Quantcast
nodot nodot
Wild Cards
August 2000 Article

Latest Wild Cards Article

Wild Cards Archives:
2004 - Present
1998 - 2003

Tennis Server
HOME PAGE

Do You Want To Be A Better Tennis Player?

Then Sign Up For A Free Subscription to the Tennis Server INTERACTIVE
E-mail Newsletter!

Tom Veneziano You will join 13,000 other subscribers in receiving news of updates to the Tennis Server along with monthly tennis tips from tennis pro Tom Veneziano.
 
Best of all, it is free!

Tennis Features Icon TENNIS FEATURES:

TENNIS ANYONE? - USPTA Pro John Mills' quick player tip.
 
TENNIS WARRIOR - Tom Veneziano's Tennis Warrior archive.
 
TURBO TENNIS - Ron Waite turbocharges your tennis game with tennis tips, strategic considerations, training and practice regimens, and mental mindsets and exercises.
 
WILD CARDS - Each month a guest column by a new writer.
 
BETWEEN THE LINES - Ray Bowers takes an analytical and sometimes controversial look at the ATP/WTA professional tour.
 
PRO TENNIS SHOWCASE - Tennis match reports and photography from around the world.
 
TENNIS SET - Jani Macari Pallis, Ph.D. looks at tennis science, engineering and technology.
 
MORTAL TENNIS - Greg Moran's tennis archive on how regular humans can play better tennis.
 
HARDSCRABBLE SCRAMBLE - USPTA pro Mike Whittington's player tip archive.
 
TENNIS EQUIPMENT TIPS.

Tennis Community Icon TENNIS COMMUNITY:


Tennis Book, DVD, and Video Index
 
Tennis Server Match Reports
 
Editor's Letter
 
Become a Tennis Server Sponsor

Explore The Tennis Net Icon EXPLORE THE TENNIS NET:

Tennis News and Live Tennis Scores
 
Tennis Links on the Web
 
nodot
Wild Cards
 
Green Dot
 
Tennis Warehouse Logo
 
Green Dot

 
nodot
Practice Man, Practice!
by Tony Severino
Certified Instructor 4A
Professional Tennis Registry

Tony Serverino Photo
Tony Severino

You've heard the story of the musician walking along a street in New York with an instrument case under his arm. A car pulls along side and the occupant asks, "Young man, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The musician replies: "Practice, man! Practice!"

That advice also applies to tennis. You cannot improve your game by just playing. Competing only demonstrates your ability to play the game. Practice works to improve your strokes.

How many of us just want to go out and play and play and play and never really have a practice session. (We're all somewhat guilty.) Playing does not provide enough repetitions of any stroke nor the opportunity for you to analyze and improve it. The only way to accomplish that is to practice.

Find a hitting partner willing to practice with you and let you drill on certain strokes. Reciprocate, of course. If you can't find a hitting partner willing to practice, find a backboard or a wall. They're great competitors. Better still, try a ball machine. You have to feed them once in awhile, but they never tire of feeding you the ball you want to hit. Students of American Sign Language know you must see a sign 300 times before you really learn it. The same could be said for any tennis stroke.

Practice is more than just hitting balls over and over with your hitting partner. That's just warming up... or warming over weaknesses, if they are exercised at all. When you do, practice with specific goals. Try to develop proper stroke progressions the way you were taught and if you weren't taught, find someone who can teach you, preferably a certified instructor. You're never too far along to take advantage of proper instruction.

That is not to say a good hitting partner can't often relate some valuable observations of your game. But be wary. As most skiers know, everyone is a born ski instructor. It seems to be innate. The same is true in tennis. Remember, free advice is usually worth the price.

There is only one kind of practice and that's "Good Practice," practice with a purpose, practice with a capital "P". That may sound a bit demagogic. "What, pray tell, do you mean by 'Good Practice?'"

It's a fair question: what is a "Good Practice?" There are many parts to a good practice. A good practice session starts with an objective and includes numerous repetitions. Have a plan. What do you want to accomplish? If there is a particular stroke you want to work on, be sure you know the proper progressions through that stroke. Work on things you are not good at. "I can't do that!" is not a proper response. The answer to why you can't is in the proper mechanics of the stroke. Find them out. Try them. Make errors to the point of frustration, then make some more. It will come. (Note well: an error is when you know what to do and don't succeed in doing it right. A mistake is when you just don't know what is correct.)

