Play Within Your Limits And Win More Often

Have you ever had the experience of playing a doubles match against a team who hit balls cross court with no pace, didn't move very much, and lobbed you all day long?  This same team didn't attempt one winner the whole match, yet you lost to them pretty easily.  You came off the court irritated you lost to players who "don't even play real tennis!"

Well, I will be the one to break it to you.  You lost to a team who plays tennis better than you.  They play better than you for one very important reason - they always play within their limits.  You lost to them because you don't know or ignore what yours are.

The first thing you need to know as a player is what you can and cannot do consistently.  Then you ensure during match play that you only do what you are good at, and make darn sure you don't do what you aren't good at.  This is the foundation for tactical play.

Using myself as an example for this discussion, let me describe to you what I know about myself as my game stands today -

1) Cannot grip my racquet with my left hand at all to hit my two handed backhand
2) Do not practice my serve at all for match conditions
3) Have not hit a forehand with my regular grip in 6 months - I teach and hit in lessons with a continental grip
4) My groundstrokes - regardless of grip - aren't going to be winning me many points at 4.5 or 5.0 as they stand.
5) I volley well provided I do not have to move too much
6) My movement has slowed down significantly from inactivity
7) In lessons I simply play a bunch of feel shots and do not try to put balls away, even at the net

So here is the current state of my game.  Now I have to go play a match tomorrow.  What should I be thinking?  How should I try to play with the mess that is the current state of my game?

I MUST play within my limits.  Only do what I CAN do, and don't do what I can't do right now.  So therefore I will do the following:

1) No First Serves.  I will hit a 3/4 pace kick serve as a first serve to get a high percentage in, and avoid the risk of missing a boatload of first serves (note to self - practice the 1st serve) Since I like to serve and volley, the slower serve will give me more time to get into the net, compensating for the fact I've slowed down.
2) No two handed backhands - I've probably hit five in 6 months.  Even though it was a strength at one point, it cannot be relied upon.
3) I will chip every return of serve - Since I can't hit my two-handed backhand, and I have been hitting a slice one-hander in lessons, as well as a continental forehand, and because my slice is closely tied to how I volley, I know I can make the returns with little worry.  I know also I can't change grips between shots well, so sticking with the continental grip on returns means no grip switching.
4) Limited Poaching - Only poach ball within on or two steps.  Anything greater than that, I'm likely to mess up because my movement is atrocious
5) No Pace on volleys, and groundstrokes - Since I teach this way, I've developed great feel, so why not use it.  Trying to hit anything with power when you don't practice it is insane and a recipe for errors.
6) No down the line returns unless it's a lob - Since I don't practice much returning serve with a one-hander with a continental grip, why even try to be aggressive?  Plus, a slice up the line on the return is just asking for trouble.  I am capable of lobbing with that grip so I keep the lob as my down the line option. 
7) Get to net right away! - This prevents me from hitting groundstrokes, a weakness of my game, and allows me to volley, which is a strength.

So now I know how I will attempt to minimize risk and maximize success on the court the next time I play.

Obviously, every person is different.  For some it may be you simply need to stop hitting down the line returns (I recommend this in general - it's an incredibly low percentage shot), for some it may be to stop trying to blast the 1st serve in because you only make 2 out of every 10 you try.

My suggestion is to first write down what you think you are good at (you are good at something if at your level you can make that shot 8 or 9 times out of 10), and then write down what you aren't good at (things you can't do 6 out of 10 times).  If you don't know, have a teammate track your errors in your next match,  especially the serve and the return.  Have them track your success rate on cross court and down the line returns, and first serve pct.  Those are the basics. You will be surprised what you will be eliminating from your game.

At the end of the day more points are won in a tennis match between players or teams of equal level by virtue of errors.  It only makes sense that your job as a player or team is to do whatever it takes to minimize your errors.  It starts with eliminating from the repertoire things you are not being successful with.  If you aren't sure how to come up with this, take a lesson from your pro, and ask them for their input.  Once you do this, you will find yourself or your team winning more matches.