"If You You Want To Beat Better Tennis Players, Try This."

[thomas daniels]

Are you tired of losing matches to better players?

If so, please keep reading.

Because,

The reality you are facing is this.

If you want to move up in the ranking at your club or in your league or team.

You are going to have to learn how to beat the better players at some point, so why not start doing it now.

And here are some ways for YOU to do that.

One.

Get better at scouting them.

You have to get better at scouting these guys and then create a strategy specifically for beating them.

The key word there is specifically.

That's the magic word that you have to use when planning your strategy.

Focus on how you are going to execute it in the match and play it all out in your head mentally.

This is what the pros do, so why not do the same thing?

Next.

Work on your strategy in your practice matches.

This is the biggest mistake that I see players making before their matches.

They don't work on executing their strategy in practice matches before the match!

And instead do what they always do to just win the practice match.

What ever you do.

Do not make this same mistake.

Work on your strategy and play the practice match like it is a REAL match.

This is really important too.

You must take these practice matches serious to get a good feel for executing your strategy before you use them in a REAL match.

Try this.

Practice on it in these practice matches, until you can't get it wrong!

Last thing.

Mentally picture it happening while you are working on your strategy.

Since you will always perform up to the mental picture that you have of your matchplay game.

Now.

After you have done the scounting and created your strategy for beating them, you must mentally picture yourself doing it in the match MENTALLY.

All the time too.

See yourself executing your strategy to perfection in your mind.

This is really where you can preprogram your subconsious mind before the match to execute your strategy.

Then.

During the match.

(Relax, allow your breath to be the anchor and then let your subconscious mind do all the work for you from there.)

All you have to do then is...

Just get out of your own way by emotionally detaching from the outcome.

 

[Curious]

They’re not a better player if I beat them.

 

[Mongolmike]

Get better at scouting them.

You have to get better at scouting these guys and then create a strategy specifically for beating them.

The key word there is specifically.

To tag along. if you've played and lost to them, you need to be realistic. Why specifically did you lose? What were they doing that was causing you trouble, and were you contributing to their success?
This goes to the common complaint about pushers, and how they aren't playing real tennis, etc. Drop that mentality. Whether you like it or not, their strategy/style beat you. Call it what you want, but they beat you.

Long ago I played a friend and lost regularly to his conservative/pushing style. Simply, I made too many mistakes trying to hit him off the court, but he was able to retrieve and return most of my shots. So I'd tried to hit harder, and closer to the lines. Ended up making even more mistakes.

Finally worked out a successful strategy that frustrated him, and counter intuitive, that was to hit to his strength. I would continually hit medium pace but deep balls to his forehand. Nothing to trouble him and in fact, just normal shots he was able to return without lobbing. I would hit 5, 6, 8 shots to his forehand. I didn't need to overhit, so I lowered my mistakes, and he wasn't used to or really capable of hitting winners from the baseline. His game was based on opponents making mistakes.

So after 5 or 6 baseline exchanges, he would often give me a ball that was short, or too slow, or in the wrong spot in which I could take advantage of hitting sharp shots his backhand. If he got that back, rinse and repeat.

Simple strategy, but I needed to assess how he was winning. What was MY strength, and how to get in position to take advantage of that.

 

[sovertennis]

Except for the bit about "scouting your opponent" (really?) this is just a rehash of The Inner Game of Tennis.

 

[StringStrungStrang]

Are you tired of losing matches to better players?

If so, please keep reading.

Because,

The reality you are facing is this.

If you want to move up in the ranking at your club or in your league or team.

You are going to have to learn how to beat the better players at some point, so why not start doing it now.

And here are some ways for YOU to do that.

One.

Get better at scouting them.

You have to get better at scouting these guys and then create a strategy specifically for beating them.

The key word there is specifically.

That's the magic word that you have to use when planning your strategy.

Focus on how you are going to execute it in the match and play it all out in your head mentally.

This is what the pros do, so why not do the same thing?

Next.

Work on your strategy in your practice matches.

This is the biggest mistake that I see players making before their matches.

They don't work on executing their strategy in practice matches before the match!

And instead do what they always do to just win the practice match.

What ever you do.

Do not make this same mistake.

Work on your strategy and play the practice match like it is a REAL match.

This is really important too.

You must take these practice matches serious to get a good feel for executing your strategy before you use them in a REAL match.

Try this.

Practice on it in these practice matches, until you can't get it wrong!

Last thing.

Mentally picture it happening while you are working on your strategy.

Since you will always perform up to the mental picture that you have of your matchplay game.

Now.

After you have done the scounting and created your strategy for beating them, you must mentally picture yourself doing it in the match MENTALLY.

