Play as good as you practice

Dallas Aleman | Towpath Tennis Owner | Tennis Guru

Why is it that you can play well in practice or in a lesson and then when you play a match, you play poorly at times?

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It may be the way you practice or the type of lesson you take. If your practice partner or pro is always hitting the ball back in your strike zone where your strokes are grooving, then you are preparing yourself for only one type of ball. You are essentially ‘playing catch’ where no ball really challenges you. This type of practice is great to correct a defective stroke but it’s not so good for preparing you for matches.

During actual competition, you are going to see the player that hits with spin, drop shots, uses the whole court, or the dreaded moon ball. They are your nightmare and you are cannon fodder for them. That is unless you know how to turn things around to your advantage. By beating the enemy you must learn their game and if you can’t seem to figure it out during practices, then match play is your best bet. Challenge yourself to find those types of shots and players that don’t just ‘play catch’ with you.

When you find yourself struggling against a player that doesn’t fall into your catching game, remind yourself this--you learn to improve the best when you are struggling in an uncomfortable situation.

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We get better at what we practice

Dallas Aleman | Towpath Tennis Owner | Tennis Guru

Tennis is both an individual and team sport. This time of the year we have a lot of you practicing to compete. But sometimes we hear grumbling off the court after a match with players wondering why they can't play like they do in practice.

Well we say, you get better at what you practice. So next time you're on the court take a moment to reflect, what are you practicing?

• Stretching before and after
• Hitting recklessly
• Being generous with your comments
• Skeptically shooting down ideas for lineups and pushing your own agenda
• Having energy (moving your feet)
• Grumbling
• Looking for opportunities to improve your game
• Dreaming pipe dreams with no substance
• Blaming others for your fault
• Working on a particular shot
• Giving useful feedback
• Making an effort
• Being on time
• Hitting with accuracy
• Playing it safe
• Positive attitude

Practice is just that, a combination of positives and negatives. It's up to you now to decide the outcome of your next practice by seeing what will outweigh the other.

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