When we feel that the student has built a solid technical foundation for tennis, by identifying their performance through our internal tournament, we will inform said student, and the parents that they are ready to begin taking part in UTR, USTA, NTRP, ITF, and other tournament formats.
Tournaments are different from the usual circumstances of practice or even internal tournaments as there is more pressure on delivery a good result due to the importance of rankings, and standings in the division you are involved in. People often find that it is difficult to play the same way in the tournament as they do in practice, due to such pressure. For circumstances such as this, it can be essential to have a knowledgeable coach on the side of the court to help you during your match, as well as analyze your playing to help you become more conscious in order to turn something such as a loss, into a win by utilizing the loss for improvement.
These are the different categories of analysis that the coach will be looking at as he is taking notes during your match:
- Your presence and behavior during a match is essential to keeping your positive attitude, and to not letting the other player know that you are struggling.
- Staying loose during a match is important because if you do not stay loose, it doesn’t matter how good your technique is you will not be able to perform.
- Always use the same techniques that we have been practicing, or there is no point to the practice.
- If you have a particular weakness that is easily identifiable, opponents will use this against you. For example, repeatedly inconsistent approach shots or ground strokes.
- Your serve should not only be consistent, but can’t be too weak as the other player will have an advantage on every point you serve.
- Using proper footwork to create more opportunities for yourself on defensive, and offensive shots.
- Being aware of not only your positioning but the other player’s as well is necessary for knowing where to place the ball in order to win or take advantage of the point.
- Make the correct strategic decisions such as knowing to finish the point, play the ball wide, and come into the net.
- Identify the opponent’s weaknesses and exploit them in order to win the match, every opponent’s game is different
- Being tired during the match will affect how well you can play, so it is important to be able to not only keep up with the other player but outrun the other player.
- Making sure you can get to the balls that should not be difficult, or being able to return the ball back on a hard angled shot.
Kids need to warm up before the match so that they are sufficiently prepared to play intense, competitive tennis. Usually the coach will warm up with the player for thirty minutes, this happens an hour before the match in order for the warm up to not exhaust the player for their match. The first part of the warm up is an intense stretch in order to get the player’s muscles loose for the match. During the warm up, there will be no technical changes, the coach will go through the routine of all the strokes the player has learned from serves, to volleys, to groundstrokes, defensive, and aggressive shots as well.
- Driving fees will only be charged if the tournament is an hour or more away 2 way, in which case the charge would be $15/hour.
- Depending on the number of matches the player is playing during the tournament the price will change accordingly at the rate of $50/match. This includes the pre-match warm up.
Because pricing is varying please click the button below to submit a form including the details of the location, and a link to the tournament we will be attending, so we can give you a quote for this service. We ask that you give us at least a month in advance notice, as we may have to reschedule lessons, clinics, or other programs in order to ensure we can make it to your tournament.