Tennis tips from martial arts—Don’t make 2 mistakes because of 1 and tension-relaxation
There are many carryovers from sport to sport (quick first step of basketball and tennis, low split and ready position for baseball short stop and tennis, explosiveness and breathing in sprinting and chasing down a ball on court, etc) and in a similar vein tennis players can learn from many principles in martial arts. I am going to focus on two:
Do not make two mistakes because of one mistake
& tension-relaxation.
First a little background. Many years ago I trained and competed in the art of Soo Bahk Do Moo Duo Kwan (SBDMDK for short in this article). You can look it up on the web but it has a very long history and other arts developed out of it. Anyway, I had the privilege of being awarded E Dan Kyo Sa which is basically the right to instruct internationally, run studios (of which I had two) and teach to the international standard. From my early years up through being a multiple black belt (Midnight Blue technically in this art) I trained, competed, and won regionally, nationally and internationally enjoying an incredible world wide family of practitioners. Lessons abound and here are two that spanned from competition, training and teaching the art (I do not consider it a sport which cheapens the art per federation philosophy so that is why it is not in the olympics).
First the lesson that can be directly applied to tennis is if you make one mistake do not make a second. Well, we all make mistakes. So what does this mean? In SBDMDK part of our philosophy is the art of stopping conflict or war. So in our sparring you are not to draw blood. You are supposed to have enough control that you can stop short of serious impact and score points. If you make a mistake and get penalized, you are not to lose composure and certainly NOT argue with the judge who is certainly your senior even in an international competition. If you throw a spinning inside out hook kick to your opponents head area and they counter and scores on you because you didn’t have proper defense in the move, you are not to then lose composure, balance, or defensive skills and get scored on again. In knife defense (with “replica” instruments) if I miss-judge it we are not to get flustered and further mess it up. In real life that can be costly. I think you get the point.
So in tennis, if you miss a volley wide, don’t over react, throw a fit, lose composure and focus only to lose the next two or three points because of it. It is just one shot and will remain that way if you stay focused and composed. Most tennis players emote to some degree and even the most composed (Federer for example) gets riled up on court and actually great players know how to control their adrenaline to jack up the energy when needed. So I am not suggesting being comatose out there. But realize, in a game where the one who controls the momentum will win most likely (Blog alert #1: I will have a blog about this in the future) you must keep errors in perspective and not let them compound. If you miss you need to tell yourself “right shot” (if it was the right thing to do) and make a minor adjustment mentally for the next time. If you miss do not blast yourself but take a good Australian “walk about” and keep self instruction to the minimum, pinpoint things, get back to the task of “one more point.” (Blog alert #2: in a future blog I will be addressing what my good friend Jim Loehr coined as PRPR some 30 years ago and I use for all my teams and players). Additionally You will have the added bonus of your opponent actually getting a little rattled possibly that you are unflappable. So when you make a mistake (and you will) tell yourself ahead of time (now and before the match) that you will not let it cost you another.
The second lesson is tension-relaxation or shin-chook. Power actually comes from relaxation and good technique. It is often referred to as easy power. In SBDMDK, as well as many other arts, as we move an arm or leg or hip especially, it is to whip loosely then to become tense at impact. This whipping while relaxed then to be tense at impact (with rotation and other forces) causes more power than if one were tense all the time. So if I am throwing a yuk soo do (reverse knife hand) my arm has to be lose for power to transfer. Breathing is key here as well. Inhaling and exhaling to accommodate the relaxation and tensions at impact is important.
So it is in tennis. Aside from light tension in our grips, our breathing and body movement, even our faces, need to be relaxed. Just try it. It is hard to be relaxed when your facial muscles are relaxed. This is why most people play well and hit big in practice (relaxed with no pressure) but tighten up, lose power and depth in matches. Poor tension-relaxation control. So how do you stay relaxed when competition. Ah, another day’s blog (Alert #3). But for now being aware of tension is key. I remember one time I was sparing with my teacher many years ago when I got my first black belt. He is one of the nations top sparring elders (6th degree or so). I was tired after a short while and he said, “Relax,” to which I said “I am.” To which he said, “no you are not.” So I exhaled deeply, let me shoulders and face just sink and sure enough, there was some tension to release. Notice in a tense match how fatigue can set in compared to practice where you think you can run all day? Notice how you might never feel sore after practice but after a match feel like your arm or some part of your body is cramping or more sore than usual? Many elite players cramp because of stress and not due to loss of fluids by the way. Breath and breath from your diaphragm, not your chest cavity. Be sure to breath between points and even during points when you have time “off the ball”—I.e. in recovering from a shot. I do not know how many people I find “turning purple” when drilling because they do not breath! No they are not really purple but they do not breath properly and run out of gas early. So breath, be aware of your relaxed state when swinging or volleying. Your grip on your serves should be loose, all your shots for that matter, until impact. Try it.
Let ‘er rip.
Steve