Many tennis players spend countless hours on the court. Doing the same patterns over and over again. And they might get very good at those patterns. And they might having fun out there. Which is fabulous. But they are not reaching their potential as a tennis player.
My orientation toward tennis practice is the following:
- Set clear goals and intentions for every practice session and find the most efficient way to move toward achieving those goals.
- Pick one small aspect of your game to improve upon each time you go on the court.
- Take the long approach: If you stick to a solid training system you will, in the long term, win more matches and beat better players. You will be a much better player in 3 or 5 years than you are today. If you are absorbed in winning and attached to the scoreline result each time you go on the court to practice, your path to becoming a better tennis player will be much more challenging.
Practice Principles
The principles of practice I am suggesting include.
- Assess the full range of skills and abilities you need to reach your goals and allot time for each of those areas. You can use our Skills List as a resource.
- Gain proficiency with each skill at a slow speed before moving to a higher speed.
- Be specific about your practice intentions each time you walk on the court.
- Set up progressions, mechanical aides, and games to help you be successful.
- Once you gain proficiency in one skill, move on to the next.
- Practice the skill in a game application.
- When possible, set up metrics to track your success.
- Give yourself feedback. You can use: a mirror, video, and observation from others, including a coach.
- Log what you do.
- Let go of winning in practice … unless the skill you are practicing on that day is playing to win!
Practice Ratios
Your practice time should be dividing between these areas.
Skill Building
Utilize a coach, along with a wall, ball machine, self-feeding, or partner feeding to learn and “rehearse” the basic movements of tennis.
Partner Practice Drills
Work with one or more partners to isolate and repeat specific strokes, shot combinations, and footwork patterns.
Point Play
Play competitive point games, coming up with creative rules and situations to encourage you to implement the skills you are focused on. These games could include serving and returning. The focus is on practicing skills with added point pressure. The emphasis is not on winning.
Match Play
As you advance in skill level, you will want to devote more of your time to playing practice matches. Ideally you will video yourself so you can get clear feedback on how you are executing under match situations.
| Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced | |
| Skill Building | 50% | 30% | 15% |
| Partner Practice Drills | 20% | 20% | 25% |
| Point Play | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| Match Play | 10% | 30% | 40% |
The Ideal Practice Partners
Finding the right people to practice with is a key to your success. The best practice partner is not necessarily the best player out there. Practice with other players who are committed to improving.
Preparation for Practice
Before you walk on the court, make sure you have taken care of these three items:
- Establish clear intentions for the practice. This can be 1-3 process goals that you want to accomplish during the practice session.
- Create (and preferably write down) a practice plan which will allow you to realize these goals.
- Take 5-10 minutes to get your body and mind in the state they need to be in so you can play tennis. This could involve some light movement drills, 5 minutes on an exercycle, or some progressive jump roping. If you are working on your mental game, you might want to run through your between-point routine or self-talk cues that you will use to keep you focused and on task. And, you can simply remind yourself to keep on breathing.
Warm Up
Generally you want to get used to warming up in a short period of time and begin executing your practice plan. A complete warm-up of all your strokes should be accomplished in 10 minutes. Then, you should be ready to start your planned practice routine.
Identifying What to Practice
Figuring out what you should practice is a critical step to improving. If you spend half your practice time hitting cross court forehands, and that skill is already the strongest part of your game, then you are not going to progress very quickly.
Consider this approach:
- While you are playing or practicing take notes as you notice the strokes and specific situations that give you trouble. This self-feedback will guide you in determining the key elements of your game that need work.
- Video yourself and watch closely where you are most successful and where you tend to have challenges.
- Use the Skills List to systematically run through each aspect of the game and begin to explore the range of skills required to be a competitive tennis player.
Practice Routines
Here are some additional suggestions for dialing in your practice sessions:
Shot Progressions: If you commit yourself to learning a handful of reliable shot progressions, you will be able to automatically deliver the right shots in match situations. So practicing these patterns is key.
Working on Movement: Movement and footwork is the key to playing high-level tennis. That means when you practice, you want to be very aware and focus on what is happening with the lower part of your body. If you are practicing cross-court forehands, make the drill more about the recovery between shots than about hitting the shots.
Tempo: In practice it is often better to slow things down at times so you can pay attention to your body, and your breath, and specific movements, which would be impossible when you are playing at full speed. And, there are times when you want to go into overload and push yourself to respond to a higher pace. Learn to vary the tempo of your practice so you can be successful across a full range of tempos.
Match Play: If one of your goals as a tennis player is to excel in tournament or league play, then you need to spend a significant percentage of your time playing practice matches.
Point Games / Creative Practice Games: There is a big difference in just hitting balls and playing with point pressure. It is good to practice your skills without a competitive element and then to see what happens with a some point pressure added. Understand what areas of your game needs improvement and figure out games you can play to isolate those skills. For example, if you need to work on approaching the net, you can play a game that requires both players to hit two deeps balls and then to attack, down the line, on the third ball and play out the point.
Serve and Return Practice: The serve and return are the most important shots in the game. How much time are you spending practicing these shots? Do you always leave them for the end of your practice? Make it a priority to practice serve and return. When warming up, have one person serve 10 balls and the other person return. Then switch.
Integrating Fitness Into Practice: You need to carve out some of your tennis practice time to improve your fitness. You can either do this by pushing hard during your practice routines or you can alternate technique work with fitness/movement drills during a practice session.
Video Feedback
Video yourself playing tennis! Nothing can be more helpful than watching yourself play, and practice, so you can objectively analyze how the adjustments you are attempting to make compare with the results you see on the video. What you will discover, once you start watching video, is that what you think you are doing can be very different from what you observe on the screen. This kind of feedback is indispensable for your improvement.
Recovery
Recovery is key. Consistent, high-level practice will lead to improvement, and if you are derailed by injury or you are playing so much tennis that you are unable to give 100% focus to your practice then you are never to going to reach your potential. Schedule days off into your routine. Consider doing exercise away from the tennis court to help your body get stronger, more flexible, and stay injury-free. Pay attention to your state-of-mind on the court. If it is wandering, then take a step back until you are ready to give tennis your full focus.