Tennis PRACTICE vs MATCH: How to play better when it matters | Tennis Strategy 

So tonight I'm playing my match and I am so bad about what you said regarding overthinking technique as the main thinking point since I changed my forehand technique recently. I only play once a week and I use this match play (league) to practice. But tonight...I'm like, stop, you are playing a match to win. No more technique thoghts. I only focused on the match, the play, the ball coming at me, picking the shot, not what I WANT to hit. I was down 2-4, and this video kicked in. I relaxed, fixated on the incoming ball, just hit cleanly, good depth, no winners, just quality balls and placement. I won 8-6 - I ran 5 straight games before he adjusted to my changes. It was simple. This felt so good.

I'd love to see a full video on managing your body/nutrition and eating. I come from a bodybuilding background and have a good idea of how to eat to cut bodyfat/slow bulk etc but I don't know how to eat for tennis other than increase my carbs before & after a match.

I struggle a bit with my conditioning in matches, so it would be nice to see how you as a pro make sure, that your body is in the right position for a match. Like to see your fitness plan or special exercise would be amazing!

I loved what you said about making matches a normalization of your tennis routine. In every match, I look to improve just one fundamental thing (intense footwork, watching the ball, swinging out), and I'm happy, win or lose.

He called us noobs. Personal attacks hurt Karue; take it easy on us mere mortals. Great video!

“The key is to normalize matches…”, soooo true. This is true in many aspects of managing emotions and anxiety.

Played my first competition for 10 years today and it was a disaster! Been practicing great,even points, but when it mattered I fell apart. I really need to implement your advice!

Amazing advice. Point 3 is me. I love training but have had less time to play matches in the last few years and it’s hard to get back. I know I give too much importance to matches because I don’t play enough. Need to have reasonable expectations and play more to get the nerves out. Great video!!!

Karue, thank you for this video. Yesterday, I had a second tennis match where I had been down 0-5* in the third set and ended up losing 4-6. I actually feel great about these losses because I’m proving to myself that my mental competitiveness is growing. I started playing matches six weeks ago after taking weekly group lessons and playing recreationally for almost a year. It felt so scary and nerve-wrecking to be actually under pressure - I lost the first set in my first ever match 0-6. Yikes. Looking forward to more videos!

Wonderful analysis and makes it seem so easy!!

Outstanding video. Best coaching advice yet. Look forward to our next clip. 👍👍👍👍👍

This is awesome! Thank you so much. Many things rang true for me, but especially about playing more matches so that each one doesn't feel special!! I needed to hear that!

There is a lot to absorb and digest behind this insightful video. This is a four course meal to delve deeply into these topics. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this - - always nice to get in the mind of a great player

Great video Karue. Love the advice of normalizing matches. Management of body has become #1 for me at 30 years old. Hard to have a high level with low fitness.

“Normalizing” match play. Love it! I struggled so much with this in high school to the point where I had anxiety going into matches. It got so bad I quit tennis after my senior year and never thought about playing college.

Timely instruction sir, I needed to hear this. It will be most helpful as I progress through this season! Thanks for the great work as always!

Thank you a lot. Maybe the best video on Tennis strategy I've seen, this really helps me ! Great stuff, please keep on with it.

Your comments are right on! I am playing a match tomorrow and after your video I see it from a different , more relaxed perspective, thank you

Great stuff! Keep going!

This is such a ** GREAT ** video with so many valuable tips. I can use 100% of what you said here it to improve my game. Thank you, can't wait to see part 2.

Wow,.....impressive perspective dude!

Reg. getting beaten by "pushers": Whilst I mostly agree with your comment that being beaten by a "pusher" means he is the better player, I do think there is a broader lesson to be learnt, esp. in the context of training vs match play. Ime, most players that complain about "pushers" do not acknowledge the (technical) difficulty of the balls pushers produce: f.inst. high trajectory and low pace, often the result of a slice, or short and low bouncing balls. This moves you front-to-back, often keeping the ball outside of your comfort zone, and more often than not, there is little-to-no forward momentum on the ball (f.inst. a high BH slice), which means you have to inject the pace, similar to hitting hand-fed balls. Often, when taking the time to objectively assess such a match, I've come to the conclusion that it is the "pusher" that is in command of the rally, even though he/she might lack pace. Better players acknowledge this is is difficult; just look at how intense pro-player movement is on short balls. Imo, this is where the problems lies, when losing to "pushers": you're using your current skill set again regular TS players to assess your skill set against a "pusher", but you haven't trained (enough) on these types of balls, and you're not patient enough to offset this lack of skills. These skills and situations need to be trained a lot before you are able to consistently win over "pushers", but most prefer to hit big TS from the baseline when training. Are you comfortable hitting chest height (or above) approach shots or winners from the service line, when running from the baseline on a ball with backspin and no pace? If not, why are you consistently giving your opponent the opportunity to setting up this shot? Aso.

