PATIENCE - YOUR MOST IMPORTANT SKILL

  It is often said that in the game of life, patience is a virtue. In the game of tennis, patience is what separates the players from the pretenders. While players spend hours working on their "huges" serve or their "monster" forehands, they devote virtually no time developing what is undoubtedly the most important weapon a tennis player can possess----patience.

Why is patience so important? Simply, because in a match between players or teams of relatively equal ability, it is the more patient player or team that usually wins the match. Tennis is a game of errors as opposed to winners with roughly 80% of all points played, at every level, being decided by someone making an error.

In his fabulous book "Intelligent Tennis," Skip Singleton describes the typical tennis match as "two players trying to give each other each game by making a series of errors until finally someone gives the match away. The winner feels like he has won the match because he was the better player, and the loser feels like he has lost because he has beaten himself. Actually, the loser just gave away the match first! Most matches are lost, not won."

"The name of the game," continues Singleton, "then becomes avoiding errors and playing consistent tennis. Even though this may be the most basic of the basics, it is forgotten time and time again. Your ultimate tactic in tennis should be consistency, no matter at what level you play the game."

Truer words were never spoken. Consistency wins and he or she who makes the most errors loses. What qualifies as an "error?" Any shot of your opponents that you don't return into the court.

A CLOSER LOOK AT ERRORS

Basically, there are two types of errors, forced and unforced. A forced error is a mistake caused by a shot from your opponent that is simply too tough to handle, while an unforced error is one of those careless mistakes we commit where we immediately slap our thigh and say to ourselves, "how could I possibly miss that shot?"

Not surprisingly, there is a direct correlation between the number of unforced errors a player makes and their level of play. Generally, at the lower levels of the game, a vast majority of the errors are unforced. As players move up the level ladder, and develop a greater command of their strokes and strategy, though most points are still decided by someone missing a shot, forced errors now begin to outnumber unforced mistakes. In other words, better players commit fewer unforced errors.

What causes errors? Forced errors, as I said, are caused by your opponent's strong shots and there is not much you can do except try to stay out of situations where your opponent can press you, i.e., short balls, weak second serves, etc.

Unforced errors are caused mainly by a psychological breakdown. Our mind wanders and we get sloppy with our technique or, more frequently, our shot selection. I believe that a vast majority of unforced errors are the result of a player trying to hit too hard or too difficult a shot when they should simply get the ball back into play.

Unforced errors are the disease of every tennis player -- a disease where there is really no 100% cure but whose symptoms can be dramatically lessened with the proper antidote. That antidote: PATIENCE!

Patient players are content to keep the ball in play, move it around, and wait for the opportunity to take control of the point. More often than not, whilethe patient player is waiting for that opportunity, the less patient player will lose his cool and try a low percentage shot, ending the point with either a spectacular winner or, more likely, an unforced error.

So the question arises, how do we develop patience? The answer requires a return to our tennis roots, drills. Drills where the goal is not to win a point but simply to keep the ball in play to a certain area of the court for a designated number of times. In other words, consistency drills.

When I was learning the game, many years ago, my lessons consisted largely of consistency drills. An example: I would walk onto the court, warm-up and my coach would say something like, "Okay, let's start off with 50 cross-court forehands beyond the service line."

I would stand in one corner, my coach would position himself in the opposite, and we would begin to rally. Back and forth, back and forth, until we hit 50 in a row beyond the service line. He never missed, I frequently did. 

SHORT COURT DRILLS

If I accomplished the goal, we moved on to another consistency drill. If not, we kept trying until I did--even if it took the entire hour. Was it boring? God knows, I thought so. Did it help me? Immeasurably, though it took me a while to realize it.

Aside from grooving the mechanics of my strokes, these drills trained something far more important--my mind. I developed my mental endurance by learning to keep the ball in play for an extended period of time while being able to hit it to a particular spot over and over again.

It’s not a particularly nice thing to say but, I’ve been in the tennis business for over thirty years and I know it’s true: many recreational players have a 2-3 shot attention span. Two shots and their minds are somewhere else: school, work, kids, you name it.

By developing the ability to focus and hit consistently you’ll gain a tremendous amount of confidence when you play your matches. You’ll have the confidence to be patient and therein lies the secret:

CONSISTENCY GIVES YOU THE CONFIDENCE TO BE PATIENT!

I believe that one of the reasons players try to end points so quickly is that they don't have the confidence in their shots to develop a point and, as a result, will show a lack of patience by trying a low percentage shot when the situation calls for simply getting the ball back in play.

When I began to teach and tried to get my students to work on consistency, it wasn't two minutes into a drill before my players started rolling their eyes and complaining about "how boring these drills were." Flashback to my youth.
I would then usually change my drill because I remembered how I felt when I was forced to do those drills and, I agreed, they were boring. Well, after watching many players develop the hit or miss style which is so prevalent today, I finally got fed up and went back to the basics. I began to incorporate a little more consistency practice into my lessons and sure enough, the eyes started rolling and the "boring" comments began flying out of my student’s mouths. 

