Is Tennis Instruction Killing Your Game?

Tennis players think that their errors are the fault of their form. Every time they make an error, they think it was because of their swing or footwork or whatever. In other words, they think they did something wrong.

Wrong. Errors are caused by slight miscalculations by the brain in judging the ball's flight and timing and coordinating your stroke. Errors happen because, in playing tennis, we challenge the limits of what the human brain and body are capable of.

So, errors happen. Errors are part of the game. If there was such a thing as perfect form, and if you hit every shot with perfect form every time, you'd still make errors.

Because errors are not caused by your form.

They happen because the brain has to do a little estimating and guessing in its calculations, and sometimes it is going to be off far enough to result in an error.

So, if you are a perfectionist, try a different sport.

You can hit a great shot with atrocious form, and you can hit a lousy shot with beautiful form.

The sensible attitude is to aim only to minimize your frequency of error.

Now there some aspects of form can help. They can make the timing and coordination easier, thereby reducing the risk of miscalculation. They can reduce the effect of miscalculation, so that slight miscalculations don't adversely affect your shot enough to make it go out. They can eliminate things (like extraneous motion) that could go wrong.

But strategy and tactics can do at least as much in reducing your frequency of error.

Yet, what most tennis players know about strategy and tactics could be written on the back of a post card. Why? Because they are obsessed with FORM.

They think tennis is about how they swing the racket and move their feet. Wrong. Tennis is about the score.

But they are so stuck on form that even in the middle of a point they're thinking about their form.

Tennis ceases to be a game at that point. It becomes an exercise in hitting forehands and backhands the "right" way. Dull.

I know. When I was young, I used to be a perfectionist about form. After reading The Inner Game of Tennis I quit it. Guess what? I suddenly started to learn things I hadn't been able to learn before.

Like how to hit spin serves. It didn't take long at all - just a few weeks and I had all the spin serves. With no pro standing over me. I have an excellent forehand down-the-line approach shot, and I learned it in a single day. Same with the inside-out forehand.

How? By just learning these things the natural way. That is, instead of consciously trying to move my body a certain way, I just put the service toss where it should be and experimented, paying close attention to how each serve felt and how the ball reacted. I knew when I had it right. I could tell. Thus, me and my body DISCOVERED how to do it.

That's how we learn how to walk and talk, too.

Do you know anyone who is dissatisfied with the way he or she walks and wants to improve this skill? I hope not!

But how far would you have to go to find a tennis player satisfied with his or play? Tennis becomes a lifelong exercise in self improvement. An exercise in futility, trying to reach some nonexistent level of perfection. Anything less - well...just requires more self improvement.

The flip-side of that coin is that it's a lifelong state of dissatisfaction with yourself, a feeling that you SHOULD be doing better. Failure.

The glass is half empty, you see.

But it's half full. If today you get the idea that you can do something better, great. But the desire to improve should not be imposed on you by a sense of failure.

Tennis is a difficult sport. Every tennis shot that goes in is somewhat of a bloody miracle. Whoever you are, it's safe to say that you do very well for the time you've put in.

What's more, you should not be thinking about your form while you are trying to hit the ball. That kind of thinking is a distraction. It keeps you from being fully aware of what you're seeing, hearing, and feeling.

In practice, when you are trying to correct one specific thing about your form, you have to think about it while hitting. But don't make a habit of thinking about your form while hitting.

This means that you can think about one aspect of your form for a few minutes now and then but that the lion's share of your practice time and all of your match play time should be spent with your mind as quiet as possible while the ball's in play.

The only thinking you should be doing then is in the realm of strategy and tactics. And even that thinking won't be the conscious kind of thinking we do in words. It will be the instinctive, intuitive kind of thinking we use for the things we do "without thinking."

For example, let's say you come up to a child gate and want something sitting on a chair beyond it. In the blink of an eye, you formulate a picture in your mind of yourself bending and reaching over the gate to pick it up without losing your balance. Then you just do it.

Simple: picture yourself doing it and then just do it.

You don't consciously think of how much to bend your knees or which arm to reach with and what to do with other arm. If you did, you probably would lose your balance and fall over that gate.

We do many things this intuitive way. For example, most of what you do after you get into an automobile and turn the key is done intuitively. If another driver runs a stop sign on you, you don't think what to do. You just see what to do - whether to stomp on the gas or the brakes as you swerve - and then just do it, even before you're consciously aware of what's happening.

This kind of thinking happens in a different part of the brain than conscious thinking in words does. Thinking in words requires the processing of language, and that is very complex. And slow. And requires much brainpower that could better be used in judging the approaching tennis ball and coordinating your swing at it.

This is why you can't be thinking of verbal instructions while you're trying to play. If you do, you will make a lot of errors. A lot.

It doesn't matter if those instructions are no-brainers stated in easy-to-recall catch phrases. While the ball's coming, you have neither the time nor the spare brainpower to recall and process the language of verbal instructions. Trying to just hurts your judgement, coordination, and timing.

So, during match play. Don't think about your form. Get into the GAME. That's where the fun is. Thinking strategy and tactics between points is true positive thinking. As for while the ball's in play, so long as you don't think about your form and don't try to play by rote (by recalling verbal instructions), you'll do just fine.

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