Great video, thanks for the tips.

I've been following your videos for a little while now and this is one of the best (which is saying something!). Such brilliant advice, especially on the mental side of things. Would love more on that.

This is one of the best videos on tennis on RU-vid, if not the best. A real coaching, competitive play wisdom. Thank you and please keep it coming.

after watching this video I started realizing what I should be strategizing for my match, this video helped me get more calmer and not overthink while playing

Mental syntax. How you organize your thoughts. Playing a lot of matches, with same or better players, helps you manage thoughts and shot selection (loop deep ball) at the right time then use opportunity. Not when you only feel like it. That way it's just another match, not a special match.

One thing that I find helpful is to start the match off like I practice, by trying to rally more up the middle with good pace for a couple games. Kinda have the mindset that the game is just an extension of the warmup. Then once you’ve worked up a lather you’re ready to start working angles and creating winners.

Awesome tips and alot of fruit for thought. I actually took notes. I am one of those "dang pusher beat me" guys, haha but, I see that they just work the court better and maybe i shouldn't try to define my opponents but "manage" my own game a bit more... TY

You man ... are great ...thanks for your lesson

Great video!

Great fundamental tips Karue. Especially reminders the ball always dictates, recognize opponent is making quality shots too (their objective same as ours to make us uncomfortable) and respect the best shot might be less paced/higher shaped neutralizer. And your advice interspersed with some of your complex taxing rallies (against Giron, point construction we'll rarely approximate) brought your points home. I feel i manage emotions fairly well except when Big Mo against me (like a wave that serves to deflate the spirit and cloud the mind). Maybe discuss how to manage against Mo to get back on track?

I really like the advice to identify and play only with the tools that you have on a given day and not to worry about the ones that aren't in optimal condition. I've been thinking about this for several days and find it just super solid life advice for dealing with any problems in general (and dealing with your dealing of those problems). Nice video.

Great tips 👌! Playing more matches like you said makes things more routine to manage.

Great insights

Great channel! Your videos are very different than other tennis videos I could find on internet, keep up the good work! I'm a 5ish player, and I have a challenge that I'd love if you could address as well. My body warms up very late and my shots are way off as I pick up a racquet and go to the court. Hitting 10 mins, stress free, and I would be back to my normal level. However, before the match (club/tournament), I usually don't get the time to warm up properly and that's why I am always behind at the beginning of the first set. So far, nobody has been able to give a tip or a practice routine to resolve this. i guess I have a weak muscle memory!

Took your advice about pace the other day, and then watched this yesterday. Just had my best tennis match ever! The best guy in my league group who's beat everyone and we had a super even game. He won it having a mental edge on advantage points but it was super enjoyable. I just forgot about technique and told myself to focus on the ball. Thanks Karue.

The doctor is in! 😄 Great video and sage advice Mr. K! 💯

Good video Karue and keep up the good work!

Please keep on putting stuff like this out, Karue. You're so absolutely right. The "don't like competing," the "you think you're better than them because you hit 2 or 3 better balls in a rally," all of it. Especially good reminder to us that the best use of the mental energy during a slog of a match is not on our technique. It is so easy to have a couple of things inexplicably not working one day, and to then let that lead to poor competing, which is actually the true cause of the loss. A lot of what you said in this video sounded like "remember that winning ugly is winning."

Solid stuff for developing your own style.

Excellent! Thanks for sharing bro!

It would be amazing to learn your training routine outside of tennis. For example, what do you do or I can do to keep your fitness level? to improve feet work? to improve resistance or flexibility? It would be great for me to train those things outside of a tennis court as one is not always available. Great channel by the way!!

Look forward to watching Part 2. :)

I absolutely love tennis!!! I wish that I knew how much I love tennis when I was in my 20's.

