Win the warm up.

1. Introduce yourselves to your opponents.
2. Spin the racquet before beginning the warm up so you will be on the correct side when warming up and know the serving order as to who will serve first, second and so on.
3. Immediately be the one who “spins” the racquet to decides who will have 1 of the 4 options (don’t spin the racquet on the ground as it often takes too long, scratches the end of the grip when it falls to the ground and depending upon how it is picked up the racquet you can control the be “up” or “down” call. Just spin the racquet in your hand with the butt of the racquet toward your waist until they make their call, “up” or “down” then show them the butt of the racquet to see who won the spin.
4. If the opponents win the “spin” and choose to serve, make them serve from the sunny side of the court first and prepare to lob them a lot during the first game of the match.
5. In the warm up, the first server for each team will take a lot of practice serves as they will begin the offense for their teams initially. The third and fourth servers will take a lot of overheads, a few serves and focus on returning the servers as the first two servers warm up. This is important as the third and fourth servers will play several games before serving and have opportunities to be warmed up before actually being called upon to serve. However they can play an important part of their teams success by focusing on returning well early in the match.

You and your partner need to have a plan before the match starts. This gives you confidence and a purpose for what happens early in the match.

Photo Credits: GeoNando

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Stay positive.

The last thing I want to hear as a player when I come off the court is a dissertation about the match I just lost. I dread hearing about how well I played, what happened when I almost had the match and all other well intended comments. Give me a few moments to come out of my “competitive zone” and enter back into my real life zone.

When your young player comes off the court, offer encouragement and support in a positive manner. This is not the time to go over all the mistakes you saw them make.

Allow them a “come down” time that permits them to leave the competitive zone, relax and have a rational view of what transpired. Coach Wayne Bryan of the world’s #1 ranked doubles team always said his first question for the boys was, “where do you want to go eat?” The next day he would devise drills that worked upon the errors he saw during the match. Now I am sure there was a few other comments that would transpire at a later time about the match as well.

Help the player focus on a couple of simple skills they can work on and achieve positive results quickly to rebuild their confidence. Focus on the positives you saw in the match or progress made toward new skills they had been working on the past few weeks. An example would be to mention that they got 75% of their first serves in play or they managed their time between points really well in the match.

Ask their opinion as to what they think they should work on based upon their last performance. Be specific with skills like footwork, technique or strategy that need work.

Staying positive in a match that you care about can be very draining. You are feeling all the same emotions as the player with no real way to release them as a spectator. Players will notice when you grimace, turn your head away or show disappointment. This can have a very negative impact on their already suffering psychic.

When you are watching their match, be positive and offer encouragement. Saying things like, “Come on, you can do it” and “Let’s go” are good supportive comments.

Photo Credits: Sudhamshu

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The goal is to place one’s body in a position that is relaxing, yet permits the greatest yield in performance. For the game of tennis, one can find the posture as the professionals all know it by heart, whether they are aware of fact or not. Look at a professional match, and note the players posture before serving, returning the ball and setting up their shots. Try to memorize the posture, without picking it apart. The idea is you want to subconsciously memorize the posture, so that the next time you are in a game, focusing your thoughts there will allow the body to fall into the posture.

What will happen is that the back will straighten, breathing will be easier, the head will be better supported, and your confidence will boost greatly. With greater confidence, comes greater game play, and you will relax even more. The benefit to assuming good posture results in quicker and more accurate serves, faster response times and more powerful returns on tennis serves. It is mostly about not tensing up, since to do so will end up putting extra strain and fatigue on you while you play.

It is somewhat difficult to put so much value into something as simple as posture, but watching the pros, they all have it. It is the secret that can help people improve their game, so long as they put the work in. Failure will come often as the newer player will lose their posture easily. Getting it back is just as easy, but it will result in the chance for an error to occur. Practice in employing the posture, and maintaining it, even as you are running back and forth on the court trying to keep up.

Being able to maintain posture is a great way to improve one’s tennis game. It not only builds the confidence that a tennis player can need, but also their technique in placing themselves for a return, adding power to their serve, and other skill boosts. That is the first key to your better tennis game. Make sure that you practice, and that you don’t forget to keep you posture while playing. In the early stages, you body will tend to revert, but once you have made it a part of your game, it can do nothing but help.

