Master Time and Space

Napoleon said "Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. Space we can recover; lost time, never." In tennis, you too will have to deal with these concepts: time and space. Space is the court that you control as well as the court controlled by your opponent. Time is, obviously, the duration that you have available in which you have to make a particular decision. Controlling your opponent's court is your goal (although, you're not trying to invade it with armies but with balls). However, if the opponent controls time, you will not be successful in your campaign. 

Take for example an offensive shot by you. In this example, we'll assume that it's not be a winner but it's pretty close. If you allow your opponent to throw up a defensive lob (pop-up) and you let it come down, bounce and come down again, your initial artillery attack is useless. You controlled some extent of your opponent's court, but he controlled time - in which he recovered back to a central positions. You simply cannot allow the opponent to "press the reset button" in a point and get herself into the court. When you hit a good shot, you have to recognize it right away in order to capitalize on it. Look at the opponent's location in the court. Is she 10 ft behind the baseline? 5 ft outside of the side-lines? Moving backwards? Scrambling?  So, in this example, step in and either belt a swinging volley, punch a regular volley or follow up with another offensive shot. Never allow the opponent to recover "space" with "time". Conversely, if you're on the defense that's exactly what you want to do: buy your way back into the point with a shot that takes a while to get back to the other side of the court (unless you see that the opponent is "bolting in" to control space and time). A lot of juniors get pressed on the defensive and then go for a blasting, Hail Mary shot. Even assuming that you make it, if the opponent gets his racket on the ball, you have no time to recover (in which case, she's controlled both space and time). 

Similarly, you can control more "space" if you play from close into the court than from "the vineyard". If you're 10-12 behind the baseline, you can only home to control time. However, due to the angles, you are relegated to only hitting in certain parts of the court. Conversely, the closer into the court you find yourself, the more the court opens up and the less time the opponent will have to react and make proper decisions. 

Reduce Your Opponent's Support

Student of history may recall how Hannibal, the Carthaginian military genius, gave the Romans a hard time during the Punic Wars. Time and again, he continued to press the Romans, encircle them, destroy them, escape from them and, overall, pose a huge pain in the behind for the Roman empire. It seemed that, no matter what the Romans threw his way, the wily general always got the best of him. What finally allowed the Romans to defeat one of the most brilliant military minds in who's ever lived was a battle on Hannibal's home soil. The Romans sent Scipio Africanus who quickly defeated two provinces that were used to provide Hannibal's "away" troops with economic, military and moral support. When Hannibal returned to face the Romans at Zama, his army was greatly diminished and, finding their enemies on their front-steps, completely dejected. The Romans won that battle decisively and Carthage's position in world history was relegated to insignificant. 

What this story teaches us that if you take away your opponent's support system, you can defeat him.

Many historians attribute the Roman victory to Scipio's destruction of Hannibal's support. Hannibal simply did not have the resources to defeat the Romans. The army wasn't there, the food and drink wasn't there and, even if he won, his allies were destroyed. Now, short of taking away your opponent's tennis rackets, the "support" system on which your opponent relies are his legs. Specifically, his LEGS, LUNGS AND HEART. When you find yourself in a heated match with a strong opponent, one of the things that you can do is start breaking down his legs, lungs and "heart" by making him grind hard for every single point. Instead of going for the knock-out punch, you land body-punch after body-punch to soften up the opponent. Make sure that his legs are wobbling like Jello before you really start pressing with your game. Make him huff..make him puff...and give him enough rope to hang himself by inviting him to go for stupid shots when he doesn't have enough oxygen left in the brain. Unfortunately, a lot of players lack the determination to hit one more quality shot than the opponent and break down first. But with practice, you will learn to throw various combinations towards the opponent and overwhelm him with information and physical brutality. Be ready, willing and able to do this - to stay on the court 1 hour longer than the opponent - and you will win. With your attitude, tell your opponent "this is too hard for you; you don't belong here' go home."

Knowing Your Opponent

Again, Master Sun Tzu tells us

"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."

In battle, as in tennis is important to know and fully understand your opponent's likes, dislikes and motivations. If you do, you can tailor your strategy to defeating him. Evaluate your opponent from the ground up and in both a technical and tactical sense. 

For example, is the opponent fast (i.e., does he cover long distances quickly)? Is the opponent quick (i.e., as opposed to being fast, a quick player is great ad adjusting to shots struck with pace right at him)? Is the opponent strong (i.e., can he punish sitters)? Is your opponent smart (i.e., is he the type who plays the same points over and over or does he have several cards up his sleeve)? Does your opponent have endurance (i.e., will he be able to go the distance or is he looking for a quick kill)? Is your opponent aggressive or passive? Does he wait for returns with a forehand grip, backhand or neutral? Is the opponent protecting her backhand? Is the opponent comfortable at the net or hitting overheads? Is the opponent a front-runner or a snake in the grass (i.e., does she play better when she's ahead or is she the type to wait until you break your concentration to topple you? How does your opponent serve under pressure? Who are the type of players that have beaten her before (bashers, counterpunchers, pushers, serve-and-volleyers, dinkers, slicers)? How does your opponent handle pace, spin, height? Is the opponent quick out of the starting blocks or does it take her a while to get going? How is the opponent mental state - is she easy to rattle or ice-cold? Does he look like want to be on the court or is there another place he'd rather be at that particular point in time? What are his favorite "plays" or "patterns"? Does he prefer to serve at certain targets at big points? Does he take chances with the returns or does he play steady? Does he have any "hitches" or peculiarities in his shots which either prevent him from hitting certain balls or are likely to break down under pressure? Is he a fast-court player or does he prefer slower courts? Does he handle wind/sun/heat/altitude well? 

