10 Ways to improve
By Ian Westermann
- 10. Give yourself freedom to “experiment”. Read the following words carefully: you can only make substantial improvements to your technique by doing something DIFFERENT than your current habits! Breaking our VIP students away from what feels “right” to them is one of our biggest tasks as coaches. We all want to hold on to those familiar strokes with all our might because they bring reliable results….but that will keep us stuck at the same level! And so, I’m constantly asking students to do crazy “experiments” on the court, and purposefully hit the ball into the bottom of the net, or into the side curtain, or maybe miss the ball all together. When you’re playing a match you obviously want to use what you know will work….but when you work on technique let go of your need to make every shot, and give yourself freedom to experiment!
- 9. Take shadow swings seriously. This goes hand-in-hand with number ten. The BEST way to feel what its like to do something different than you’re used to is to take out the ball completely. That’s what shadows swings are for – building awareness of what a better technique is like without all of the worry about where the ball will go! As long as the ball is there we’ll work hard to try and make it do what we want, no matter how hard we try to not care. So take the ball out of the equation, go slow, be patient, and FEEL what a new movement is like while visually watching how your body and the racquet are moving. This is always where we start with VIP students when making a big change…
- 8. Log your practice sessions. If you take improvement seriously then it’s a given that you’re spending time on the court engaging in “deliberate practice”. No points, no opponents, just you and a deep focus on what you’re doing every single repetition. What really takes things to the next level is to keep a sort of practice journal. Write down what really clicks for you, what didn’t work at all, the “ah ha” moments you have, and how things are progressing from session to session. Having those things written down will not only give you great perspective on how your game is advancing as time goes on, but it will also serve as a priceless reminder of what drills, thoughts, or focuses to go back to if you lose your way on a certain stroke.
- 7. Communicate candidly with your pro. If you aren’t lucky enough to have a pro to work with in person then you can skip this one….if you do work with an instructor on a regular basis then this is CRITICAL. Understand that at the end of the day you’re responsible for the quality of the coaching you receive. Period. If the way your pro runs lessons isn’t fitting with your goals, aspirations, or how you learn best then you need to have a frank conversation with them so you can both be on the same page. In my experience players tend to smile and take whatever their pro gives them….because they’re the pro. Trust me on this: if your instructor is worth going to then they WANT you to be involved with the learning process! Want to slow things down and use shadow swings? Or spend more time on one stroke at a time? Whatever it is, have a friendly but honest talk with them about it. You’ll be happy you did.
- 6. Be more mindful about your motivation. Some players will do whatever it takes to win, no matter what it means for their long term development (sticking with bad habits, etc). Other players could care less about their win/loss columns, they want to KNOW that their game is improving. Most of us fall somewhere in between, but not many players are evenly balanced. It’s critical to know where you are on that spectrum, because it should be what informs how you spend your time on the court! If you’re all about winning then banging your head against the wall with that grip change on your serve probably won’t lead to enjoyment on the court. If you’re all about stroke mastery then you may want to stop league matches for a period of time while you overhaul that backhand, otherwise you’ll keep going back to your old habits to keep your teammates happy with your performance. You get the idea. Spend more time reflecting on what you value most about your tennis experience so you can optimize your time appropriately.
- 5. Use more progressions. Improving a tennis stroke is like crossing a wide, raging river. You start on one bank, which represents your current habit, and you badly want to get to the opposite bank, which is your new and improved stroke. Most players and coaches jump right into the water and try ferociously to swim. Never gonna happen, not unless you’re a world class swimmer (aka, a super coordinated, highly aware athlete). Instead, you need stepping stones to bridge the gap between one shore and the other. Intermediary steps that slowly but surely get you closer to the other side, spaced closely together so you can easily manage one after the other. That’s what drill progressions do for your tennis improvement! The more progressions you use the better your kinesthetic awareness will be as you work towards better technique, which drastically improves the chances that the new swing will stick as a new habit. Please use them more during your practice time in 2025!
- 4. Focus on one thing at a time. The majority of tennis coaches engage in what I like to call “instructional whack-a-mole”. While working on a stroke they’ll bounce from one thing to another to another in rapid succession. If you’ve taken many lessons then you’ve undoubtedly experienced this. Imagine working on your serve receiving a command each time you get tossed another ball: “Make sure you toss at 1 o’clock….now keep your head up…..remember to pronate at the end….get that toss back to 1 o’clock!!”. The crazy merry-go-round of tips means nothing sticks, because your focus is constantly being pulled from one thing to another, to another. Be purposeful about spending enough time on ONE element so you can start to develop it into a habit, and then move on to the next thing. This point dove tails perfectly into the next one…
- 3. Spend more time in “purposeful practice”. If making significant, fundamental changes to your technique is a goal for you this year then I highly recommend allocating more time to focused, purposeful practice. That means just you and a ball machine, or a basket of balls, or a coach facilitating. Playing matches will pull you RIGHT back into your comfortable, familiar swing habits because you’ll be trying to win. New and unfamiliar techniques go right out the window. Same thing but to a lesser extent when “drilling” with a hitting partner. Sure, you might not be keeping track of score, but you will be feeling pressure to give your partner good quality practice, which will push you right back into your old, reliable habits. Of course, there’s a time and a place to bring new strokes up to drill and match play, but if those are the only ways you spend time on the court you can forget about finishing 2025 with fundamentally improved swings.
- 2. Learn to enjoy the process. We live in a highly outcome focused society. We want results, and we want them as quickly as possible. I’m all about results, but I can tell you from personal experience that if you’re only happy when breakthroughs are happening or you’re playing your “best” then tennis will slowly but surely become disheartening, frustrating, or in extreme cases (like mine back in college) flat out depressing. Over the years I’ve learned that a love of the learning and improvement process itself is the key to ultimate fulfillment, happiness and satisfaction on the court! I’ll definitely be writing more about this in the future but for now I’ll leave it at that. Start noticing, appreciating, and savoring things like feeling new techniques, executing focused reps, and even making mistakes as you work on your swings. Your journey will be better because of it.
- 1. USE VIDEO. This is non negotiable. If you’re serious about improving then you must use video. Avoiding it will leave tremendous advancements on the table. Period. Here’s another nature analogy for you: the Grand Canyon. That’s how big of a gap there is between perception and reality for most amateur tennis players. Meaning, based on their internal experience of what it FEELS like to play, they would guess they look a certain way on the court. However, the reality is very, very different. That detachment keeps players from improving, which makes sense….how in the world could you possibly create a new and better technical habit when you don’t even know what you’re doing with your own body?! I’ve been preaching this for years, but unfortunately most pros and coaches still don’t use video, and most players don’t have the drive or courage to do it themselves. Please. Do it.
