Okay, you've trained hard for weeks and months on and off the tennis court to improve your tennis skills and to get fitter and faster. You are now a lean, mean, fighting machine ready for your tournaments. You arrive at the tournament site. You are excited. You can't wait to see your friends whom you haven't seen in a while. Everywhere you turn there are people. It is exciting at first but soon it becomes mentally draining.
Distractions at tournaments is a big factor. You must keep focus, if you want to give yourself a chance to do well. Here is a check list of what to do at tournaments.
Pre Match Preparation
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| Arrive Early |
#1. Prepare to arrive early
Arrive at least 45 minutes before your practice court time to allow time to go through your routine. The last thing you need on your match day is to be stressed out. Work backwards to figure out what time you need to wake up to the time for breakfast and the time it takes to get to the courts. Sometimes, practice court is at a different location and you will have to factor that in as well.
#2. Prepare with a good physical warm up
If you are a serious tennis player, you should already have a routine dynamic warm up which should last approximately
15 - 20 minutes.
On court warm up time varies in individuals between 30 - 45 minutes. Ideally, you want to warm up with someone who can give you a good rhythm.
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| Quiet time. |
After the warm up is done and you've changed into your match clothes ideally you should have a little time to yourself before your match is called. Put away your phone and other electronic device and find your coach to go over a game plan. Then, find a quiet and shady spot, put on your headphones and listen to your music. Prepare mentally on how you want to play and most of all be prepared to play 3 tough sets.
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| Your match |
When you are about 10 minutes to going on court for your match activate physically with quick feet, short sprints, racquet swings, etc. Activate mentally by going through the game plan.
A plan is only as good as its execution.
See you tomorrow for Part 5 - What players should do after their match.
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