Of cource I also love your video. As always👍

Great vid man.

Emotions are key for me, I get far to passive just keeping the ball in and pushing it around. I have to go in with a positive mindset - that I am looking for the chance to pull the trigger, not every shot but the purpose of pushing it around is to get a weak ball, and when I get it I will attack and not worry. Last match but one I was in was 3-3 and we had to stop for a while due to rain, inside a coach was talking about another player who he was looking at and just didn't have that killer shot so was never going anywhere. I decided he wasn't going to be saying that about me. I went back out positively looking for the chances to attack and when I got that ball in the zone I would smack it. I won the next 9 games comfortably, and it wasn't just the rallys, my serve improved too (won the match with an ace). So much of match play is in the mind - that mix of being positive, going for it when you have the chance and not worrying if you miss, but equally not being reckless and just trying to hit low % highlight reel shots.

this channel deserves much more attention!

Great tips, my fellow catarina .

Great insight Karue.

Well said Karue! And great haircut! 🔥

Hey Karue...Great insight as always...I wish your channel was available when I was playing high school in late 70's but you weren't even born I'm sure..lol...stubborn is my word of day that stood out...im gonna rip that down the line over and over during a match cuz I practiced it was my stubborn mindset to a loss...so funny to think about it now...thank you...gonna be at bnp?...do a clinic or would love to say hello in person...cheers

when I was giving lessons, I felt like my students were great at rallying then couldn't find the court in competitive play (drop feed games nor playing out a set). i created a "game" where we do 3 rally balls without keeping score/nobody can hit a winner, then a drop-feed game to 5. the catch is, if they out rally me in the rally part (ie, I messed up first) they got a bonus point for the rally game. it helped a lot of my students be able to play like they warmed up a lot better.

Quality advise.

One point at a time. I like to focus on just putting together good points. Mixing up pace and spin. Mixing up serves too to see what the other player can handle. Sometimes 4 or 5 medium paced balls are better than 1 or 2 hard hit shots and vice versa. Some days it best to just get it in with spin and some days you gotta swing away with cofidence

Any videos on stretches you do before matches and after?

Brilliant and Incisive Vid. Thank you Karue. :)

It is amazing how many similarities tennis has with respect to trading the stock markets. Thanks again!

Could you please talk about/give tips for situations where you want to "go for your shot" during match-play? I find that during matches when I get that ball I can rip, especially playing faster/stronger players whose balls have more pace and rarely 'sit' I put to much emphasis on putting it away and I open up the chest or hips too early/hit too flat/take away my own time (over-eager to hit 'in front') with my feet and I hit a sub-par shot. Thanks Karue!! Love the series!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on mental preparedness prior to the match, how to manage emotions during the match when you either behind or ahead, and also post match mentality on processing victory or defeat.

at a high level the game becomes mostly mental. I played my first match in a very long time against an equally skilled opponent with great form and consistency and this gave me performance anxiety that made me quickly lose the first two games. I decided I was fine with losing, but I was not okay with losing because I was too pussy to attack the ball with confidence. The moment I made that mental switch my game improved and my opponent then was the one to get nervous and he started to totally crumble. I bet him easily 6-2, 6-1 after that. We’re equally matched in terms of ability but I had better composure.

fresh cut, G

Love this series, it's like you read my mind lol. I play so much better during practice but I choke in matches because I'm always afraid to overhit.

Excellent

Hi! What type of watch are you wearing! Looks real nice.

would love to hear as much as you're willing to say on body management. I've started eating a lot more during matches and it has helped enormously but i'm just sorta feeling my way through it. would love to hear about food, warm up, whatever.

1 October marks my 1 year anniversary of playing tennis. Took a lesson. Didn’t know how to grip the racquet. Took lessons all winter and spring. Played in a league this summer. Record was 2-17. I’m more motivated now than ever. Thanks for this video.

Would love to know what you do in a week if you had a tournament on the weekend how many tennis sessions you do and how many gym sessions.

Learn to play well when you have bad days and you'll win more than you think. I think Pete Sampras said something to this effect. Learn to play an effective serve for the days when your "Good" serve is not working well. Learn a style of play that works when your feet are heavy and so on. If you play a lot of tennis you're gonna see you have more off days than perfect days. Perfect days are rare and sometimes that perfect form doesn't even last for the whole match. Maybe it lasts for a set or less. So learn how to play with your tools at 75% and win and you'll have a much better time on court. If you wait for the planets to align so everything works at 100% you're going to do a lot fo waiting.

