Pressure Drop

Inspired by the song Pressure Drop by Toots and the Maytals, here are 10 things you can do to drop the pressure on your opponents.

1. Be relentless with no loose points or lapses in concentration. Be focused and disciplined on every point. Make a commitment to run down everything and convince yourself that if you get a racquet on the ball, it is coming back. Scrap for every point making it difficult for your opponent to get any kind of foothold into the match.
2. Pressure your opponent with an imposing and powerful serve (the ultimate weapon in your arsenal). Power is definitely an important component for a “big” serve but just as important is your ability to hit targets and vary pace, spin and direction to keep your opponent off-balance and indecisive. Place emphasis on holding your serve. Every time you hold your serve (particularly when serving first in rotation), you apply pressure on your opponent to likewise hold serve to stay in the match.
3. Exert pressure by playing on or inside the baseline. Take the ball early and on the rise (as necessary). Approach balls hit out wide on the diagonal to cut off angles. Use a positional advantage to take time away and make your opponent rush his/her shots.
4. Be unpredictable. Modify your position when returning serve. Disorientate the line of vision and depth perception of your opponent by returning serves from a position inside the baseline and others from a position further back. Close into the net with your serves and serve returns. Fall back with others. Manipulate these and other factors you can control (such as spin, pace, depth, direction, net clearance and trajectory) to disrupt rhythm and make your opponent confused and uncertain.
5. Apply pressure by pouncing and attacking any ball left short and/or hit to the middle of the court. Look to specifically attack second serves (which in many cases provides one of your best opportunities to attack) or any serve you can drive from a position of strength. Look to close as tight to the net as possible with your volleys and use this forward momentum to finish the point with decisive and crisp volleys (affording no chance for your opponent to stay in the point).
6. Look to take as many shots as possible with your strongest shot. Set up patterns favoring your strongest shot. Look to gain a positional advantage to create opportunities to hit your strongest shot. Use your best shot as a weapon to dictate play.
7. Be consistent. If your strength is a high shot threshold and an ability to get balls back in play, do everything possible to extend the rally to make your opponent hit one more shot. Play solid, high percentage tennis by hitting with high margin to big targets.
8. Control the tempo and pace of play. Be strategic and deliberate in the time you take between serves and during changeovers taking more or less time as necessary. Lower net clearance and increase stroke velocity to up rally pace or absorb pace with spin and increase net clearance to lower rally pace.
9. Control your emotions. Exude confidence and joy. Show no sign of weakness or doubt. Be positive with your self-talk, body language and demeanor.
10. Manage the score and the risk/reward dynamics. Recognize how to identify and play pivotal points. Learn when to be aggressive and when to lockdown refusing to make a mistake. Be bold and unfaltering when ahead in the score. Be decisive and focused on the process and not the outcome when closing out a game, set and/or match. Fight and dig when behind in the score. Take advantage of the psychological advantage gained and the potential for a momentum swing after saving one or more breakpoints. Learn how to establish and reestablish momentum and how to navigate the natural up and down flows in a match to your benefit.

I say, a pressure drop, oh pressure

Oh yeah, pressure drop, a drop on you

I say, a pressure drop, oh pressure

Oh yeah, pressure drop, a drop on you

Toots and the Maytals, 1968