Training strategy drills?
Hello Larry
How important it is to train
strategy and which drills/exercises are best for it? I seem to always train
footwork and strokes with my coach but would like to start incorporating
in-game strategy in my training. The "why and where?" of doing these strokes.
My guess is that I could begin some drills where the first few shots are
controlled then the job is to play the point out?
Cheers,
Ryan
Re: Training strategy drills?
Hi Ryan,
The best way to develop tactics is to play regular and improvised games. Improvised games are where you restrict the rallies in some way, at least at the start, so you can focus on one aspect of the game, as you mention above. (Here's my Tip of the Week on that, Improvised Games.) The key is to try out different tactics and see what works. Try this out with your coach and others, and see what types of things work. The more you do this, the more it becomes automatic. But also play regular games where you focus mostly on one aspect of the game. For example, we had a top junior at our club who served long too often. He needed to learn to both serve short and to tactically play off those serves. So he and I played lots and lots of matches where he started with a short serve and went from there. He quickly learned what types of shots and placements worked, and he improved dramatically from this. Hope this helps!