Practice to Play, not to Practice!

"I play way better at drills than I do at my matches!" Haven't we all heard this before? At any level players come to their coaches and show this kind of frustration. The coaches response is to keep practicing and good things will happen. Good things will happen IF the right practice mentality is implemented but what is this "right" practice mentality? It's not a Practice mentality at all, but rather a MATCH MENTALITY!
Mardy Fish, america's #1 ranked tennis player, is said to practice with the same amount of balls on court at practice as he does in a match. This is to better get him into a match mentality. It's said that Michael Jordan didn't take practice lightly. He was often involved in altercations with other players because of his intensity. These professionals made sure that what they do on court is what happens in a match in order to be ready when those situations arise during competition. We have all heard the rule of 10,000 hours. It's true, it they are practiced with a match mentality.

What made Jordan so good during matches and propelled Fish to the top 10 in the world has been their Match Mentality during practice. They were and are able to practice as you are playing a match. This match mentality will get you in the same mind set as if you were actually in the middle of battle. Players too often are guilty of not indulging into a practice as they would in a match and come up with different results. Those players are guilty of hitting the same erroneous shots, having the same negative mentality, and coming up with negative results as they do in practice. Picture a practice session where there are balls all over the court, players are hitting low percentage shots, and the intensity is low. This unfortunately happens more often than not and we have all been a part of these practices. These players will get to a match situation where they will bring their intensity up but all those bad habits they spend hours on the practice court mastering will come up and bite their rear end. "You are what you eat", in this case, "You are what you do!"

At your practice sessions, make sure you and your players act as it was a match. My players are required to do small things that add big in competition. Some of these include: -Removing balls from net right after they hit into it -Adjusting strings, whether its needed or not, after each point -Taking change overs during their practice sets -Using scorecards These are some simple things that allow our players to put themselves in a match situation. Once they go to tournaments, they are able to dictate the pace of play as they have encountered all these things during practice. Also, players at practice are required to play all their points with the same strategy as they would in a match. Sometimes they do well and others they don't, but we are able to make the adjustments necessary at the practice session with the match mentality to make sure their chances of succeeding at their tournament matches are high. Lastly, players are put in set situations where they are way up, down big, or even. Their goal is to win the practice matches with a match mentality. By putting them in these situations, they are able to match what happens in matches as those scenarios WILL occur.
Get yourself out of losing ways. The way you practice is the way you will play; whether on the tennis court or at your board meetings. Focus as you need to execute that day and you will put yourself in the best position when the time comes as you will know what to expect. You are what you do!