The Importance of Work Ethic in Your Tennis Development

The Importance of Work Ethic in Your Tennis Development

It’s a pretty simple notion that spending a lot of time on the tennis court is crucial to becoming a good player, but one thing many players don’t realize is that quantity of practice is not as crucial as the quality of practice.

Imagine the following two scenarios:
1.) You play five hours every day, with the best players in your region, while being advised by the best coaches. However, you have the attitude that that you always on the court with top coaches and you don’t work as hard as you can at all time.
2.) You only play one hour a day, and it is against people who you can generally beat. You are extremely motivated and you are always giving it 100%.

In my time in tennis I have learned that scenario #1 is preferred by 99% of young tennis players. It has been my experience that scenario #2 is much more efficient as it builds a Work Ethic which leads to better outcomes in the future for players as they develop as tennis players and as adults.

What is a work ethic as it applies to tennis, does it mean that you need to run around the court all day, get every ball, and get a great workout? Maybe, but only to a certain extent. My philosophy is that a hard working tennis player has to be able to combine both physical and mental effort.

Physical effort is self explanatory as it refers to pushing your body hard during practice in order to enhance the quality of your tennis game. Examples of this are moving your feet at all times, keeping yourself in the proper position on the court, and keeping up with pace after 2-3 hours of playing.

On the other hand, mental effort refers to the involvement of all of your senses while playing; including analyzing your game, your opponents game, developing the feel to predict certain situations on the court, and keeping your focus and temperament at all times.

The mental aspect of the game is integral to success as a tennis player and the earlier it is developed the more quickly a player came improve. The most important aspect may be that it allows you to become more independent on the court, and lets you play, work on your game, of compete without the aid of a coach or parent.