Practice before matches

Alois Rosario Answered 15 years ago

Hi Udbhav,

It is important before a match to be totally ready for anything.

Here I am talking about the practice time that you have with another partner in the 30 minutes or hour before a match, not the 2 minute warm up with your opponent.

Often I see players focusing on forehand and backhand counterhits and topspins.  These are important to get the feel for them but the more important thing before a match is to have good feeling with your serves and short play.

When you are a little tense this is the part of the game that will break down first.  So do your forehands and backhands, but also spend a bit of time practicing your serves, especially the short serve and then practice your return of serve and short pushing.

Finally work on your topspin against backspin.  So practice your serve, your partner pushes the ball back for you and you make a topspin stroke.  This is a vital part of game play and you should have hit a lot of these before the game starts.  It is no good trying to do it for the first time at 0 - 0 in the first game.  You should have done it at least 20 times before the match starts.

Remember to get ready for your match by simulating things that are likely to happen in a match.