windy days are my nightmare!

[looseswing]

I think that windy days have gotten inside my head more than any opponent. Whenever there is a visible breeze in the trees I go "Oh crap" because I associate windy days with the extremely windy ones of tennis season where pushing the ball over was all that one could do. Any tips to get rid of this? Any on how to play better on windy days? (I'm talking about gusts of up to thirty mph although much slower gusts impact me mentally)

[kicker75]

When the wind is truly messing around with the ball (probably anything over 25 mph) you need to play a higher margin for error game, meaning to use a higher arc on the ball, use more topspin, aim more for the middle of the court, and play higher percentages, and that's about all you can do. Your opponent has to play through it too, so it ends up that whoever makes the least amount of mistakes usually wins, because in high winds, a lot of "weapons" are nullified.

If you can get your hands on the 2004 US Open match of Federer vs. Agassi (2nd day), watch it. These are 2 world class players playing in 35-40 mph gusts, and basically it came down to who made the least errors. I've never seen two guys who can paint the lines on any given day hit the ball high, slow, and mostly into the middle of the court.

As for moderate wind gusts, that really doesn't put action on the ball, you need to just get confidence in playing in those conditions, and the only way to do that is to regularly play in those conditions. If you play enough in it, you'll just get used to it.

[Midlife crisis]

I hate windy days too, since I'm a plant and hit kind of player, but the one thing that makes it really pretty easy to play when it is gusty is an oversized racquet.

[tarheels2323]

In HS, my coach made us say that we love the sun and the wind on days which corresponded to the particular adverse weather condition (adverse for tennis, I normally love really sunny days). Needless to say, even after repeating one of these phrases (always was directly correlated to our complaints about said weather conditions), we still hated the sun or the wind. I remember my freshman year when I was playing doubles, me and my partner would hit a ball seemingly in the direction of the #1 doubles court and it would curve back in for a lob winner. That match was one of the few I can remember in which I loved hitting lobs. Make a game out of it. See just how ridiculous of a shot you can hit and it still be in.

[darknight08]

my serves get screwed up on these days

everything else is fine

[brucie]

Just forget it and play lqaugh at the wind, and never think what direction it blows in and try to do anything about it! Play like usual changing will result in frustration and pushing.

[penpal]

The best thing you can do to prepare for windy conditions is to play as often as you can in windy conditions. The more matches you play in the wind, the more the tactics that are necessary to compete well will become second nature to you, and you will no longer be actively thinking about the wind and what you need to do.

For this to work though, you have to play competitive matches, not just practice in the wind. That's not to say practicing is a bad thing, just that the mindset that goes along with playing to win will force you to focus on what works and what doesn't when the wind is kicking up.