Training for my upcoming tournament

Joe Bailey Asked 9 years ago

Hello Alois and Jeff,

I have a few questions as I have a big tournament coming up in a fortnight (The Southern Tasmanian Open), and I was wondering if you had any tips for preparing for the tournament. I'm very excited and I was wondering if there was a way to put that excitement onto energy on the court. Any tips for training would be greatly appreciated. I will be playing in five events, so if you have any tips on conserving energy over the day, that would be fantastic.

I am playing some old friends whom I haven't played for about a month and a year, respectively, so they're playing styles may have changed, but I am fairly well-matched with them. I will have to be playing well to beat them, so I'm trying to train with my robot. One of them has a deep pendulum serve which goes to my backhand. I generally return it with my antispin (possibly something I need to change because of my technique), but I always leave a big hole for a loop on my forehand side, which wins him lots of third balls. This is where I need your help. I don't have anyone that can do a pendulum serve, and my robot only has topspin and backspin and I want to practise returning it. If you happen to have any ideas, please let me know. Sorry for the offload of information!

Thank you and best regards,

Joe Bailey

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Joe,

Firstly good luck with the tournament.

I think the excitement can translate to time on the table in training.  That is a major factor as to how much you can improve.

With the returning of the serve, I think it is difficult to practice without actually facing serves.  Is there anyone you can get to do some serves to you.

As a strategy, think about getting the ball more to their backhand corner on the return.  This will mean that there isn’t as much angle to the forehand side available for them.  Also try to return the ball deep on the table.  Again this will cut down the angles available to them.

On the day of the tournament, it is important to eat regularly.  Eat small amounts regularly because you often don’t know when you will be playing next.  Also conserve energy by resting between matches rather than running around with friends.  Make sure that if you haven’t played a match for an hour or so that you get up and either stretch or have a short hit up.

Let us know how the tournament turns out for you.