Chill Out, Bro

It is clear that intense competition can cause athletes to react both physically and mentally in a manner which negatively affects their performance abilities. Tennis players are not an exception to this rule. This is particularly true for the first tournament match (i.e. before the player has found his/her rhythm and concentration zone). In one study, results showed a cortisol response to competition, which was especially characterized by an anticipatory rise. Males had the same pattern of cortisol responses than females, even if the cortisol concentrations were significantly higher in females the day of the competition, Psychophysiological stress in tennis players during the first single match of a tournament, Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009 Jan (Filaire E., Alix D., Ferrand C., Verger M.)

Accordingly, the purpose of practice is to prepare the body and mind for the stresses of performance. Good coaches will provide their students with a lot of the skills necessary to thrive under pressure. However, there's one skill that is hardly ever practiced and that's how the player interacts with the parent immediately before the match. Another study found that tennis parents are usually stressed by 7 different factors: competition, coaches, finance, time, siblings, organization-related, and developmental, Understanding parental stressors: an investigation of British tennis-parents, J Sports Sci. 2009 Feb 15 (Harwood C., Knight C.) So where the player is stressed by 1 factor - competition - the parents seem to be stressed by 6 other factors. It doesn't take much to figure out that uncontrolled parental anxiety can be filtered down to the players thereby increasing their anxiety levels. Furthermore, where the parents may be stressed about the price of gas and overall cost of tournament, the player can be led to feel that the match is of utmost importance (thereby adding to the child's stress levels concerning competition). Add to this some ill-timed or ill-conceived post-match statements or questions, and it's easy to see how some players start to overemphasize the role of winning in the development (thereby repeating and increasing the stress cycle).

So what can the coach do to prepare the student for the pre-match car-ride (assuming, of course, that the coach is separate from the parent)? In this regard, the coaches' role is to train the parents. First of all, it is important for the player to play practice matches where the parent drops off the student to the courts. Sometimes, the parent will watch the practice match; other times, s/he will run errands. Practice match results aren't important, but the things that are learned through this process are very important. In this regard, dropping off the kid to a practice match serves as behavioral training for the parents as well - if this practice is, in fact, regarded as such. Parents can monitor their practice-match stress levels and conversation with their children and see how it matches up with a "real" match scenario. Second, some parents have found it easier to dissociate competition from the trip. For example, they can find "cool things to do" in the area of the tournament and, whenever, the conversation turns too serious towards the match, they can emphasize that they are so excited about having the opportunity to go to such-and-such mall or museum or visit whatever landmark. Again, the child is helped to remember that there are more things in life besides tennis. Tennis is simply one of the processes (the best one, in our opinion) for learning about life. Third, any conversation regarding the match should be kept to "practical" topics: what's the game plan? What do you know about this kid? How are you going to approach the first 3 games of the match? What happens if your first game plan fails; what's your back-up plan? How are you taking into account the conditions? Etc. In other words, winning/losing is implied so talking about "kicking his butt" or "go get 'em" is only of limited value. Furthermore, rather than telling the player what to do ("make sure that you..."), have him/her become devise the plan. In other words, make the association that you're more interested in the process than the result. Lastly, this talk should be saved for the last couple of minutes of the car-ride. Use the duration of a car-ride to a practice match as your rule of thumb. For example, if the practice-match ride is only 10 minutes, then it's probably best to not wear out the kid with tennis-related matters for 1hr 45mins prior to the match...this is draining and stressful and most children cannot bear the additional baggage.

Mats Wilander: Manage Your Game Like a Team

I had the fortunate opportunity to hit with 7-time Grand Slam Champion Mats Wilander in his hometown of Sun Valley, Idaho. He was giving a clinic to recreational players and I was very curious about what advice he would give to club level players. His energy and enthusiasm for the game was impressive, not feeding any balls but hitting with each player who came out on the court.  He was jumping around, hustling down balls (no one could control the ball), and sweating.  His attitude was contagious.  

When he slowed down, he asked how many people played team sports growing up.  Almost everyone raised their hand.  Then he started to explain how he thought of his game as playing on a team.  His forehand, backhand, serve, slice, volleys, return of serve- all of these different components to his game formed his team. He looked at tennis as a team effort.  If one part of his game was not having a good day, others parts of his game had to pick up the slack.  Before playing each match, he told himself that nobody on his team was going to have a perfect day.  But it was his job to recognize which strokes (players on the team) were having a good day and which were not.  

He explained how like in basketball, you can make substitutions.  Relating to his tennis game, if his hard low forehand wasn't hurting his opponent, he would substitute in a high looping forehand to their backhand.  If his baseline game wasn't doing the trick, he would substitute in his serve and volley attack.  Every tool in his arsenal of weapons together formed a team, each having to do their part when called upon.  Smart players are flexible and are ready for anything; willing to adapt to win in that very moment.

Maybe this "team" analogy will help you be less stubborn on the court and be a better thinker on the court.  

Someone asked him at what age should kids start to get serious about the game.  He quickly said he was a big believer in playing all sports at a young age to develop your athleticism.  He was an avid skier and played soccer before he dived full-time into his tennis at 13.

