[tennisbiz] Re: Competitive Consistency Drills/Games

<x-charset iso-8859-1>Larry,

Although this is not a consistancy "drill", I have
always considered a players mind-set extremely
important in them achieving consistancy in matches.

Very briefly, I feel many players approach a tennis
match with the idea of winning points in terms of
hitting winners or forcing shots to win points. On
surfaces such as clay where consistancy is a major
factor I encourage players to think more about "not
losing". In other words make your first priority
being unbeatable.

This doesn't mean playing defensive, although
sometimes that maybe what is required. By setting a
player up mentally to be "unbeatable" you will see
them demonstrate better shot selection, become more
composed on-court and generally more aware of their
opponent and what is going on at the other end of the
court.

How many players do we see that go onto a court and
blast away early in a match, and then as the errors
begin to creep into their game, their confidence
decreases. In the end they could be playing and
losing to anyone.

No amount of drills will help this problem. It's their
incorrect mindset from the beginning. A famous
Chinese war lord once said "the first job of any army
is to make themselves unbeatable first". Think about
it.
 
 
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Received on Tue Apr 30 2002 - 22:42:33 CDT