you to be"). However, by mastering 2-3 shot combinations a player can implement the appropriate strategy while adapting to whatever the opponent is throwing his/her way.

For example, although you may start out the point with the intention of ending up at the net, your opponent may surprise you with his strategy and thereby force you to play the initial stages of that particular point in a defensive position. However, assuming that you have identified a weakness in your opponent's game that makes it attractive to come in, you have to figure out how to translate defense into offense. In this scenario, perhaps a heavy topspin lob, followed up by a swinging volley and then a regular volley will do the trick.

But how are you going to know these combinations unless you have practiced them?! The answer is that if you only practice A-B-C, X-Y-Z are going to seem like a foreign language to you and the shots are going to be difficult to execute on the spot. Therefore, it is important for a practice to include combination drills or patterns in order to be able to identify the pattern during play and have the requisite confidence to execute under pressure. Any stroke can be combined with 2-3 other shots (and then re-combined again in a different sequence) in order to learn how they work in concert. Then, when you are faced with a situation in a match, you can pick and choose the shot-sequence from various drills that you have done in the past and execute the play with confidence. 

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.