tips-to-overcome-stiffness-during-games
Claudio Gonzalez Con asked 4 months ago
Hello guys! I feel that I have very good practices to the point that I mostly get designated as practice partner to get back players on track. But when I get to matches, tournaments or practice matches at the club I became way to stiff with short strokes, hesitation to attack, bad timing because of the positioning and bricked feet. I keep constantly thinking about moving and keeping active but it doesn’t seem to translate to my body. I keep thinking keep moving keep moving but at this moment it doesn’t seem to translate.
Any tips, drills or training that I should do to improve this area?
Tom Academy Coach answered 4 months ago
Hey Claudio, yeah this is very frustrating for sure but also many players have this problem. I think the best way to improve this area and stop it happening is a lot of irregular drills where you don’t know where the ball is going, and try to make it as match realistic as possible. the best simple one is the opponent can block you anywhere and you topspin into their backhand. Then of course adding in a serve and open up when you get more comfortable doing this as well.
Also multi ball is great for speed up the reaction time and adjusting your feet to the switches as well. Lastly I think just playing a lot of different styles and practice matches to get rid of this stiffness and hesitation. I find that really understanding my game style and what my best shots are helps me to play better in games as well, because then you really have a target in mind of what you are trying to do and also your weaknesses you want to avoid during games.
I hope this helps. Tom 🙂
Claudio Gonzalez ConThanks for the tips Tom and keep up the good work. I have a robot at home, it’s not that advanced but it has irregular drills that I can incorporate, Newgy 1055.
Also I found out a super helpful video on the site, one about 3 tips for receiving serves. In it you and Dan give a tip about even before the serve have some movement to be ready to spring into action. I will work on incorporating it in my routine since when I see videos of myself it all starts from there, stiffness at the very beginning of the point that carries over since then.
