I learned a lot about coaching during a match from my seven plus years of experience with my brother, Paul, on the ATP Tour and during his earlier development. One of the most interesting things about this is that I had a very difficult time using what I had learned in my own matches. I often felt unable to execute the simple coaching ideas while I was playing, even though I kept reminding myself during the match.
I was never a great player. My athleticism kept me in many matches against much better players. However, I did figure out that having a specific strategy and reminding myself to stick with it during a match, gave me the opportunity to beat a lot of players that were better than me. Basically, I decided to try to follow a lot of the things that Paul and I had been working on with his game. I would serve and volley on every point, return and come in to the net on every point, and try to use my volleys to put pressure on the opponent and disrupt his rhythm.
Looking back, the most difficult aspect of coaching myself during a match was dealing with the emotion after losing a point or when failing to capitalize on an opportunity. I didn’t understand that tennis scoring is designed to help a player overcome these issues. If I had approached the next point as a new situation, a potential additional opportunity, and told myself to just focus on watching the ball and executing my strategy, I would likely have been more successful in some of the matches that I did not win.
My recommendation is to keep your ideas simple. Watch the ball, expect every shot to come back, and try to execute your strategy. Repeat this thought over and over again and try not to get disappointed, frustrated, and emotional about what just happened. Play the next point the best that you can and remind yourself that a tennis match will have many ups and downs. You can always come back when you are struggling, right up to being down a match point against you. Try not to think about or focus on the winning or losing.
By giving it your best on every point, you will likely put yourself in a position to win more often than not. If things don’t go your way, hit the practice court and work on some of these self coaching ideas as well as serving, returning serve, and your overall strategy.
Steve Annacone, USPTA Elite Pro, is the Director of Annacone Tennis, www.annaconetennis.com and MyHamptonsPro, www.myhamptonspro.com throughout the Hamptons, NY. Steve, Jeevaj Bondalapati, and Gill Gross run the TOP (Tennis Optimization Players-Top Team) program at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (Tucson, AZ) for high level players ages 8-18. Please contact Steve at sannacone@tucsonjcc.org or 865-300-7323