5 Bad Tennis Habits You Need to Break If You Want to Win More Matches

If you're like most tennis players, you probably have a few bad habits that are preventing you from playing your best tennis. In this blog post, we'll take a look at five of the most common bad habits and some tips on how to overcome them.

Not Warming Up Properly

One of the biggest mistakes tennis players make is not taking the time to warm up properly before their match. Rushing through your warm-up not only puts you at risk of injury, but it also leaves you feeling flat and unenergetic when the match starts. Make sure to give yourself ample time to warm up before your match, and include both a dynamic and static components in your warm-up routine.

Playing Too Many Shots From The Baseline

If your gameplan is to win points by outlasting your opponent from the baseline, you're in for a long, frustrating day. Not only is this type of play extremely boring for both you and your opponent, but it's also not very effective. Unless you have elite stamina and conditioning, chances are you're going to run out of gas. Mix things up by coming to the net more often, using drop shots and slice shots, and changing the pace of the ball.

Hitting The Ball Too Hard

This is a bad habit that plagues both recreational players and competitive players alike. The thinking goes that if you hit the ball harder, your opponent won't be able to handle it and they'll make more mistakes. While there's some truth to that, hitting the ball too hard usually results in more errors than winners. Instead of trying to hit winner after winner, focus on hitting consistent shots and making your opponent beat you. More times than not, they'll make the error themselves.

Overthinking Your Shots

One of the quickest ways to kill your momentum in a tennis match is to overthink your shots. When you start second-guessing yourself on every shot, it's only a matter of time before you start missing easy shots and making silly errors. Trust your instincts and go for your shots with confidence. The more confident you are in your abilities, the better you'll play. 

Losing Your Focus

It's easy to lose focus during a tennis match, especially if things aren't going your way. But if you want to win more matches, it's important that you learn how to keep your focus no matter what the score is or how well (or poorly) you're playing. One way to do that is by having a pre-match routine that gets you mentally and physically ready for the match. Another way is by using positive self-talk to stay focused on what YOU need to do to win the match—not what your opponent is doing or what the score is. 

To win more matches, it's important that you identify any bad habits that might be holding you back from playing your best tennis. Once you've identified those habits, put in the work needed to break them so that you can take your game to the next level!

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Play Tennis Better

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