Tennis is a reactive sport and understanding why this is the case
and how you can implement this information into your own game
might be one of the biggest mindset changes to your game. And let's not
confuse your tactics in a tennis match with being proactive or reactive. These
are separate things. A tactic is an action carefully planned
to achieve a specific end. And being proactive or reactive on a
tennis court is different than a tennis tactic. It basically refers to how you're
going to play the incoming ball. So being proactive
would mean that you're gonna make something happen
before your opponent has struck the ball and being reactive means the opposite.
You are going to wait for the ball to be struck and then
make your move accordingly. And playing proactive tennis
is seen by most players as something positive. It is often
compared to playing aggressive tennis or taking your tennis
into your own hands and not leaving it up to your opponent. On the other hand
playing reactive tennis has a very negative connotation
and it's seen by most players as something bad. Most people think that if
a player is playing reactively they're playing defense
and they're letting their opponent dominate them. And it's going to surprise
you to hear that all high-level tennis players play
reactively. In other words they are not predicting
where the ball is going to go prior to their opponents striking it.
They are simply waiting for the ball to be struck
on the other side of the net and then they make their moves
accordingly. The next time you watch a professional match on tv pay attention
to how the players are reacting to the incoming
ball. So pick the player that's closest to you
and just pay attention when that player is moving.
It is always after the ball has been struck from the other side. There will be
some circumstances where players will make a move prior to their opponent
making contact with the ball and these are extreme cases such as for
example a very weak lob that's coming from your
side and now your opponent has an overhead
of course you will not be able to react to the overhead it's going to come too
fast and you might have to pick a side or if
you come to the net with a very weak approach shot and your opponent has a
really easy passing shot you might have to pick a side
or let's say on the professional tour if someone is returning
an Ivo Karlovic or a John Isner serve they might
sometimes need to guess where the ball is going. So in extreme circumstances
it's okay to play proactive tennis and this can
also be the case on the other side of the net. So let's say you're playing very
aggressive tennis and your opponent is being stretched out
wide barely getting to the ball so this is an obvious situation and it
is very low risk to start sneaking in and coming forward before your opponent
has made contact with the ball because they have very little chance to
hit an aggressive shot.
But in the vast majority of cases this is true for all high level players
99% of the time players are reacting to the incoming ball. In other words they
are waiting for it to be struck before they make their move. And here's
the reason why they're doing this. Now if you do it the other way around let's say
you start for example reading the opponent's swing
path or maybe trying to read their body actions and trying to predict
what's going to happen you have a big chance to get it wrong so
it's not a very efficient way to play tennis. You have to remember
there's a lot of time in tennis. There's a lot of time
that goes by from the moment where the opponent hits the ball
and by the time the ball gets to you. So it's absolutely
unnecessary to take that type of risk. So what players do instead
is they carefully observe the ball once it has been struck by their opponent. Now
there's plenty of time to set the ball up and this is a
far more efficient way to play tennis.
How about coming to the net? Well it's going to surprise you that even when you
come to the net you should wait for your opponent to
strike the ball and then make a move either towards the left or the right or
even you could be moving forward or backward. So you are going to be reacting
to the other side of the court.
And this is exactly how the best volleyers in the history of the game
play their points at the net. Players such as Pat Rafter, Stefan Edberg,
Roger Federer or Martina Navratilova would simply
in a ready position wait for the opponent to strike the ball
to make their move accordingly. And just like it would be the case on the
baseline if they were predicting where the other person is going to go
they would have a great chance to get it wrong. So at least
a 50 chance to get it wrong if they were guessing
where the ball is going to go before it's been struck. So by simply waiting
for the ball to be struck they have a far greater chance to get to the volley.
And you as a recreational player can benefit tremendously from this
information because you're probably trying to guess your
opponent's swing path to guess your opponent's body actions
and you absolutely do not need to do that. See playing proactive tennis at the
recreational level makes even less sense than at the pro level because at the
recreational level your opponents often do not have control over their
shots. So while they might have a certain intention let's say they're planning to
hit the ball down the line that ball might end up going down the
middle of the court or cross court. They do not always
have control over their own shots. So at the recreational level if you try to
predict what's going to happen to the ball
before it has been struck you have almost zero chance to get it right.
Number one your opponent might have a certain intention
but whether they can execute it that's another story. Your opponent
might be attempting for example a slice backhand that could easily turn into a
bunch of different things it can turn into a drop shot
it can turn into a lob it can turn into a high sitter that's just
floating around the mid court. And the reason why this is the case that at the
recreational level there are often technical deficiencies and no matter
what a stroke looks like these technical deficiencies make the
stroke very unpredictable. So it makes absolutely zero sense to try to predict
what's going to happen at the rec level. Simply observe
the incoming ball after it has been struck. So the next time you step on a
match court your mind is going to be free
of a lot of things. First of all you're not going to be paying that much
attention to your opponent anymore. You're going to be focusing more
on your own game. And all that effort that it was taking you to trying to read
your opponent and try to study their game and try to predict what's going to
happen with their strokes you can now put that
aside and you start playing tennis in real time. And playing in real time is
absolutely the most efficient way to play tennis. So
guys stop predicting the future. Play like the
pros play simply observe the incoming ball once it
has come off your opponent's racket and once that
ball is traveling to your side now you have plenty of time to set up
your next stroke accordingly.