March 3, 2014

As a tennis player, most of us are always told to stretch. Okay, but stretch what? And why should I stretch? Also, what is stretching actually doing? As an athlete, we need reasons and goals attached to the activities we do, otherwise we are perhaps wasting time.

What happens if you can’t conjure up a Plan A strategy that gives you an obvious game plan edge over your opponent? Then you go to Plan B, which relies on a wearing-away process. We all have limited reserves of willpower, and we can only withstand stress and concentrate for so long. Plan B relies on the fact that you can win matches by exhausting your opponents mentally. Most people can concentrate pretty well for 30 minutes, but few can keep it up for hours. So even if you see no glaring weaknesses at first, 2 hours later, when your opponents’ minds have tired and their wills have dissipated, their games may leak like sieves.

The Lawn Tennis Association’s misfiring performance department is to get a health-check from Bob Brett, the experienced and respected Australian coach who has worked with Boris Becker and Marin Cilic, among many others.