Warm up for Success

CSU Bakersfield Women's Head Coach Dan McCain

What's your pre-match ritual? Or are you like most of us – do you rush on to the court a few minutes before the match and wing it? Most people think the match begins when the first ball of the first point is struck. In my mind, the match begins before you even walk out on the court. There is much that takes place before the match begins that affects the way you play. The right pre-match habits and a better awareness of your surroundings can give yourself the best chance to compete well. The right pre-match habits include the right diet, the right rest, establishing the right mind set, and a proper warm-up – all of these things can affect the outcome of your match.

If you are nervous, concentrating on relaxation, stretching, and breathing techniques can bring your tension level down.

Let's imagine you are in a tournament, and it's about 30 minutes before you are scheduled to go on court. Ideally, you have seen your opponent already play, either earlier that day or the day before, so you have already formed some ideas about not only the style he/she uses but also you have considered some of his/her strengths and weaknesses. At this point, you have stayed off your feet for most of the preceding hours leading up to the match and eaten some light carbohydrates that do not sit heavy in you stomach. These two aspects of preparation provide you with the fuel and rest your body needs to perform with energy throughout a long match.

As the last half hour approaches before you are scheduled to play, it's a good time to find a quiet place to relax. There you can begin to focus on your strategy and take control of your own energy levels. Certainly, if you are nervous, concentrating on relaxation, stretching, and breathing techniques can bring your tension level down. Conversely, if you are tired or feeling sluggish for whatever reason, this would be a time for you to jog a bit or jump rope to lift your energy level so you can be poised physically and mentally as you walk onto the court.

Once on the court you should begin to take note of how the conditions might affect the match. Pay attention to the temperature and where the sun is and how it might affect your ball toss on the serve and your overheads. Think about the wind and find how that will affect your shot on one side of the court and the other. Look at your opponent and read his body language. Is he poised or nervous? What kind of mood is he in? An agitated opponent is one that might play impatiently, in which case you go for consistency and let him make more errors, for example. A player who hits very flat often has trouble with the wind, which you can use to your advantage as well. You can begin to watch how your opponent is handling these conditions.

As you and your opponent set your bags down and take your racquets out, take a brief look at his body type and draw some conclusions about how fast he may or may not be able to move. You can watch also as the warm-up progresses and estimate his speed or lack thereof.  Does he move well side to side? Does he move forward and back well?

When you spin to see who serves – if your opponent wins the toss, what does he choose? If he chooses to receive, he may be less confident on his serve, so you might think about looking to attack it right away to chip away further at his confidence level.

Establishing Your Own Rhythm

During the warm-up, use the initial baseline rally to set a positive tone and become focused from the get-go, develop a sound strategy, and establish confidence in your own strokes.

First look to establish a rhythm with your groundstrokes by hitting smooth and easy as the first baseline rallies of the warm-up begin. strike your groundies with only a little bit of pace at first, and then gradually pick up the speed of your shots the more warmed up your muscles become and as your comfort zone expands. Purposely hit all shots with a significant arc to them – with 4 or 5 feet of net clearance and give yourself targets that have plenty of margin for error.

I like to start the warm-up hitting my shots at half-speed and really pay close attention to technique – this fosters consistency and subsequently confidence. If you come out swinging right away and hit big from the first ball, it's often difficult to find your range and accuracy. Finding your rhythm takes longer or may not happen at all and the harder you hit your shots, the less margin for error you will have, and the more difficult it will be to be consistent. Also hitting big at first makes it difficult to find your neutral ball, and you can often have trouble with your rally ball once the match begins because you never took the time in the warm-up to practice it.

If hitting at full pace or at 100% speed means to hit the ball as hard as you possibly can, then starting out at 50% can be your gauge. Once my muscles lose their stiffness and I begin to feel more limber and comfortable with my ball-striking, hitting out in front the way I want, getting the spin I like, and so on, then I will work my way up to hitting my shots with 3-quarter pace, which is my neutral rally ball and what I generally use to set up points with from the baseline.

