Winning in Practice, pt 1

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link “Practicing to win requires rehearsing the tactical situations you will encounter and selecting the correct appropriate response for that situation until you can execute these responses in the heat of match play” …Ken DeHart

Playing the Score

Practice your singles and doubles match with altered scoring situations:

Start all games at love 30, 30 love, 30 all, 15-40 to experience the pressure of being ahead, tied or behind with no room to play lose points.
Start all sets at 2 all, 3 all or down 2-4 and serving to feel the pressure of set scores that create no wiggle room for unfocused play
Play best 3 out of 5 tie breakers using the 10 point tie breaker used in place of a third set. Use this in place of regular sets for challenge ladders and tie breaker experience (first to 10 points by 2 wins the breaker)
Play best 3 out of 5 tie breakers using the 12 point tie breaker used at 6 all in a set (first to 7 wins the breaker).

Situational Tactics

You can only score while serving. If you lose the point the opponent serves until someone scores a point from that side of the court (deuce or ad court). Like the old system of volleyball scoring, this situation teaches the players how to win while serving. *Regular games and sets are played using this scoring or you may use some of the altered scoring scenarios from “Playing the Score” above.
Players must serve and volley both first and second serves.
Serves can only go to the backhand in both the deuce and ad courts, only to the forehand or into the body for a designated numbers of games to work on placement of the serve
Players only get 1 serve per point – no second serve.
All players must serve from the sunny side of the court each game.
Serving from the sunny side of the court, the servers must serve underhanded, side arm or some below the shoulder type of serve.
Servers must play with only a specific type of serve: slice, topspin or flat for a specific number of games. This helps the players get lots of experience in practicing a particular type of serve.

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