One thing I’ve learnt from years of coaching and mentoring is that often, one good analogy can do the job of multiple repetitions of the same advice. But for that analogy to really hit home, you need to know your player and what resonates. Especially when you’re trying to coach a habit.
This week, I had a player who likes formula one car racing and who is also an aggressive baseliner. A VERY aggressive baseliner. They like to hit the ball hard all the time. In fact, the more pressure they are under, the harder they swing. Sometimes it wins them a lot of points quickly, but more often it goes the other way, and the match can get away from them. I wanted to explain how to make decisions around when to play hard and when to back off a bit. So, I used a race car analogy to get the point across.
You can't take every turn at full speed
I love a whiteboard. I have one that lives at the back of my courts and for this player I drew a racetrack on it that looked something like this.
(Okay, it looked nothing like this, I can’t draw 😂 , but let’s pretend.)
Next, I pointed to the sharp curve labelled 1 and asked, “If 100 is the fastest the car goes, how fast would Lando Norris go around this curve?”
“Not fast,’ was the reply. “Maybe 50.”
“What about curve 2?”
“A bit faster, maybe 75.”
“What about going down the straight. 3?”
“I guess 100.”
“Right. But why wouldn’t he go 100 the whole time?”
“Because he’d crash.”
I nodded. “Right. And if you crash. You lose the race.”
You can't hit every shot, flat, at 100%
Now with that visual in their mind, I then talked to my player about how that analogy might translate to shot selection.
It went something like this.
If you are being attacked and pushed behind the baseline, you’re in defence, which is similar to going around a tight curve like 1. What do you need to do in that situation? Not hit a flat ball at 100%, that’s for sure! In that situation you might play a 50% ball with height and spin and a lot of margin.
Then, if you are being pushed laterally, where you have a little time, but your feet aren’t quite set. That might be like curve 2. Here you could maybe play a 75% ball, but still with some shape and margin.
Finally, if you face a short ball that’s inside the service line, above net height and where you have time and space to set your feet. Well, that’s like the home straight. There you can go at 100%. Flat and hard with less margin.
I find introducing an analogy like this, one that’s meaningful to the player and easy to understand, really helps form beneficial mental habits.
And in this case, it helped my player see the connection between their court position and their shot selection. Much like a race car driver adjusts their speed depending on the track it helped teach them when to play safe and when to go for it.
Use this thinking during the match
We can take this analogy further by applying it in the context of the match too. So, if you think about the match as a racetrack, 1 might be that break point you are trying to save at 4 – 5 down. At that point, you need to play it safe.
5-2 up… you’re on the home straight, you can take a few more risks.
But at 5-5 in the third you need to navigate those chicanes carefully.
Transform into a race car driver
While a race car driver makes decisions before each turn, on the tennis court a player needs to make decisions before each shot.
By making good decisions on every single ball a player can decrease their errors and increase the possibility of their opponent making an error instead.
Sure, they still might get overtaken on the last curve, but at least they gave themselves the best chance of winning!
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Regards,
Marc Sophoulis