 
FULL COURT DRILLS


I wondered, why did I, and everyone else, seem to find these drills so boring? I noticed that the players would usually complain after they'd made an error early in the rally. It was at this point that I had somewhat of a teaching revelation. I realized that when my students were saying "too boring" they were really saying "too hard." They didn't like the drills because they couldn't do them. Aha!

Once I realized this, I pressed the drills harder and interestingly, as soon as my students were able to sustain a lengthy rally the "boring" comments were replaced with "this is so good for us, we should do these more often."
The consistency they developed, painstakingly in practice, developed their mental endurance which in turn made them more patient players. Where did this show up in their matches? You guessed it, fewer unforced errors.

Patience reduces errors and since the player who makes the fewest errors wins the match, those of you who are serious about improving your tennis should strive to become more patient players. Here are a few drills to get you started. They begin very basically and become more difficult as you move down the list.

Note: No matter how good you think you may be, start with drill number 1. You might be surprised.

DRILLS TO DEVELOP YOUR PATIENCE

Stand on one service line with your practice partner on the other side of the net at their service line. Simply rally back and forth with short, controlled strokes, keeping the ball going inside the service line. You should be able to consistently hit 50 in a row before moving on to the next drill.
Still on the service lines, stand diagonally across from each other and hit cross-court forehands in the same manner. Short, controlled swings with every ball going cross-court and landing inside the service line. Once you get 50 on a consistent basis, move on to #3.
Same drill, except now hit cross-court backhands inside the service line. Go for 50 and then move on.
Stand directly across from your partner, you on the forehand side service box, your partner on his backhand side service box. You hit forehands down the line and your partner returns with their backhand down the line. Again, with all shots landing inside the service line. Go for 50 and then move on.
Switch sides and do the same drill. This time you are hitting backhands down the line and your partner is hitting backhands down the line. 50 again.

Once you can consistently do these five drills from the service line, move back to the baseline and go through the sequence again. Rally using the entire court, then cross-court one way, then the other. Finally go down the line one side and then finish down the other.

When you can consistently complete all of these "consistency" drills you will be well on your way to becoming a more patient, error-free player. Get to work.

DOUBLES STYLES OF PLAY AND FORMATIONS

In doubles you see players set up in many different formations. These include “one up and one back,” two net rushers, two baseliners or a staggered formation at the net, and the use of specific starting court positions such as the Australian or the “I formation.” A doubles team's style of play reflects its philosophy for winning matches while using a special alignment of the players to start a point is a strategy to defuse a particular expertise of an opponent. Playing styles should be evaluated on their effectiveness in dictating the outcome of the match, and atypical starting court positions should be judged on their ability to negate an opponent's strength or mask a team's weakness. 

One Up, One Back

The least evolved and least sophisticated style of doubles play is the “one up and one back” version. It has no redeeming features. In what I consider the bible for doubles, The Game of Doubles in Tennis by William Talbert and Bruce Olds, the comment is made, ”Singles is the game of imagination. Doubles is the game of patterns and angle volleys.”

Those teams that embrace the “one up and one back” positioning are really just playing singles with an interested observer stationed helplessly at the net. Certainly angled volleys are not possible from the baseline and when the team across the net chooses to play the same way, the match becomes an exchange of groundstrokes better suited to the singles court with two ineffective net players bored out of their minds.

I tell my students to remember to hit shots in consideration of their partners' responsibilities, and these long baseline exchanges totally ignore the fact that there are two people on each side of the net. If, however, the opposition has chosen a serve and volley style of play, net partners of the players wedded to the baseline should beware. All of your partners' strokes will be traveling in an upward trajectory toward racquets poised to hit down at you. You will be quite defenseless and perhaps come away with bruises.

This rather selfish style of play really has nothing to recommend it and is usually practiced by those who have no confidence in their transition game. It doesn't work at the 3.0 level because the “back” player is incapable of keeping the ball low enough to avoid damage to his defenseless net player and is not skilled enough to keep the ball away from the opposing net player. And it doesn't work at the 4.5 level because the opposition undoubtedly possesses softly angled volleys that land too short and too quickly to be retrieved. At this level, drawing an “up and back” team in a league match is probably a much sought after event.

Two Net Rushers

“Conventional” doubles is played by two ardent net rushers whose goal is to arrive side by side a few feet from the net. It is a vast improvement over the above style of play, but has serious drawbacks. Angled volleys are possible, catching opponents out of position and thus gaining the advantage within the point. The ability to punish baseliners with drop volleys is also a plus. 

