Enjoy your tennis more

1. Practice regularly

2. Choose and use your more reliable shots more often

3. Match the speed of the incoming ball - resist the urge to always fire it back faster

4. Watch the ball onto the raquet, see its detail.

5. Positioning and Spacing - prepare early for each shot, make small adjustments movements to position correctly for each shot. Then, your balance is pretty much the same for each shot.

6. Proper form - grip, swing, follow through, core balance, keep head still through strike zone - the basics

7. Master spin to keep the ball in

8. Repaint the line - in your mind move it in a couple of feet and aim for that. (if you aim for the line, 50% of your shots will be out - basic stats!)

9. Increase your fitness - helps on everything especially shot set up and recovery

10. Stay focused - and in the moment - mind on the basics.

Now that the clocks have gone back and winter is setting in, its a lot colder down on the courts, especially in the evenings. Hats and gloves as well as layers need to be in the bag. Also, it is good to keep the game fast moving. Double faults, and missed winners keep points short and dull, so try and increase the percentage of shots that go in. That will make it more fun and better exercise for all, and keep you warmer.
You will notice that the cold gives the ball less bounce, and makes the strings less elastic, so topspins lose a bit of their edge.
Keep the reset time between points down too, make sure balls are sent back to the server quickly. And of course, always start with a good warm up. Finally, watch your footing - when it drops below zero, any dampness can make the courts ice up and get slippy.

A thing you'll notice is that better players tend to spend longer warming up - the pros put hours into this, not just the 5 mins before the game. Boring but true - warming up well reduces the risk of injury and significantly improves the quality of your game. When we warm up gently and properly from the start, we ease our limbs, muscles, eyes, feet and hands into the game. We also build our muscle memory with shots played properly, rather than emergency shots. A poorer quality game tends to follow a rushed knock-up. Less serves go in, returns have more errors, you get more unforced errors generally, and it takes longer to get going. A good knock up should focus on getting all parts of the body ready for more strenuous action, and practicing all the shots in your arsenal.

Always helpful to have a bit of a routine to warm up. This one is becoming increasingly standard, and for good reason.Start with some gentle knocking from the service line (the one across the middle of the court). As you do this, make sure your footwork is really active and "text-book", your strokes are full - just all in slow motion, and really focus on watching the ball well. Aim to send it to your partner so it is easy enough for them to get back and warm up gently too. Practice all those things your coach taught you - split step, turning sideways, bending your knees, following through etc. Keep each ball in play for as long as possible, incorporating a mix of backhands and forehands. After a couple of minutes, both start moving backwards gradually, picking up the pace bit by bit until you are both at the baseline. From there, again, practice a few more forehands and backhands moving to full strength and depth and getting into a relaxed open flow, but do be mindful of your partners ability to return it - the knockup is NOT a competition! Complete the warm up with some practice vollies, a smash or two, and then serves. More about the second stage in future posts, and some ideas for add ins you might want to include.

Balls

Retrieve balls for your partner and your opponent. Pass them gently back to the server. When sending balls back to a neighbouring court, wait for a break in play and pass them back gently, ideally to the server. Never send them back while play is in progress.

When your ball goes onto another court, they should send it back as above, but if not, wait til a break in their play and ask politely for it to be returned. Never go onto another court while play is in progress.

If you are returning a ball which is clearly out, do not practice your groundstrokes with that ball, but return it appropriately to the server or knock it gently out of play to the net.

If your ball rolls onto another court and presents a danger, please alert the players! Same goes for taking care of the safety of your opponents and partner.