What is your ideal practice to play ratio?

[MoxMonkey]

I have a handful of hitting partners. Sometimes it's just rallying, net practice, hitting around etc. Other times it's cooperative/competitive (my favorite), and sometimes it's 'lets play a set'

Some people I hit with never want to play sets, and some people only want to compete.

For myself, my ideal would be about 12-15 hours a week(more in the summer if able) with the majority of that being practice. Something around 80 percent practice and 20 percent sets/matches is what I find the most beneficial.

What do y'all find good for your game?

 

[dkmura]

For me, it really depends on who I can find to play. While I enjoy practice, many people don't share that enthusiasm. The best would be two drill sessions a week- one a group drill and the second more personalized. In between, playing sets with a variety of opponents in both singles and doubles is a treat. Holding a past USTA ranking in my state means I know I may not ever see those heights again, but I still enjoy playing.

 

[Xen]

Most of the guys I hit with want to play sets after only 5-15 minutes of hitting. For my level, this has made me really good at strokes like serves and return of serve, but noticeably worse at rallying.

I've been going out with my ball machine when I can to work on my strokes. I'd like to aim for at least 50-50 match-to-practice, but I think I'm closer to 75-25 at the moment.

 

[socallefty]

Normal weekly schedule for me is 3 singles matches, 3 doubles matches, 1 lesson and 1 practice drill session playing once a day except on Fridays when I play twice. Occasionally, my wife will rope me in to hit with her on one more day also.

I think I play this schedule because it is the most fun for me rather than because it is best for my game. With the lesson and the drills, I practice just enough to keep my game sharp while having fun from hanging out with my friends playing a mix of singles and doubles matches. I played a lot of tennis as a kid and then for the past twenty years - so, probably for more than 30 years of my life, I’ve been playing tennis almost daily.

Ideal practice schedule might be 2 lessons, 2 drill sessions, 2 doubles matches and 3 singles matches per week - maybe I’ll do that when I retire someday.

 

[StasTs]

Depends on a season for me. In winter when we're playing on indoor courts, I'm mostly practice (usually with trainer). Occasional I'm playing some tournaments or team matches, but it's not often. When I'm spontaneous playing with somebody, then usually it's sets or 30 minutes practice+30 minutes games.
During outdoor courts season, I'm playing 2-3 team matches (single+double) per week and trying to make 1 practice session in a week. There are not much time and fitness left for more.
When there are no team matches, then it's like 1 practice to 2 friendly sets playing.
In training camps it's daily practice (~1.5 hour) + daily sets (~1-1.5 hour).

PS. I'm 46 year old, around 5.0 (3.5 Austrian ITN) player.

 

[ChaelAZ]

I like at least one stroke, patten, strategy type practice a week, then a practice match with some point/play review. Only play one competitive league match each week anymore. Might throw in other fun social matches during a week, but just depends.

 

[Fintft]

I like at least one stroke, patten, strategy type practice a week, then a practice match with some point/play review. Only play one competitive league match each week anymore. Might throw in other fun social matches during a week, but just depends.

Yes I also am more for practice than matches, also to protect my knees (being build like Tsonga, who just retired after a career plagued with injuries at 100 kgs on a tennis court lol) + I like baseline rallying to hone my shots. That includes coming to the net after short balls or to finish points. But I need to practice the serve on my own, each couple of days in this case.
Another argument for more practices is that I get to practice, at least at times with higher rated players (or my coaches), whereas matches against them don't make much sense, while in practice they adjust their range to hit more into my wheel base...

 

[nyta2]

about 50/50, unless i'm working on something specific... then more like 90/10 (match play)
that said, it's really important to actually practice playing sets... as i have to practice in the context of an (often) arrythmic rally (serve, fh, bh, approach, volley, oh)...
"practice" is often a single repeated shot over and over (eg. fh cc, bh cc, servers, many volleys in a row, etc...)
even "practice" baseline games are often 3-4 cooperative groundies in a row (where the first miss is often not counted by many)... vs. serve, attack short ball/defend deep ball, etc...

 

[Steady Eddy]

I'd like a 2:1 ratio of practice to matches. I'd like to experiment and then see if it works. But usually I play doubles with a partner who wants to win, so I'm limited in experimenting.

 

[Injured Again]

I have a variety of practice partners and between all of them, I do a lot more drills/hitting than playing sets. And of the hitting, the vast majority of it is with six balls and playing each of those as competitive points, with 75% starting as a groundstroke feed and the remaining 25% as a serve with each player serving ten points in a row.

I really feel having six balls and continuously hitting them all in a row is important. It's a big cardio workout, much more than twice as hard with three balls. And just like it is important to understand your own game when the score is 30-all, it's equally important to know your own game when you are already breathing hard starting out points.

This feels pretty optimal to me as a general average but will increase the amount of playing sets right before tournaments.

 

[MoxMonkey]

I really feel having six balls and continuously hitting them all in a row is important

Yeah I agree with that. Six or more tennis balls in a hitting session really ups the intensity