The Importance of Match Play

Hello everyone.  Throughout the week of training, we develop feel, introduce new skills, do volume training, situation play, group competition, building strength, working on speed and agility, and points play.  We like to wrap the week up with match play with court time opportunity.  So, what are the benefits for these match play?


Match play serves two purposes - to stay competitive during off season and to practice the things that they learned during the week in a match play situation.  To have the courage to try new things.  To have the courage to mess up.  To not be afraid to compete.  It is in the face of imperfection that our players find the resilience and grit to become stronger mentally.

Back in the 1980s, Czech Republic dominated the tennis world.  The federation attributed their success to the fact that they had their players played 100 matches a year which included singles, doubles, and mixed.  When we were working in this academy in Maryland that had an amazing number of the top players in the US, the players were playing 10 to 15 sets a week.

Being that the Elite Group is a four day program.  We are asking players to set up their own matches over the remaining of the week, if they don't have  a tournament this weekend, with the goal of 5 to 10 sets by Sunday.  Most of them already played two sets today so they are already almost half way there.  A match play log is now complete for the players to record their matches.  The log is the only way we can track if our players are on the right competitive track.  In order to have access to the log, players have been advised to text me with their email address.  If your player does not have an email address please send me yours.

Have a wonderful weekend.