Tennis Drills - How to practice mental training on court
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They have other benefits too which you'll discover when you start practicing them, but their main point is learning to play at your best despite pressure.
A tennis player is most efficient and capable of good results when he is in the zone state. That's when his mind is empty. If a player is thinking about anything during ball exchange, he disturbs his concentration and consequently makes errors.
Especially damaging are thoughts about negative outcome just before the point. The most common is thinking about double faulting just before the serve. You can almost predict that a double fault will follow.
One of the main purposes of these drills is to show the player how to find this zone state and how much better he performs in that state. And that is actually the only thing besides effort that a player can control.
Many of these tennis drills will put the player under pressure and then he will have to perform a task under these circumstances. Sometimes a player competes against himself and sometimes against a partner.
In any case, if a player wants to be successful in a real match, then he needs to practice his skills with various tennis drills and develop mental toughness through time. A player cannot become mentally tough by reading books or by just going to a sports psychologist.
He needs to experience success in real situation to really become good with his mental abilities. The first step can be information in various forms – books, websites, workshops and so on. The next steps are tennis drills that are designed to improve mental toughness.
Then a player needs to play practice matches where he is playing a match but at the same time also practicing his mental skills. The final stage are real tennis matches where at first a player is not that good with his mental skills, but through repetition and success they become automatic.
Some of the drills are of the more general nature – like serving drills, which apply to all serving situations. Then other drills are more situation specific oriented – like playing for points, but practicing perseverance and playing under pressure.
Some drills are very match score specific - like playing games where the server starts at 30:40.
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Basic Tactical Tennis Drills - Improving Accuracy And Decision Making Skills
Follow this progression of drills and you will gradually work on long cross court shots, short cross court shots and down the line shots and eventually learn which shot to play at the right time.
Disadvantages of Competitive Tennis Training
Competitive training includes all sorts of drills and exercises where you keep score. But competitive training also has disadvantages, which inevitably will show themselves if a player constantly engages in competitive situations that put him under pressure.
Non-Competitive Tennis Training and Drills
There are two main approaches to non-competitive tennis training: playing game situations without counting and playing to improve the feel and timing of shots.
Tennis serve practice drills
Their purpose is to teach the player how to empty his mind and how to serve with focus. There are also situations where a player must serve under pressure and needs to shut this pressure off so that he is able to serve at his best.
Groundstroke drills
These groundstroke drills here will improve your fighting spirit, make you give all your best and teach about the momentum in the tennis game. This is how you can practice mental toughness on court.
How To Warm Up For Tennis And Why It's So Important
Warming up with mini tennis can be done well or not so well. You can see both examples in the video in the article and find 5 reasons why it's so important to warm up with mini tennis.
Warm Up drills on mini court
When you get on tennis court to start your practice it is recommended that you start with mini tennis drills. Playing in the short court warms up your joints (especially wrists), your muscles...