Working my way up to neutral gives me a good gauge as to how hard I can hit, and what it feels like to execute when I am on the run and need to take the pace off to defend, or when I get a short ball and want to attack with a bit more pace. By finding my neutral ball, and by finding my own 3-quarter pace in the warm up, I now have a solid foundation for the whole match because I know what it feels like to hit with the pace I want to hit with in any situation.

Don't stand around during the warm-up. It's important to get your feet moving from the very first ball so as to make the warm-up as realistic as a point in the match. Having a sluggish, flat-footed warm-up can lead to sluggish, flat-footed first few games, which can put you in a whole early and build your opponent's confidence. People play better when confidence is high, and having a good start to the match helps a lot in that respect. A smart player finds ways to make the opponent's game deteriorate in confidence and doing so at the start of the match can set the tone for an entire match.

Whether hitting open or closed stance, staying on your toes and keeping your feet moving during the warm up allows you to get into good position for your shots and thus, allows your a better chance to get into the rhythm you want. On the other hand, lazy feet can cause you to reach for the ball, disrupt your rhythm, and make your shots more difficult to execute.

A good goal to set is to try to go through the whole warm-up without missing a shot. Your opponent will notice your consistency, and most people are more intimidated by players who don't miss than by players who hit hard but are wild and inaccurate.

Analyze Your Opponent

The second objective of the warm up is to analyze your opponent. As the rallies continue, you want to look at your opponent's movement and strokes. Which side (forehand or backhand) do you think he prefers? For example, is he running around his backhand to hit forehands in the warm up? If so, he will definitely do that in the match.

Does he have a one-handed or two handed backhand? How much topspin does he hit? Can he hit a slice backhand well? What type of grips does he use?

The type of grips a player uses often is a way of predicting how he will be able to handle low or high bouncing balls. Players with extreme grips have trouble with certain shots, and you can test that out in the warm-up. An example of that would be throwing a low slice to a player with an extreme western grip to see how he handles it. Generally speaking, on ground strokes, players with western grips like the ball up in their strike zone and players with eastern or continental grips like the ball down low in their strike zone, and you can begin to form basic aspects of your strategy during the warm-up by seeing what grips your opponent uses.

When he comes to the net to take volleys, take a look at how comfortable he is. Does he have a better forehand volley or backhand volley? Does he loathe the very idea of hitting volleys and hit his shots with poor technique, or does he look like Pat Rafter up there? If he looks great at the net, you might think about hitting your shots with greater net clearance once the match begins to keep him away from that net and minimize his opportunities to come in. And you might also think about hitting some short slices or drop shots to force him into the net if his technique and body language tell you that he considers volleying to be bad idea.

Anything that your opponent thinks is a bad idea for him is a good idea for you. Whatever your opponent does not like to do, you can get a glimpse of in the warm-up.

The warm-up and the first few games of the match is where you form a basic strategy against your opponent. You want to force your opponent into areas of the court that he is not comfortable in, and this can be discovered before the first game of the match. Once you have formed a basic strategy, then, as the match progresses, you can begin to add pieces to that strategy and form more detailed ideas about how to deteriorate your opponent's confidence.

Pre-match habits can be a major determining factor in how you perform. So get some rest, eat healthy and light, take a look at the conditions that surround your court, and be sure to understand how you can give yourself the best possible start to your match.

Knowing how you can get into a good rhythm with your own shots and analyzing your opponent's physical attributes and shot-making skills can give you an edge in your matches. Being a smart player does not just mean playing within yourself, having a good energy level throughout the whole match, or concentrating on hitting your shots the best way you know how. It also means having solid preparation before you play, using your surroundings to your advantage, and forming a strategy before the first point of the match takes place. These tools can lift your confidence on the court because you will be able to honestly say, regardless of the outcome, that you did everything you could to play well.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Dan McCain's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.