Beginning Player Survival Skills in Tennis
Physical Skills
-Do you have good eye-hand coordination? Holding a 27 inch tennis racket and swinging it to hit an incoming tennis ball requires it.
-Do you have good balance? Moving backwards, forwards, sideways, and diagonally to set yourself up to hit the incoming tennis ball requires it.
-Do you have good reaction time? Hitting or retrieving a hit tennis ball requires you to not only return to a dominant position on your side of the court, but it requires you react to the ball your opponent hits in time to get set up to hit it back.
-Do you have the ability to keep yourself (or improve) your physical condition? A tennis match is on average 40 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. While there are set time breaks on changeovers and between sets, do you have the stamina to withstand a full tennis match, especially in hotter weather?
Mental Skills
-Do you enjoy solving puzzles? Tennis is like an RPG(role playing game). You have to know your own strengths, weaknesses and your opponents strengths and weaknesses. Come up with a game plan (strategy) to imprint into your opponents mind you have the skills to beat them. Then show them, or not. Either way you are improving your ‘chess’ skills.
-Are you emotionally stable in difficult situations? Do you get angry and walk away when things aren’t going your way, or do you assess the situation, control your emotions and use those desires to complete your objective – to play your best. This may mean winning or losing, but either way, you are meeting the challenge and growing in the game.
Conclusion
Entering the arena of beginning tennis requires certain survivor skills that I have only touched on. To desire to compete to the highest level of a professional requires a level in each of the areas listed above that excedes normal expectations. To enjoy tennis doesn’t require that. Find beginning players on your own ‘survival skill’ level that will allow you considerable enjoyment and ‘fun’ as well as exercise and stress relief.
