How much practice is really necessary?

[TropicalFruit]

I'm starting to think I'm not hitting nearly enough balls/week to improve. I'm trying to get a reference - especially from those of you who are USTA 5.0+ (let's say UTR 9+) - of how many balls/week you typically hit.

In a typical week, I can usually get 2-3 two hour sessions in, but one or two of those sessions might be a doubles match where you really don't hit that many shots. I played a tournament recently and it was just... sloppy, and I was a bit surprised at how sloppy.

I think I've drastically undershot the amount of repetitions I need to actually get good at this game (by an order of magnitude, really). I'm starting to think these slow tempo - everyone's making errors - doubles matches aren't even that useful, and I should really be grinding on a ball machine for an hour, say, 5 times/week, just to get a solid 200-400 balls in on something I need to work on.

So what are your practice routines? Those of you in the similar spot - 4.0/4.5 utr 7ish with decent pace and spin, but simply hit your shots at 85/100 instead of 95/100 consistency - have you realized the same thing as me, or not? Do you hit, say, 1000 balls/week?

Definitely trying to figure out the most time efficient way to practice. If I'm going to continue to pursue tennis, I want an actual plan that'll get me better. My current practice simply isn't working. My top level has gone up drastically, but my median level has only slightly risen.

 

[chic]

This post doesn't really mention goals or give a good idea of baseline, which are huge factors in how much practice time one needs.

A 5.0 with academy background in their youth might hit 2-3 times a month just to maintain current level and that works fine. A 3.5 adult learner striving for 5.0 sill probably need at least 2-3 days a week of focused practice plus some playing on top.

How good are you at learning and actually focusing on your strokes in play? Is winning the priority over improvement in the matches and doubles you play?

A friend and I who were higher level 3.5s have been trying to improve. At minimum we hit 2-3 hrs a day, 5 days a week, probably 44 weeks a year. Interrupted by various work and vacation.
In a given week we split 1hr paid lesson and have a 1hr clinic. We also hit with each other for 2hr on lesson day and various partners who rally or play matches throughout the week for 2-3 hrs each day.

With this intensity level we've become mid level 4.0s in about 6mo (maybe a year of you count the less focused time before we were taking lessons and improvements were self guided.)

I'd guess we could occasionally win against lower rank 4.5s (or sandbagging '4.0s') by end of this year at current trajectory.

If I made it my main focus and really went for intentional practice and cut out some match play I think I could get there in 2mo. But that would get boring and risk burn out, especially if I hit a plateau.

 

[socallefty]

Practice that helps improvement typically means purposeful drills that focus on specific things like accuracy, power, spin generation, hitting to specific targets, hitting on the run, different strokes (ground strokes, volleys, serves, returns, lobs, overheads) and you should mix up the drills. I don’t consider matches, hitting randomly, playing points with feeds etc. as practice that helps quick improvement.

The other thing to consider is what is your level in terms of fundamentals and how close is your form/footwork to textbook technique. Someone with good technique/footwork might need less practice than someone who is just learning conventional technique or someone who has unconventional technique with bad fundamentals.

I am a NTRP 4.5 in my mid-fifties who played a lot of tennis as a kid under coaching and I play daily these days including 1 private lesson and 1 practice session with a hitting partner per week - often in practice, I will do similar drills to what I do during lessons. I spend most of my time practicing improvement of serves, returns, +1 shots and hitting on the run with proper footwork. I also play 2-3 singles matches and 2-3 doubles matches per week.

 

[TropicalFruit]

Practice that helps improvement typically means purposeful drills that focus on specific things like accuracy, power, spin generation, hitting to specific targets, hitting on the run, different strokes (ground strokes, volleys, serves, returns, lobs, overheads) and you should mix up the drills. I don’t consider matches, hitting randomly, playing points with feeds etc. as practice that helps quick improvement.

The other thing to consider is what is your level in terms of fundamentals and how close is your form/footwork to textbook technique. Someone with good technique/footwork might need less practice than someone who is just learning conventional technique or someone who has unconventional technique with bad fundamentals.

I am a NTRP 4.5 in my mid-fifties who played a lot of tennis as a kid under coaching and I play daily these days including 1 private lesson and 1 practice session with a hitting partner per week - often in practice, I will do similar drills to what I do during lessons. I spend most of my time practicing improvement of serves, returns, +1 shots and hitting on the run with proper footwork. I also play 2-3 singles matches and 2-3 doubles matches per week.

This pretty much confirms I've undershot it greatly. When I was at my highest level, I was playing 2 doubles matches per week and getting in two solid singles practices practicing much of the stuff you've described, with some random other hitting thrown in there. I was playing at a high 4.5 level, borderline 5.0. Probably the best match I've ever played was where me and a strong 4.0 lost 4-6 7-5 4-6 to a team of [strong 4.5] + [utr 10.8]. I played at an insane level the entire time.

Since then, just due to logistics, weekly I've gotten more like 1 singles practice and 1-2 (lower quality) doubles matches. My game has fallen off rather tremendously (and rather disappointingly quickly), to a high 4.0/mediocre 4.5 level, which feels insane after playing at a 4.5/5 level for a month, and routinely beating strong 4.0 doubles teams 6/2 6/2 or better (my only playing partners in that time weren't quite strong enough, sadly).

I have a few major habits I need to integrate - one being split-stepping on time every single shot - and I feel like they just never become habitual due to lack of reps. I always have to think about it to do it correctly. Probing the ball on the run is similar: after I've hit 50 shots that day, it's totally fine, but when I come out I need to take 50 practice reps before I figure out the spacing and balance.