- Although there are innate and genetic physical and mental qualities that provide advantages for athletic performance, the main determining factor for success in any athletic pursuit particularly for a complex sport like tennis is not talent but effort and the investment of time in disciplined, purposeful and deliberate practice and play. Excellence is defined by hard work to acquire the technical, physical, and mental skills and experience-based knowledge necessary to be successful in tennis at the highest levels.
- To achieve excellence, it is necessary to approach training with a growth mindset. This is a belief that your abilities can be transformable through effort and perseverance and are not limited or fixed by genetic and environmental factors. Disadvantages in natural ability and other external circumstances may create more obstacles and barriers requiring creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness to overcome but should not limit potential and the ability to improve.
- Tennis is a complex sport with an unlimited number of possible variables influenced by the scoring and rules, playing styles, direction and directional patterns, pace, depth, spin, trajectory, net clearance, court positioning, bounce and more. As a complex sport, the game will undoubtedly evolve and witness innovations and performance gains. This will require creativity, adaptability, better precision and execution, a more thorough and detailed study of the game and the subtleties of the game and most importantly, a greater need for methodical, disciplined, purposeful and deliberate training and training practices to excel.
- What constitutes disciplined, purposeful, and deliberate practice? It is about doing the first things first. It is about repetition and revision, sustained effort and staying with something until you get it right. It is about working on both the things you struggle to do well as well as the things you do well. It is about continuous improvement, intensity, resiliency, and a relentless pursuit for excellence. It is about pushing yourself to do more while at the same finding time to step back for a fresh perspective, assessment and/or recovery. It is about stepping out of your comfort zone and taking on tasks which are difficult and right on the edge of being out of reach. It is about continuously taking on challenges that push the limits of your ability.
- Training to excel in tennis and other sports requires a heavy commitment of time. Research has suggested it takes at least 10,000 hours of disciplined, purposeful, and deliberate practice and play to master the skills necessary to excel in tennis.
- The pursuit of excellence requires dealing with adversity and failure. Struggles, setbacks, and failures are important and necessary components of the process. Failure should be perceived as a learning and growth opportunity to reassess, retool, and revamp or simply work harder. Difficulties in facing plateaus and hurdles can serve to test your character and a means to bind commitment and resolution to work harder and smarter.
- Continuous improvement requires personal responsibility and accountability. It requires intrinsic motivation, passion, and enthusiasm. The pursuit of excellence can be bolstered by external factors such as encouragement from a coach, teammate, peer, or family member but the main drive to succeed and grow has to stem from internal motivation.
- The process requires a roadmap of where you want to go and how you plan to get there. This is where you can benefit from the guidance and direction of a qualified coach or teaching professional.
- The process requires self-belief and confidence in your capabilities and capacity to get things done and achieve your goals (get to where you want to go). Confidence and self-assurance will help in dealing with adversity and removing doubt when things are not going well.
- What is the end game? Through a heavy investment of methodical, disciplined, purposeful and deliberate training and training practices and competitive match play experience, the goal is to develop the ability to hit under the pressure of competition all strokes and stroke variables, move and cover the entire court with physical presence, dynamic balance, speed and agility, execute all stroke patterns from multiple court positions, compete with intense concentration and focus, and develop the knowledge base to implement game plans and implement necessary strategic and tactical decisions. The goal for the elite player goes one step further. The goal is to establish such mastery of the game that movement and stroke execution become intuitive, automated, and effortless requiring no conscious control or thought. The goal is to encode with implicit memory recognition the key kinematic, spatial, environmental, and contextual cues necessary to dictate play and adapt and respond to all playing styles, situations, circumstances, and conditions.
What does it take to excel at the highest level?
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Ten Things Tennis 