But questions about this style of play arise. Who covers the lob? Specifically, who covers the crosscourt lob? With both players “on” the net, the crosscourt lob will be a winner because the angle of the ball is running away from the team. Who takes the middle ball? The forehand? What if one is a lefty? Is it the player who hit the last ball? If so, can you count that fast? And who puts the ball away? Both players? Do you really want racquets crashing together? Serious injury is a distinct possibility.

Crosscourt and Terminator

The style of play I teach and prefer has distinct responsibilities on the court and they do not overlap. I call it “Crosscourt and Terminator.” The crosscourt player is the “worker bee.” Although he comes to the net on every point, he does not “close” the net. He positions himself just inside the service line so that the crosscourt lob is not an option for the opponent. He keeps the center netstrap between himself and his crosscourt opponent, thus always remaining in the middle of the probable angles of return, and he works to create an opportunity for his partner, the Terminator, to end the point. He does this by keeping his volleys low and angled, forcing the weak reply.

Since the team knows that all lob coverage belongs to the crosscourt player, the Terminator is free to put his nose on the net and rove alley to alley in search of a putaway poach. The Terminator is always the player on the same side of the court as the ball and mirrors that player's movement, being careful to remember that the mirror has a rounded corner on the outside of the court. Since the crosscourt player always volleys crosscourt, the ball always ends up in front of the Terminator. The division of labor is clear and there are no holes on the court. The crosscourt player takes the lob and sets up the point. The Terminator puts the ball away. The ball in the middle first belongs to the Terminator, but because of the crosscourt player's use of the netstrap, he will be in position to back up his partner should the need arise. This style of play foils the lob queens, destroys the baseliners with touch and angle volleys and covers the middle ball more effectively than the '‘conventional” wisdom of doubles. 

Two on the Baseline

There is one more style of play that can be quite useful, and that is the one in which both players remain on the baseline. It does not carry the stigma of the “one up and one back” misadventure because both players are equally engaged in the point. It is used for several reasons. If a team is facing monster serves, they simply cannot get to the net behind their returns. This is particularly true in men's professional tennis.

A viable way of getting the ball in play and avoiding the inevitable poach is to position both players behind the baseline, use a variety of lobs and drives, and essentially play defense against the strength across the net. I also teach this strategy to my teams as a way of slowing the match down. Sometimes the sand just runs through the hourglass too quickly, and within what seems like seconds, the first set has been lost 6-0. When that occurs, the defensive court position is useful. It certainly makes the opposition hit more balls and might make it possible for a team to climb back into the match.

The “two back” defense can also be used strictly as a formation against the onslaught of a powerful first serve and abandoned on the second serve. Or, a serve and volley team may have every intention of taking control of the net, but be ambushed by one team member's inability to return serve effectively. In that case, two back for that player's return, but not for the partner who is returning effectively.


The Australian serving formation positions the server and netman on the same side of the center line.

Starting formations do not reflect a team's character or playing philosophy. They are used either to intimidate or neutralize the opposition or to camouflage a weakness on their side of the net.

Australian Serving Formation

The Australian serving formation has several excellent benefits. I teach that the server stands very near the “T,” and the server's partner positions himself crosscourt from the receiver, on the service line , since he is now the crosscourt player and must cover the lob. After serving, the server rushes the net directly in front of the receiver, hitting all balls in a straight line since he is now the Terminator. The server's partner takes the lob and the middle ball.

Australian serving formation is an excellent way to negate the service return lob. It also takes away an opponent's wicked crosscourt return since he is now forced to hit the ball in a straight line. Using this formation also allows the server to choose which volleys he wishes to hit. If he is right-handed and is struggling in the ad court with the difficult backhand first volley, he can play Australian to that court and end up hitting forehand volleys.
A word of caution about this formation: The middle of the court is very vulnerable until the server can arrive in the Terminator position.

The “I” Formation

Serving teams often use the “I” formation to intimidate their opponents. This differs from the Australian in that the server's partner in the “I” formation crouches very low, on the net, and in the center of the court. He gives his server a signal as to which way he is going to move on the sound of the serve and the server, who begins at the “T,” moves in the opposite direction.

The idea behind this alignment is that it confuses the receiver and makes the poaching distance quite short if the team has guessed right. It can be quite effective against inexperienced players, but the savvy doubles team will have an answer. They will either play their returns on the rise, aiming right up the middle as the net player moves, or they will take a step back and watch the server. Whichever way the server goes is where they play the return, thus eliminating any possibility of a poach.

laying good doubles is an art. When played correctly it is a game of fast hands, anticipation and deft volleys. Above all else, it is a game played by two people on the same side of the net. Your team is functioning at its maximum efficiency if both players enter the same point. An excellent return and then a cross by the receiver's partner is very satisfying. A good serve and a poach by the server's partner should be the goal. Don't underestimate the value of teamwork. Never forget to thank your partner for that great setup.