Practice with a Purpose
There are so many different elements that effect your tennis game, it's something you can work on your entire life. One thing that many recreational and competitive players need to improve is the quality of your practices and workouts. It's so easy to walk onto the court and exchange groundstrokes with your hitting partner, not really thinking of working on any particular aspect of your game. If you instead practice with a purpose, you'll find it has a significant impact on your ability to raise the level of your game when it counts, in a real match.
Some tennis players like to practice by running drills and focus on intensive stroke production, while others practice by playing a social match. Neither player is right or wrong because it's an individual preference, one that you need to find out for yourself what works for you. In either case, you need to give it your best effort and make the most of your time on the court. Here are some tips on getting the most from your tennis workout, and hopefully improving your game.
Practice Matches
When setting up practice matches, try to find a variety of players to hit against. If you like hard hitting and fast action, don't neglect to play an occasional match against "pushers" and players who don't hit much pace. The only way you can beat more players is to develop a game plan against them, and the only way to do that is to play more matches. If your tendency is to play practice matches against the same group of people, make an effort to look outside the group to a player who can challenge you in other
ways. If you're faced with the same style game every time you play, you won't be forced to develop other aspects of your game. Try to play half of your practice matches against people of equal ability as you, where either can win on any
given day. The rest of your matches, the other 50% should be split half against players better than you and half against players worse than you. This way, you get a variety of matches and playing styles to help you improve your strategies
and work on different strokes.
Drills
This is one of the best ways to work on stroke production, ball placement and strategy. It doesn't involve playing a real match, though you may want to incorporate practice points or games into the workout. You can drill using a ball machine, a hitting partner, with several other people or alone with a large
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