Photo Credits: 1

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Doubles Situations

1. The receiving team must lob the return of serve and try to take the net at least twice in each game. This is especially effective when the serving team is serving into the sun.
2. The serving team must play out of the “I” formation or Australian formation.  Get use to using the formations so you will have confidence to use them in a match as well as experiencing how to return against the formations.
3. The receiving team starts with both players back. This takes the pressure off the receiver to make a great return to avoid getting their partner killed by the poaching player of fast charging net player
4. The serving team starts both players on the baseline. This formation helps when the receiver is killing the net player because they cannot volley or the serves are too weak.

Singles Situations

1. Players must serve, return and rally 6 balls cross court before the point can begin.  Serve to the deuce court and rally deuce court then serve to the ad court and rally ad court cross court.  Keep score like in a regular match.
2. Player serves and rally out the point.  If the ball lands inside the service line the striker loses the point.  You can also play that the short ball requires the receiver of the short ball to go to the net to play out the point.
3. “3 to win a major” – (with 3 players) one player will serve 3 points.  If the server or receiver wins all 3 points they win a “major point”.  If they win 2 of the 3 points they stay on the court and a third player comes on to replace the person who lost the 1 point and a new game is played. If they win 1 of the 3 they are the one replaced by the third player who will now play 3 points against the player who stayed on the court.  This stresses the difficulty in winning 3 points in a row.  (*when the score is 30-love there is an 80% chance the person with the lead will lose the next point and 65% chance they will lose the 4^th point as well).
4. “3 to win a major” – (with 2 players) one player serves and tries to win 3 points in a row to win a game.  If the receiver wins the point, they become the server and have 1 point while the former server loses all their points and starts at zero again.  Players keep games won and play out a set.

Situational scoring and match play can help to focus on specific skills necessary to improve ones tactical and mental approach to the game.  They also make great coaching opportunities. The shortened scoring and sets make great challenge match format that can be completed in a short period of time.

This form of altered play helps to make practice exciting and more challenging so players stay focused and do not experience “mindless” practice.  They get use to specific situations and proper responses to the score or situation so they play with a “been there before” confidence in actual match play.

Photo Credits: 1

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Don’t be afraid – pick a target and go for it.

Reasons for the serving team to use this formation:

1. The serving team can limit the receiving teams cross court return options.
2. The serving team has a good volleyer and wants to give them more opportunities to be able to volley on every serving point.
3. The serving team to compensate for a weak server by making the receiving team focus more on the server’s partner and not allow them to “T” off on the return so easily or dink the return back to the server’s side of the court.
4. The serving team has poor ground strokes and does not want to get into long baseline exchanges.
5. The serving team wants to intimidate the receiving team and get inside their head to make decisions instead of focusing on the ball.

Reasons for the receiving team to use this formation:

1. The receiving team has enough confidence in the receivers return that they chose not to guard the center of the court against poaches by the server’s partner.
2. The receiving team has good chip returns and wants to get into the net before the other team and put pressure on the server.
3. The receiving team’s returns very strong and puts the serving team on defense – this neutralized the serving team’s advantage.

How to play teams that play “I” or Modified “I” on serves:

1. Make a decision as to where you want to return and don’t change your mind.
2. Lob the returns a lot if you have a good lob and on second serves.
3. Move both players back to take the pressure off the return of server and take away the net player target.

How to play teams that play “I” or Modified “I” on returns:

1. Get to your first serve in up the middle to “C’ or at the “B” as it creates less angles on the return.
2. Serves up the middle forces the receiver’s partner to over to allow the returner room to make a cross court return.
3. If the return comes back high to the server, volley down the line.
4. Have your team play a Modified “I” or Australian against their formation.
5. Take the pace off your shots when they capture the net. Use softer shots with more spins so they cannot use your pace to kill your partner or hit aggressive shots between you.
6. Lob the serving team right away and force them to switch and run down the lob. You move in and now control the net.

What not to do:

1. Avoid getting sucked into their style of play if is not your style.
2. Avoid trying to hit too hard at the net player – it will only give them pace with which to pass your partner.
3. Avoid consistently serving wide serves as it allows more angles for the returner.
4. Do not look at the “modified” player.

Photo Credit: 1

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