LTA expert coach Matt Smith breaks down three things that players get wrong when practicing and what to do instead. 

Not using the serve 

A lot of the time when players are practicing or hitting with a partner, they choose not to start the rally with a serve or use it at all when hitting. 

There are benefits to this – it can help speed up the start of the rally and help you get into points quickly, but it doesn’t replicate the match situation. 

If you’re playing points in practice, using the serve to start the rally not only helps you practice that specific shot, but it also lets you/your partner practice the return of serve and then (extra bonus…) what we call ‘ball three’, the next shot you need to play after your serve. This could even just be an overarm serve to start the rally if you are still working on this shot.  

Starting with a serve replicates the match court, therefore preparing you for actually playing the game of tennis and therefore getting you closer to recreating the pressures that come along with this. 

Taking away the match pressure 

It’s always going to be difficult to fully replicate that feeling or response to competing in matches, but there are things you can do in practice to bring you as close as possible. 

It’s fine to do basket drills or rallies at the back of the court to practice a particular skill, but without the added competitive element of introducing points or introducing a competitive scenario it will be hard to bring those skills into your matches with consistency. 

As you start playing more points, you can also introduce different situations to put you in that mindset during a match, for example you could play: 

There’s another game called ‘Belts’. Both players serve for two points and the idea is you have to win three points in a row to win a belt. The player with the most belts at the end of the session wins. The idea being that you work not only on holding your serve but breaking your opponent as well. 

Another one is ‘+/- five’. If you win one point against your opponent, you get plus one and they get minus one and it becomes a bit like a tug of war. First to plus five, wins. 

Remember – if you’re ever playing matches in practice you can submit the results into MyGame to update your World Tennis Number. 

Only practicing your strengths 

When you’re running through drills in your practice, understandably it can be easy to just work on the shots that you feel most comfortable with. 

For example, if your strongest shot is your forehand, you’re probably more likely to want to train playing forehand cross court, but how much is that going to benefit your match play in the long run? 

It may sound obvious, but to get the most out of your practice, you need to work on your all-round game and in particularly focusing on those specific areas you feel that you need to improve also. 

Being honest about the areas you need to focus on will help you get the most out of your time on court. You’d be surprised at the number of people who just ignore this in their training. The idea is to both build on your strengths for confidence and then work on your weaker areas to make you a more complete player.