In other words, evaluate your opponent so that you can formulate a game-plan in advance (if you're the "nervous type", thinking about strategy in advance will also help you take your mind off the player or the situation). If you've never played against this player before (and none of your friends have either), determine if you've played against a similar player in the past. Go through your mental "rolodex" of plays and figure out if this player resembles someone you've played against before.

 

If not, figure out if his forehand is like Player X's and Backhand like player Y's and draw a composite sketch of what you'd do against those players. Get a proper warm-up in advance so that your actual match warm-up is utilized to pick up on the subtle movements from your opponent which either indicate likes/dislikes or weapons/weaknesses and also "where" the opponent might go with that particular shot during the match (e.g. does he always go cross-court when he's hitting an open-stance forehand? If so, start leaning towards that spot early).  

Make Your Opponents Quit

Sun Tzu, in the Art of War, said

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

In other words, it's the sign of a good warrior when he shows up on the battle field and the other side puts down its weapons. Conversely, having to constantly prove yourself over and over again may end up costing you. Think about all the 3-set matches that you have won in the morning only to be too exhausted for your afternoon match. Wouldn't it be more desirable to defeat your opponent outright in the morning match and still have the energy to do the same in the afternoon?! 

This goal can only be achieved by being the toughest, fittest and smartest warrior out there. Think: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Serena, Venus, etc. These players - through their presence and preparation - intimidate their opponents into losing before they've even stepped out on the court. Take Nadal, for instance. How many players think that they can outlast him in a 5 set match?! Not many. Not a guy you'd want to meet in a dark alley. He is so fit, strong and mentally tough that every player knows that he has his work cut out for him if he wants to take him on head-on. Many choose to not fight at all. Same with Federer. He intimidates people through his skill that he often cruises through the first 3-4 rounds of a Grand Slam without so much as dropping a handful of games, breaking a sweat or changing their shirt. Djokovic - same thing (see how he dominated the 2011 season). Due to their individual characteristics, they have bullied their opponents before they've even stepped onto the court. At that point, going through the motions of actually winning the match is merely ministerial. As a consequence, they are capable of going deeper into the draw than players who are, on paper, just as good but who don't possess the same aura. 

So the advice is to improve every aspect of your game to the point where people will lose the match before it ever starts. Your opponents need to think "geez..I don't want to play this guy. She's too fit/strong/tough for me. There's no way I'll win". Often, they will "go in the tank" before the match has even started. Make them doubt their preparation, skills, and commitment to the game. Don't just beat your opponents! MAKE 'EM QUIT! Send them the message that you mean business and this is not just a game to you. 

Backboard Training

Among the most useful (and underused) training tools is the backboard. Generations of great players have honed their strokes by practicing against the backboard yet, for some reason, modern American players think that they are too good for this device. In addition, some parents believe that unless some-high priced coach is on the court with the kid, that the player will not be able to learn on his own. I have seen dozens of junior players who are simply incapable of hitting 100-200 balls in a row against the backboard without missing. And volleys?! Forget about it. You'd be lucky to see someone hit 10-20 before losing control of the ball. 

The backboard is an awesome training device for supplementing your practices. First of all, there are generally very few distractions (due to massive green background) so that the player can totally focus on the ball. Second of all, the player must develop control in order for it to keep coming back to her. Third of all, the constant repetition is physically taxing on your forearm.

The forearm muscles are very important in imparting control on the racket. By having a strong forearm (like a wall), your volleys and slices will improve dramatically (since these are strokes that depend more on blocking/punching than on swinging). With a soft forearm, your arm (similar to a hanging towel) - instead of punching the ball - will actually absorb the pace of your opponent's shot (so players often compensate by swinging at volleys or slices which usually results in "easy" errors). Visualize Bruce Lee and his famous one-inch punch (where a lot of power was created in a short distance). Lastly, practicing against the backboard is great for improving the hand-to-eye coordination. There's nothing as useful for your eyes as staring at the ball coming back to you in rapid succession 2-3000 times per workout (Note: it is said that Rocky Marciano trained his eyes by staring at a tic-tocking metronome at the foot of his bed).

I recommend that, at least twice per week, developing players hit at least 2000 balls/session against the backboard. This may sound like a lot but, done right, it should only take 15 minutes to accomplish this task. One of my favorite routines is the tap-tap rally where the player hits 100 forehand volleys in a row, followed by 100 backhand volleys, followed by 100 side-to-sides, followed by 100 slices. Five sets of this and your forearm will be fried and you won't even break a sweat. If you want, you can also work on overheads (note, you hit the overhead into the ground and then it ricochets upwards into the backboard and arcs back to you for another overhead). There is no excuse for any player not including at least some backboard practice into their routine.