Tuesday Tennis Tip: Smaggressive Practicing

TTT #4: Smaggressive Practice

In the interest of keeping my words short and simple, as per yesterday's post...

1. Understand the concept of balance.

Even when you practice, or go out for an "Open Court," realize that you need to practice different parts of your game to be effectively smaggressive. Don't just keep shots in, sometimes you have to hit with power. Don't just smash the ball out every rally, you need to work on consistency too. Make it a goal of practice to find the balance between smart and aggressive. It is a mental practice as well as a physical.

2. Value practice time.

Many times we just want to play. I certainly do. Even as a coach, I'd much rather watch you play (or play against you) than watch you drill certain skills, hit crosscourt for 10 mins, serve into the fence. But the repetition of skills is so important to getting better. Again, balance is key, but too often the practice-play balance swings heavily in favor of play. When you have time, make sure you work on skills as much as you work on play.

3. Be okay with losing points while you work on something new.

Don't expect yourself to master new skills instantly. If you are working on an aggressive crosscourt approach shot, you'll miss it. Store that one away in your mental box of "Things to Drill On" and then move onto the next point. You have to practice new skills within matches, and during the offseason is a great chance to do that. But don't worry about being discouraged by them. In the short words of Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, be happy and continue to work hard." I bet you didn't know that was part of the original song did you? But the hard work and reggae music just didn't match...