Steal This Drill: Mirror-Mirror

Here is an interesting drill for training groundstrokes as well as for warming up. The best part about this drill is that it can be performed with 4 (or more) players on court so it could be useful for situations where the court-time is limited (e.g. indoors). The basic drill is as follows:

1. Players play on one-half of the court. This can be either the down-the-line half (including/excluding doubles - coach's choice) or the cross-court half (including/excluding doubles - coach's choice).

2. One of the players feeds a deep (aim for 2-3 feet from the baseline) ball into his opponent's half.

3. The recipient (the "proactive" player) hits either a forehand or a backhand.

4. Here's the scope of this drill: whatever the recipient hits (forehand/backhand), the feeder (the "reactive" player) has to match/mirror. Hence the "mirror-mirror" name for this drill. It's "open play" when one of the players makes it to the net. However, players should be encouraged to play from the baseline so as to hone their groudnstroke and body-language instincts.

5. Variations for this drill include instances where the point is "opened up" (i.e., any shot goes after the ball cross the net a certain number of times: 6-8-10, etc.). Furthermore, although initially the players must only match the stroke (forehand-for-forehand; backhand-for-backhand), as the players develope they can also be encouraged to copy the spins. So if the receiver hits a slice backhand, the feeder must hit that as well. Lastly, the players can also do "opposite" mirror - so if the proactive player hits a forehand, the reactive player has to hit a backhand. An additional layer of complexity can be added by forcing the reactive player to hit not just the opposite shot but the opposite spin as well (e.g. BH slice when opponent hits FH topspin; and vice versa).

The drill teaches the players to be proactive in terms of dictating play (this goes for the receiver) and also to "read" the opponent's body language in order to make adjustments with respect to stroke and spin (particularly for the feeder...the "reactive" player). The reactive player MUST REALLY PAY ATTENTION in order to do this drill well. So focus is also improved. In addition, the feeder (reactive player) is taught how to control the point and seek to gain the upper hand from a relatively defensive position (i.e., turning defense into offense). Footwork is also a huge component of this drill - as the the "reactive" player hits the ball and immediately has to recover and adjust for the next ball from the "proactive" player.

If you would like to share any drill ideas or practical suggestions for improving the game, please email us at catenniseditor@gmail.com or contact us on Facebook. As always, if you like the information, please pass it along to anyone who may be interested.

Steal This Drill: Aggressive Doubles

This drill comes to us from Mr. Frercks Hartwig who is currently associated as a tennis coach and player devepoler at TMS - Die mobile Tennisschule in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.

Thank you, Mr. Hartwig, for submitting this drill to CAtennis.com. We hope that all of you take the time to incorporate it into your tennis development process. The drill is as follows:

1. Draw a line about 1meter (3ft inside each baseline).

2. While the ball is in play, the doubles-players may not over-step this line.

3. The players are encouraged to take the ball early - either off a half-volley, regular volley or swinging volley.

4. The coach alternates feeds from A to B and points are played up 12. Feeds are to be mixed in terms of height, depth, pace and spin in order to put the receivers in the position to make a variety of adjustments [Editor's Note: there may or might not be "re-dos" for missed feeds; coach's choice depending on the level of the players]

5. Immediately after the feed, both teams proceed to move in and engage in a volley-volley exchange. By being forced to move in, the "volley-shy" players learn that it's more effective to win points at the net than at baseline.

6. This drill can also be performed by either (a) having the A-B team hit a groundstroke first; (b) having the teams sprint in from behind the baseline at the same time or (c) by moving the "artificial" baseline forwards or backwards to take into account the skills of the players.

For a similar singles drill, see here. If you would like to share any drill ideas or practical suggestions for improving the game, please email us at catenniseditor@gmail.com or contact us on Facebook. As always, if you like the information, please pass it along to anyone who may be interested.

Best 2nd Serve Returners of All-Time

Most coaches will make you feel inferior if you don't step into your returns, as if you don't understand the essence of hitting a great second serve return.  Maybe you are always feeling awkward being in "no-mans land" after making contact with a big kicker well inside the baseline, leaving you vulnerable on your next shot.  Or maybe you are making too many errors trying to play aggressive tennis.  Maybe you aren't wired to take risks, so you are fighting internally with yourself.   

There is nothing wrong with "cutting off the angle" or "taking the ball earlier."  All great advice.  By all means, if you can do it, I highly recommend stepping into the return.  However, judging from the stats taken straight off the ATP website, I notice a different breed of players.  Atleast half of these players are risk-averse players who like to hang back well behind the baseline and give the forehand a heavy ride (granted these stats could be inflated from claycourt play).  With servers generating massive kick and height after the bounce, taking the ball early isn't as easy as it sounds.  For starters, you need to be well inside the court, potentially leaving you in a weird part of the court if you don't do enough with the return.  Secondly, you might give away too many free points doing something that isn't comfortable for you under pressure. 

Judge for yourself, but the proof is in the pudding.  One can never underestimate the value of putting one more ball into the court.  See what works better for you.  It might not be pretty or efficient, but atleast you increased your odds of winning!  That's the only thing that matters at the end of the day, stop being so dogmatic and perfect!  Most coaches can't hit a heavy kicker inside the court, it's not that easy!  Take some pressure of yourself and let the shot develop and give the ball a ride.  One possibility is using a hybrid of staying back and picking opportune times to step in.  Plant the seed inside the servers mind for those moments deep in the set or match at 4-4 deuce or 5-5 30-all.  Those are the little chinks in the armor that change matches and tip a rookie player over the cliff.