The 7 Tennis Training Don'ts

If you are serious about improving your tennis game and you are willing to do whatever it takes to reach your maximal potential then avoid the 7 tennis training dont's below. 

7 Tennis Training Don'ts

1. 🕥 Bad Punctuality - Being consistently late for training has a lot of negative ramifications for your game. First of all your coach/trainer will get frustrated and can lose motivation and focus, I know it has with me in the past, as a tennis trainer when players are showing up late consistently I ask myself how much do they want this and how much do they respect what I am doing.
   
   You also lose precious time that you could have used to improve, if you consistently show up 5min late for 1 year, this adds up to a lot of missed lessons, costing you money but more importantly the chance to become a better player. The thing with punctuality is that it is about attitude and you can control when and where you are going, so control what time you get yourself to training and be ready. Your game will improve, your coach and trainer will invest more in you and you will feel more professional. You can control this! 
   
   
2. ❌ Listening To The Wrong People - Getting advice from the right people is crucial for long term success in tennis. Too many people listen to other parents, friends, etc who really don't know what they are talking about. This leads to misinformation and can lead you down a bad pathway. Find professionals who are experienced (do your research) and seek advice and direction from them. 
   When you find a parent who has a child who is the best, it does not mean they will give you the best advice. The coach and tennis trainer of the child would be the ones to seek advice from. Parents can share knowledge on lots of things in order to support each other, but do not cross the boundary between coaching and tennis training. We get 1000s of emails from people around the world who are looking for answers. We are always willing to help as much as we can, this is one of the main reasons we developed our online Tennis Fitness Programs. To create a platform of guidance and support.
   
   
3. ⌛ Changing Things All The Time - It is important to find out what works for you and stick with it. We find too many players jump from one thing to another, coach to coach, racquet to racquet. Source out what you need, ask questions, work out what works best, and then stick with it. You should always be looking for growth and to add to what you have, but adding to your program is different from changing it constantly. Being consistent with the right tools/people for you will lead to progress. Chopping and changing will lead to confusion and frustration. The priority here is to create the right tennis training plan from the start and stick with it. It has to be what works best for you and is specific to your needs. If you need help creating your ideal tennis training plan get in touch with us at [email protected]
   
   
4. 🔁 Going Through The Motions -  This is very common in tennis. A lot of players just turn up and are happy to play below their best, they know they have more but really don't want to push or do what it takes to achieve it. To change this you need to do 2 things.

1. Shift your attitude: Be more positive and look for things to add to make positivity occur. I can guarantee you right now you could think of 3 things you can add or shift today that will improve your game and your attitude. Have a think about it, what are your 3 things? What are you going to change to make them better? 

2. Set goals: This is one of the easiest ways to get you motivated and moving forward. By setting attainable goals you will start to get some real momentum and every time you turn up to practice or play you will have some motivation and something to aim toward. Some goals could include; chasing every ball down, getting to practice early 10 weeks in a row, performing a comprehensive tennis warm-up., locking in a tournament, getting 5 tennis fitness lessons, and each night performing a variety of tennis stretches. If you are dealing with kids and you think they are too young for goal setting you are wrong. Basic goal setting for kids is really powerful and teaches them to think ahead and chase what they want. An example of a basic/powerful goal could be; not saying anything negative about myself in my next tournament matches. The key to goals for tennis kids is setting a celebration for when they achieve their goal, eg nice family meal. 

5. ✅ Focus On Both Your Strengths And Weaknesses - A lot of players focus on their strengths and enjoy doing so. This is because they are good at that particular shot or movement, it feels good! What I have found is that our strengths have little room for growth compared to our weaknesses.

During matches, we want to focus on our strengths and play to them. During practice, we need to focus on our weaknesses until they too become strengths. If this is your mindset you will become a much more complete, well-rounded player. 
Improving an area of weakness could mean, improving your tennis strength and conditioning, working on your running backhand, focusing on your return of serve, or becoming more agile. Improving on multiple weakness areas is where we see big growth occur in a player's game. When weaker areas become areas of strength players start to realize the importance of looking at their game from a more comprehensive perspective, which leads to a more knowledgeable and equipped player. Find your weaknesses and work on them!

6. 🎾 Not Playing Tournaments -  Tennis training should always be focused on looking for ways to improve to help you play better in tournaments. Some players get really good at just training for tennis and not actually playing enough matches. Locking in tournaments is important for accountability, goal setting, and growth. Don't just train, play!

By setting a goal to play a tournament you are setting yourself up to work hard and get ready, that's a real positive and it will make you feel great when you get there. If you are someone who likes to just get lessons or hit, that's fine too, but adding in a little competition occasionally is great to get you going. If you are someone who wants to play and reach as far as you can, you need to play matches and get good at the process of training for a tournament swing, then getting the matches completed. After that, you debrief, set new training goals, lock in more tournaments, and continue the journey.

7. 🙎‍♂️ Having Multiple Coaches Without The Coaches Knowing  - Players having 2, 3, or 4 coaches is common, and so is the fact that none of the coaches know that the player is hitting with other coaches. I have always found this to be concerning. From a technical perspective, every coach will see and do things differently, even slight changes in technique will have an impact on a player's development, as will point structure advice.

For young players, it can get confusing and challenging to know who to listen to and ultimately how to play. The only way I see multiple coaches working is when the coaches are all aware of the scenario and there is one main coach who controls the technical and strategic guidance. The other coaches are used to provide hits or squads. If you use multiple coaches and they are not aware of it, my advice would be to listen to the coach you feel is going to give you the best long-term results and use the other coaches as needed but make sure they are all aware of their roles. 

These are just a few tennis tips that I hope can help you or those you work with learn from and become better. At the end of the day, that should be all of our goals. Learn, apply, and improve.

Good luck :)