Watch the Warm-Up
The next time you are at a tournament or watching a tennis match on TV, check out the players during the pre-match 5 minute warm-up. Most players have a set routine that they follow since the on-court warm-up is so short. Notice if they run around their backhands on balls hit down the middle of the court. When they come up to the net to hit a few volleys and overheads, watch what kind of lobs the opponent hits. At the end of the warm-up when the players are hitting serves,
observe how cooperative they are with each other in terms of sharing the balls (which sometimes all end up at one end during the rushed service warm-up) and whether they move to other side when the opponent is serving to one side, etc. The warm-up is an excellent opportunity to learn a little something about the relationship between the players, as well as what tendencies a player has and possibly which shot he/she is struggling with, e.g. do they stay and hit extra serves once their opponent has gone to his/her chair for a last sip of water. One can learn so much before the match even starts!
|| Comments (0)