Great video!!! I have one question about winning "ugly". Don't you think that if you don't use your weapons from practice in matches you can end up with result that you will never use them?

Where is the. court location at 3:25? What a beautiful setting

Sometimes when there's a lot of pressure i try to relax and Swing slower. However that results en bad hitting or the ball flying. But if I hit normal (like in non pressure situations) I may over hit. I don't know if I explained it properly, but the question is: should we change the swing or speed of the stokes? It is difficult to maintain the same level all the time but the minor different when hitting in those situations affect a lot.

Hi thanks for your advice! I’ve found myself playing matches when I’m always on the run either bc of opponents good placement or drop shots, while my opponent is barely running and have plenty of energy through later games in the match. How can I regain offense when I’m being put in the run? Thanks

Hi Karue, great content. I have this problem during my matches this is incredibly frustrating and I'm still not sure how to fix. During practice, my two-handed backhand feels solid and I feel like every shot will go in and I can "feel" very consistent with it. But during a match, sometimes my backhand will completely abandon me and I have zero feeling. It feels like every shot that goes to my backhand will go out. How can I fix this? I even try to remember the good "feeling" of the backhand during practice, but I still cannot flip it like a switch during a match. When my backhand abandons me, it's almost gone the entire match until I get to practice the next day, then suddenly my backhand returns.

Precious tips Karue! As a “manager” on the court, I am this close to being fired! Haha… tks bro

good

0:13 my first time seeing a high-level guy playing with a two-handed forehand. Interesting.

What about managing the scoreboard

Hi Karue, question for you. will a Head extreme tour nite (brand new) feel the same as a Extreme tour day ( used demo). I have a conundrum hoping you can help figure it out. do brand new rackets have to be " broken in" ?the day one was strung with a 1.30 gauge while the nite (brand new one) was strung with a 1.25 gauge both Lynx Tour. I had been using the demo for a few weeks and the new racket (nite) didnt feel the same.it felt a little lighter and also felt like it was launching the balls too much.( aka too much power)

So cool your videos man, But I just realized that you are Brazilian, is that right? I'm Brazilian too, living in Montreal, Canada, and play just a bit, injured for almost a 1 year.

Hello, I have been playing tournaments for 3 years and am 12. Though that special feeling is not left yet is there any other advice to get rid of that pressure.

I have this problem and i need your help: in my practice sessions i play with quite deflated balls, u know, coaches do not buy new balls every week. When i play in the tournament with new balls, i feel i cannot let it go like in pratice since the ball fly over the fence if i use the same power i used to put in training. It is not a mental issue, it's a feeling issue, since all the sensations are different from practice and match. How can i manage this problem? Do u change your tension between practice and tournament?

Is it a lot like the sport of boxing? Jabs jabs and jabs just waiting for a mistake, then strike when it's there? The deep ground strokes medium or slow paced down the middle are like the jabs and attacking a short ball is the power punch.

When you were ranked 351 in the world, what was the lifestyle like? Did you end up at any of the big tournaments?

Wow❤

How can I hit a faster forehand do you have any video on that?

Took me way too long to figure out matches were too special and that my fitness was my main weakness.

Now I see the problem that I have is that I consider a match as a continuation of a training session. Instead of playing against the opponent I just play against myself.

Thank you; this really helps how I can help my teen son play.. or better yet, not the best help is to not help him and have him watch this video!😂

Play the ball😎

0:13 is that guy playing a two-handed forehand? Never seen that before.

Was that a two-handed forehand at 0:34?

Karue is the man

You were waiting to show off that UCLA clip huh

What do you listen to before you play?

I choke when I'm up. Lost a tie break from 5-0 up this weekend.

One should never blame oneself. I always blame my equipment!! Pro tip

I have great ground strokes and can probably outhit everyone at my level and even people a little above my level. I finally started to fix my serve in practice and I can serve bombs, but in matches, I literally can’t stop double faulting. So does this come with practice or just more mental training? Just because of that, I’m a 5.8 utr instead of an 8 or 8.5 utr.

How can you make the opponent become voluntarily compliant? And play like it's it's a free rally session?