Most of the players understand that the better they prepare, the bigger the chance to win during the next encounter. They put a lot of effort into the training sessions believing that their performance from the training ground will be transferred into the competitive scenarios. Unfortunately, the match rarely looks like the training so players don’t really understand why it happens and they don’t know what they should do next.
Every day tennis players have opportunities to give their best work on a variety of aspects. The training session is an environment where everything can be planned so players can focus on abilities that they need to improve to be more effective while competing under pressure (read here how to develop self-confidence). Having a long-term vision and analyzing weekly performance are 2 factors that allow us to address players’ needs and to see progress in player development. The problems start when players improve during the weeks before the tournament but they don’t play even close to this level while taking part in the tournament.
There is no doubt that it is not the easiest job to transfer skills from one environment to the other. The world of training is completely different than the world of competition and even though the daily sessions are similar to what players can expect during the competition, it will never reflect the same actions, emotions, and level of pressure that players can feel. The most important to not lose motivation and belief in the final win while having some problems with your own performance is to understand why it happens, and what to do next.
If you improve every day, it means that your bag of skills is getting bigger. You get more effective at executing some shots, and this process builds the experience that you will have with you every time you need it. You also get confidence seeing that your performance is at a higher level than it was before. However, it doesn’t mean that you won’t have problems. Your higher performance won’t make easy unforced errors to vanish. That is why if you know that, you have a chance to react properly when things don’t go well while competing.
Players tend to react improperly because they don’t understand why they can play really well in the tournament even though they played exceptionally well the days before. They start to complain at their own level and they don’t try to find solutions to the current challenges. They think that because they missed some balls, they didn’t improve at all during the last weeks. That’s not true. Missing in tennis is normal because many factors make it hard to play without errors. Score, stress level, and opponent’s decisions put the player into an uncomfortable state but the skills, and knowledge from the training experiences can help the player to deal with these challenges, and be better than the rival. If you expect the perfect game without errors, you will never be confident, and you will not be able to play up to your potential.
All players struggle during the competition and rarely do they play as well as they do during the training sessions. Novak Djokovic does double faults, and Rafa Nadal misses forehands, but they still manage to win because they understand how good they are, and the number of skills they have to use when the solution is needed. Long-term belief in success comes from preparation but even when you train like a monster but you have the wrong perspective during the match, you will never beat top guys and reach the level that you are capable of reaching.
You should always put the priority on the preparation but as soon as you start competing, make sure you use the skills that you developed. To achieve success, you will have to deal with a lot of obstacles so you can’t expect the road to be smooth and easy. The situation in tennis changes constantly, and you decide how you will adapt, and what skills you will try to use before you even think about giving up. With this mindset, you will never doubt in the sense of the training process as also you will not be discouraged even when your forehand or serve will be off at the beginning of the match.
Marcin Bieniek is a professional tennis coach. You can contact Marcin through his personal coaching website http://marcinbieniek.info. Marcin has been working with USTA, top 50 ITF and WTA/ATP players. Author of tennis book “Tenisowy Olimp” and frequent contributor to TennisPro and TenisKlub magazines. He was a speaker at International Coaching Tennis Symposium 2016 and 2021 at Hilton Head Island, USA.
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