You may notice at the club level many strokes that are "unorthodox," to say the least, but the perpetrators use them consistently and with some success. What's wrong with that? Nothing, except that the stroke has nowhere to go. It will never get better, because it has no foundation in proper mechanics.

One way to start a good practice is to warm up with a close range volley. Get the ball over the net twenty times without a miss. Move back to the service line and do it again. Retreat to the baseline and hit ground strokes over the net twenty times, at least. Are you stroking the ball, accelerating through the hitting zone, or just flailing away as hard as you can? Can you hit to zones on demand? Better still, are you giving your hitting partner a ball he or she can deal with? Are you in control?

Next move into an area where you want to improve, usually one that's giving you difficulty. It's probably the one you like least. Start slowly. Work on mechanics. Hone them until your confidence in the stroke becomes apparent. If things don't go too well, it's still a plus. Gains were made. You'll see.

Tennis magazine published an article (August 1997) which describes "15 Perfect Practice Drills," each one authored by a prominent teaching pro well known in the game. It's a good idea to save articles like this in plastic sheet protectors and refer to them often. The instruction includes a serving drill, drills on ground-stroke accuracy, depth, consistency and angles. Overhead, volley, soft hands, return of service drills are among the others, all worthwhile.

You can't beat a backboard for a productive practice session. If you don't have a hitting partner or an instructor, find a wall, but plan your session. A backboard can wear you out. It doesn't have to be that dreary ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump! There are literally dozens and dozens of backboard drills available for one or more persons. They are challenging and they are fun. For example, USTA has a video called "Backboard Tennis." There is also a supplement to the USPTR Instructor's Manual produced by Mike Bachicha and Dennis Van der Meer entitled "Backboard Drills for Individuals and Groups." It alone has over fifty drills and games for backboard practice. There's tons of stuff available out there just on backboard drills and games.

Carnegie Hall may not be where you want to go, but they don't play tennis there anyway. I think I know where you do want to go and that takes Practice, man! Practice!


If you wish to provide a comment to the author of this Wild Cards column, please use this form. Tennis Server will forward the comment to the author.

Green DotGreen DotGreen Dot

Wild Cards Archives:
1998 - 2003 | 2004 - Present


If you have not already signed up to receive our free e-mail newsletter Tennis Server INTERACTIVE, you can sign up here. You will receive notification each month of changes at the Tennis Server and news of new columns posted on our site.

This column is copyrighted by the author, all rights reserved.


 

nodot
nodot
Google
Web tennisserver.com
nodot nodot
The Tennis Server
Ticket Exchange

Your Source for tickets to professional tennis & golf events.
 
SAI Team Tennis Tournament Tickets
 
Dallas Open Tickets
 
Delray Beach Open Tickets
 
ATX Open Tickets
 
BNP Paribas Open Tickets
 
Miami Open Tickets
 
Credit One Charleston Open Tickets
 
US Men's Clay Court Championships Tickets
 
Wimbledon Tickets
 
Infosys Hall of Fame Open Tickets
 
Atlanta Open Tickets
 
Mubadala Citi Open Tennis Tournament Tickets
 
National Bank Open Women's Tennis Canada Tickets
 
National Bank Open Men's Tennis Canada Tickets
 
Western & Southern Open Tickets
 
Winston-Salem Open Tickets
 
US Open Tennis Championship Tickets
 

 

Popular Tennis books:
 
Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis-Lessons from a Master by Brad Gilbert, Steve Jamison
 
The Best Tennis of Your Life: 50 Mental Strategies for Fearless Performance by Jeff Greenwald
 
The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
 
Most Recent Articles:
 
October 2022 Tennis Anyone: Patterns in Doubles by John Mills.
 
September 2022 Tennis Anyone: Short Court by John Mills.
 

 

 

 

"Tennis Server" is a registered trademark and "Tennis Server INTERACTIVE" is a trademark of Tennis Server. All original material and graphics on the Tennis Server are copyrighted 1994 - by Tennis Server and its sponsors and contributors. Please do not reproduce without permission.

The Tennis Server receives a commission on all items sold through links to Amazon.com.

 

Tennis Server
Cliff Kurtzman
Editor-in-chief
791 Price Street #144
Pismo Beach, CA 93449
Phone: (281) 480-6300
Online Contact Form
How to support Tennis Server as a Sponsor/Advertiser
Tennis Server Privacy Policy