Tennis Training - Are You Making The Most Of Your Training Session?

Tennis Training
Are You Making The Most Of Your Training Session?

Thousands are in tennis training every day, yet only a few of them train with a purpose and in the right way.

Most players believe that if they train tennis every day for four or more hours, they will improve. But usually that is not the case.

Why do we train tennis? What does training mean?

The main goal of any training, including tennis training, is CHANGE.

You come to a practice session to get rid of some weakness in your game or to improve some skills. In either case, you want to change the current condition.

Your current condition might be that you are unable to put topspin on the ball with your backhand. So, you come to a tennis training session to work on this technical skill.

Or your current condition might be that you are not good at taking the ball early to deny your opponent recovery time. So, you come to a tennis training session to improve this strategic part of your game.

The current condition that you want to change can also be mental. Perhaps you cannot keep concentration for a long time, and you want to train yourself to become better at doing so.

Or perhaps you notice that you are not fast enough on short balls, and you want to improve your speed by training sprints at every tennis practice.

So, how do we change our current condition to a new, desired state?

Let's first see how you don't change it - or how you achieve but a minimal improvement.

Let's use the above example of being slow on short balls. So, you decide to practice running.

If you practice running on short balls, putting forth a 70% effort in the drill (i.e., running at 70% of your maximum speed), you are telling your body, that it is fast enough and that there is NO NEED to change.

Your legs have a certain capacity. You asked them to perform a task (running), and they can do it. In other words, the task you gave them was within their capacity. So, your body senses no need to grow more muscle or improve the speed of muscle contractions.

Which means that you will not improve. You can run at 70% for 10 years and you will not become faster.

I call this kind of tennis training "warming up." Or, you can call it "burning calories." But it certainly isn't training.

To really train, you have to get out of your comfort zone and force yourself into very uncomfortable states. By doing this, you tell your body or mind to adapt.

Perhaps the most common example is bodybuilding. In order to grow muscle, you need to lift weights that are uncomfortable for you. It's really hard to lift them, and you can do only a few repetitions.

That way your muscles are getting the message that they are not good enough in this current state. So, the body starts the process of growing more muscle in order to meet the demands that you put on your muscles every day.

It's the same in tennis training: you need to put yourself into uncomfortable situations in order to change your current state into what you want.

That is often the role of a tennis coach. You might think that I, as a tennis coach, help players. Not really.

I create problems for them so that they adapt and consequently improve. It is crucial that the player understands the process of tennis training and how to use it.

No one can make someone else run at 100%. A tennis coach cannot move their student's legs. The student must do that.

A coach can create tennis drills and exercises, with competition or other means of motivating players, but the PLAYERS must push and force themselves into uncomfortable feelings and states to start the changing process in their bodies and minds.

There is one other goal of tennis training - to maintain the current state if it has reached its maximum.

In the case of running speed, you must demand top speed from your legs every day to maintain your current muscle structure and speed of contraction.

In the case of mental training - let's say concentration - you must constantly demand focus for long periods to maintain your ability to concentrate.

The body and mind are always looking to conserve energy. And having big, strong muscles but no need to use them is inefficient in nature.

So, as soon as you stop asking 100% of your abilities, they diminish.

In summary, tennis training has two main goals:

1. To achieve change in your body and mind. You can achieve that by pushing yourself into uncomfortable feelings and states, which "tell" your body and mind to adapt.

2. To maintain the current state if it has reached its maximum potential. Again, you need to demand 100% effort from your body and mind to maintain this maximum potential. Otherwise they will change back to a state that is sufficient for current demands.

To gain maximum benefit from a tennis training session, you need to know the purpose of training and motivate yourself to push through the uncomfortable parts of the practice.

That's how to achieve the fastest and biggest change of your current state.

Motivation. Without it, the player will not push into these uncomfortable feelings/states and therefore will either not improve or improve at a very low rate.

That's why only players with very strong internal motivation become top players, since they were able to endure hours and hours of grueling tennis training, which in the end made them fast, fit, mentally tough masters of tennis technique and strategy.