All the time too.

See yourself executing your strategy to perfection in your mind.

This is really where you can preprogram your subconsious mind before the match to execute your strategy.

Then.

During the match.

(Relax, allow your breath to be the anchor and then let your subconscious mind do all the work for you from there.)

All you have to do then is...

Just get out of your own way by emotionally detaching from the outcome.

So what you are saying is DUE THE WORK TO BECOME better than them! Which BTW I totally agree with !!

 

[Xen]

"Scouting" is a very "big fish small pond" mindset. IMO, you should try playing against a variety of different players and styles. The more practical kind of "scouting", if you want to beat more than just people at your local club, is to learn to feel out an opponent during warm-up and the first few games. Quickly identify weaknesses to attack.

 

[Jst21121]

I think a lot of people in practice matches get comfortable playing… to win.

I have a set group of players I play with and majority of players I win… but the moment I start playing to get “better” like coming up to the net, hitting down the line winners, hitting harder short balls etc… I start losing because I’m not good enough or comfortable enough to hit them.

Of course the whole point of getting better is to practice what you need to practice but it’s mentally hard to drop games/sets to someone you beat… because you are only serving kick serves to work on your kick and double faulting when your flat and slice usually scores you an ace every game.

So long story made short. Don’t get stuck in a rut of playing the same game and not working on your weaknesses because your ego is saying you can’t lose.

 

[thomas daniels]

I think a lot of people in practice matches get comfortable playing… to win.

I have a set group of players I play with and majority of players I win… but the moment I start playing to get “better” like coming up to the net, hitting down the line winners, hitting harder short balls etc… I start losing because I’m not good enough or comfortable enough to hit them.

Of course the whole point of getting better is to practice what you need to practice but it’s mentally hard to drop games/sets to someone you beat… because you are only serving kick serves to work on your kick and double faulting when your flat and slice usually scores you an ace every game.

So long story made short. Don’t get stuck in a rut of playing the same game and not working on your weaknesses because your ego is saying you can’t lose.

Well said!!

 

[thomas daniels]

So what you are saying is DUE THE WORK TO BECOME better than them! Which BTW I totally agree with !!

If you focus on perfecting and executing your strategy, you will naturally get better after a while, don't you agree?

 

[thomas daniels]

"Scouting" is a very "big fish small pond" mindset. IMO, you should try playing against a variety of different players and styles. The more practical kind of "scouting", if you want to beat more than just people at your local club, is to learn to feel out an opponent during warm-up and the first few games. Quickly identify weaknesses to attack.

I agree my fiend, all I'm saying here is focus like mad on being able to execute your strategy better in your practice matches.

 

[user92626]

They’re not a better player if I beat them.

They should be better players before you beat them.

 

[Curious]

They should be better players before you beat them.

I have no idea who’s better if they don’t have a reliable rating.

 

[user92626]

I have no idea who’s better if they don’t have a reliable rating.

Forget reliable rating.

for example if you lose to zill (or really struggle to play with him), and zill loses or struggles with Tim, most likely Tim is better than you. Yah?

If John badmouths your tennis and you kinda scare, John is likely better than you.

If you see Jimmy is younger than you, runs faster, hits faster, even has less balls in, in someone else's game, you can guess he's better than you.

 

[Curious]

Forget reliable rating.

for example if you lose to zill (or really struggle to play with him), and zill loses or struggles with Tim, most likely Tim is better than you. Yah?

If John badmouths your tennis and you kinda scare, John is likely better than you.

If you see Jimmy is younger than you, runs faster, hits faster, even has less balls in, in someone else's game, you can guess he's better than you.

No, it doesn’t work like that. I played enough matches with different people. Rating is what counts. I don’t care how someone looks in warm up for example. Match play is everything in tennis.

 

[jimmy8]

Can you teach me how to run faster and change directions faster and hit fast winners more. Heck, can you do one of those weird science things where lightning hits me and Carlos Alcaraz and we switch bodies?

 

[zaph]

I thought that the key to beating better players was to get better at tennis, turns out I was wrong and instead I should just go around stalking people. Who knew?

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Everytime OP posts decent advice, the peanut gallery joins in lol, and your levels of tennis could use some solid advice.

 

[Bud]

No, it doesn’t work like that. I played enough matches with different people. Rating is what counts. I don’t care how someone looks in warm up for example. Match play is everything in tennis.

An accurate rating is pretty reliable. However, matchup issues do rear their ugly heads if you're levels are close.

If one guy is 4.25 and another is 4.10, there's no guarantee the 4.25 will win the match if 4.10's style of play makes 4.25 uncomfortable.