Here’s a quick list of five different ways you can improve at tennis or padel. Go through them whenever you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and you’re not improving much.
- Movement and positioning – understanding the footwork patterns to be the most efficient on the court and can your recover to the right positions.
- Fitness – can you maintain good technique throughout the whole point and the whole match due to being in optimal shape?
- Mental shape – can one point cost you an entire game or set? How tough are you mentally?
- Strategy and patterns – can you figure out your opponents’ strengths and weakness and can you figure out patterns to stress their weaknesses?
- Technique – All four points above are interlaced with this last point. It’s really important but not the be-all-and-end-all. Technique gives you a larger array of shots you can hit and the ability to hit them consistently, but you need the other four points too.