Aggressive Patience - the essential strategy for winning more tennis matches

At most competitive levels, the key to winning more tennis matches is to be smart and strategic with your play

For competitive players who want to win more matches, coaching is about much more than technique, it’s about strategy, tactics and mental approach. I coined the phrase ‘Aggressive Patience’ when one of my club players came to me frustrated that he just couldn’t beat a player in his league, despite having a very similar level of technical ability.

We talked it through and worked out that he was giving away too many cheap points, choosing the wrong shots, trying to hit winners off good balls, and whacking it wide or into the net over and again in a state of thoughtless aggression.

I advised him that aggression is crucial, but that he needed to become more patient with his game. Cut down on the giveaways, but still retain the positive, attacking nature of his game. The secret was a different, more conscious form of aggression. To be composed and calm yet offensive… In other words, to show ‘Aggressive Patience’...

What is Aggressive Patience?

Aggressive Patience is a smart, strategic approach to winning tennis matches. It’s particularly useful against players at or above your level (it’s a great way to beat people who seem to be better than you!)

The effect of Aggressive Patience is to minimise bad shot selection and unforced errors. It’s a way of controlling your attacking instincts and applying them in the most effective way.

But it’s not about being passive, or just blocking, or just not wanting to lose. It’s a positive mindset. It involves trusting a process and backing yourself. Taking one step back to take two steps forward. It’s about being smart and efficient with your game, subtle and sensible.

Everyone loves hitting beautiful winners down the line. Aggressive Patience isn’t about removing them from your game, but about getting yourself in the right position to play them, at the right times.

Applying Aggressive Patience

Aggressive Patience is a strategy, and the practical tactics for applying it will vary from player to player, from game to game, even from point to point.

Here are some typical examples of it in practice…

1) Trade more, but with a purpose

As a rule of thumb for most players, about 80% of shots should go cross-court. So don’t rush to hit a winner down the line. Rather, you should patiently hit cross-court, sending the ball back where it came from, building control and subtly manoeuvring your opponent wider and wider, or deeper and deeper, until the percentages are in your favour and you’re in the right position to hit the winner - which by now might be a very easy shot..

If it takes you a few extra shots each rally to get there, be ok with it. If you win 60% of points where you hit five shots, but only 50% with four shots, then the smart choice is to play the additional stroke.

Trading patiently for a while also gives you the opportunity to test your opponent’s consistency and spot any weaknesses in their game. Do they struggle with the deeper ball? Can they match you for ten shots or do they break down after seven? Do they lose their own patience?

2) Play ‘set up’ shots, not just winners

When you’ve successfully built the point and the time does feel right to close out the point, you don’t necessarily need to hit a screamer that leaves your opponent stranded. A 70% effort shot that sets up an easy volley might win more often for you.

3) Hit high percentage first serves

If you’re having a bad serve day, don’t be afraid to take pace off the first serve, perhaps add a bit more spin, and get your percentages up. There’s a big psychological benefit to just getting a lot of first serves in as you don’t feel that second-serve pressure all the time. And opponents tend to be more defensive on first serves even when they’re below maximum pace.

BUT… Aggressive Patience isn’t a rigid tactical formula that you should just mindlessly follow.

You need an open-minded appreciation of what’s happening in a match: to notice what’s going wrong and have the patience and self-awareness to go back to basics and build a more effective playing approach.

If you’re flying and everything is going in, you don’t really need to worry about Aggressive Patience. But if you’re in trouble in a game or facing a more talented opponent, it can dig you out of a hole and give you the best possible chance of winning. 

How to get into the Aggressive Patience mindset

When you’re playing and it’s all going wrong, take a moment to breathe and reflect. Ask yourself these questions…

• Am I beating myself with unforced errors, rather than my opponent outplaying me? 

• Am I failing to create opportunities to play to my strengths?

• Am I clueless about my opponent’s weaknesses?

• Is my shot selection off?

• Am I going for too much too soon?

• Do I feel flustered, foggy or like things are spiralling away from me?

If the answer is yes to any or all of these, it’s time to take a step back, master your trusted basics, play smart, high percentage tennis and steadily build your way back into the match. 

And that’s Aggressive Patience!

(Postscript…. A few weeks after drilling all this into my club player, he turned up to a coaching session with a big grin on his face. He’d finally beaten his rival by aggressively, but very patiently, outsmarting him over an epic three-setter...)

---

Lizzie Flint is a writer and a practicing level 3 LTA professional tennis coach.

She has been in love with the game since picking up a racquet at the age of four – and she has seen it from every possible angle: playing, analysing and reporting on tennis all over the world. Read more about Lizzie here.