Podcast 83: Today I share my top three things to do and not do (Part 1)

[music] Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this Podcast is for you. Whether it's technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game , tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here's Ian!

Ian : Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. Your place for free, expert tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. Today's episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast is brought to you by summersetsportsperformance.com. Thank you very much for joining me on today's episode of the Podcast.

I'm going to be answering several listener questions that are going to range in topic quite a bit. We're going to talking about topics such as, making adjustments and strategy during match play. Using power or placement to beat your opponents. Serving into the sun and also if we have time playing against a higher ranked player.

Well if you've appreciated the free instruction and input that you've received from the Essential Tennis Podcast, I would really appreciate you helping me spread the word. I would really appreciate it if you would talk to any friends , teammates or hitting partners that you may have who are also passionate about tennis, just like you are. Just like I am.

And if you know people who are trying to improve their game and who are working hard to increase their skill level, please let them know about this show. It would mean a lot to me if you could just tell them about it and have them check it out. Alright, let's get down to business. Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music] [music]

Alright, let's get started with the show. And our first question comes to us from Chris F. in Beaverton, Oregon. And Chris is a 4.5 level player. Let me kick off this question of his which is excellent. I'm really looking forward to talking about this . I had originally different plans on how to tackle this topic and I was planning on having a guest but that didn't really pan out.

I'm still really looking forward to talking about it and I'm really going to go into depth on this because I think it's extremely important. And just kicking this off and starting to think about it and talk about it here, I can tell I'm probably not going to get to some of our other questions today.

But this is a very very important topic for all of you listening regardless of your level– whether you are just starting off or weather you are an advanced player, like Chris is, and I want to begin by congratulating you Chris-being a 4. 5 level player very often, players at your level kind of get complacent . They become satisfied and they are fine .

Obviously you've worked hard to get where you are , it's really not possible to be a 4 or 5 level player without really putting in some good efforts. For those of you who are listening internationally, our rating system in the US spans from 1 to 7 and basically if you're a 6 or a 7 level player, you're professional and you're making all of your income by playing tennis competitively.

A 5. 0 level player is below that obviously. 5. 0 and 5. 5 is basically like a high level college competitive player , division I or maybe upper division II. Or very upper division III for college here in the US. And, I remember seeing the percentage breakdown but something like 3% or 4% of tennis players in the US fall within 5. 0 or above.

So it's a very small percentage. I think 4. 5 and above is something like 7% or 8% are 4. 5 level and above. So just to give you guys some perspective who aren't familiar with the MTRP rating system if you're not in the US or you just aren't familiar with it in general. So Chris is definitely a higher level player and Chris I want to congratulate you on still looking for ways to improve your game and I hope that someday you are able to make it to 5.0 and compete at that level as well.

But great job listening to this show, and seeking out good information to hopefully continue to improve. And here is Chris's question which he contributed to me. He wrote to me and said: ‘personally I find that a match can turn on making adjustments ; just recently my partner and I were blown off the court 6-1 in the first set. And after making deliberate adjustments, came back to win the second set 6-1.

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So they lost the first set 6-1; won the second set 6-1–which is obviously a huge swing in momentum back and forth. Then he says: ‘Recognizing what's going on and making adjustments accordingly was the key. It wasn't a matter of skills. It was a matter of how those skills were applied strategically. Can you please talk about this?' Ian : Well Chris, that's an excellent question and an excellent topic. This is something that a lot of players really need to work on– and really need to be more aware of in their tennis play. I think that a lot of times tennis enthusiasts–and those of you who are listening to this show right now are definitely probably some of the most passionate tennis players anywhere. [laughter]

I mean, you guys have really shown some initiative by finding this show, and by listening to it on a regular basis, you're obviously really into tennis. And a lot of times players like that get so wrapped up in technique, and stroke s, and being to advance their… How they swing at the ball. And so often I think strategy is kind of left to the wayside .

And we”ve talked a lot about mental tennis here on the Essential Tennis podcast. That's another extremely important topic besides just knowing how to swing at the ball. Strategy probably isn't discussed enough here, so I'm glad we get to talk about this.

Well Chris, thank you for the question, and I've got my top 3 things that get in the way of players making adjustments, and also I have for myself Top 3 things that you need to do if you want to be able to adjust well. If you want to be able to make changes to your strategy to be able to win more matches. As Chris correctly said: It's not so much about skills; it's how you implement your skills. It's how you put them into your match, and how you use them strategically .

So my Top 3 Things here on ‘What gets in the way of players making adjustments?' Number 1: Focusing too much on their own technique. And I mentioned this just a second ago–I think it's probably the #1 thing that gets in the way of recreational players playing smart tennis. When you get out on the competition court–on a competitive court–and you're going to play against somebody in a competitive match , you need to put technique aside. You need to stop thinking about how to swing , and start thinking about how to use your technique to actually defeat your opponent.

If all of your focus is just on yourself and how you are swinging the racket, you can only concentrate on one thing at a time. It's just a mental biological fact. Yes, you know, as humans we can multitask and do multiple things at once, but we can only really give mental focus, or concentration, to one thing at a time.

So if you're over on your side of the court s and you're trying to remember all the different swing thoughts –which is a phrase commonly used in golf –meaning, thinking about specific technique things that you need to do to accomplish certain swings . Maybe you're trying to add more top spin to your forehand, so you're thinking about dropping your racket farther; swinging upwards faster; maybe being more relaxed .

And then over on our backhand side, you're trying to work on your slice , and your racket hand is too open. You've got all these things going on in your head for every swing . You're not going to be paying attention to what ‘s going on on the other side of the courts. And you're going to lose– you're going to miss out on a lot of information, because you're so preoccupied with what's going on on your own half of the court. So once you step out there, great. It's good that you're working on your technique. It's great that you're trying to improve your strokes .

But once you step out to actually compete, you need to put that away. You're no longer working on your strokes. You're now using your strokes that hopefully you've learned and you've grooved in enough . You're now using them to try and defeat your opponent. So stop focusing on your technique. When you go out there to play. That's #1.