Cut down on unforced errors - a simple tip for practicing patience
At the club or amateur tennis level, most rallies are decided by unforced errors caused by impatience, rather than outright winners.
‘No Winners Allowed’ is a simple, fun game to play with a partner to help you improve your patience and reduced the mistakes and build pressure on your opponent. And it get you fit too…
One of the most common strategic mistakes club players and beginners make is impatience.
A lack of patience - trying to hit winners at the wrong moment - leads to unnecessary unforced errors, which leads to frustration, which lowers your confidence and enjoyment. I believe the key to having more competitive success is ‘Aggressive Patience’- an approach to playing that is attacking but also smart.
And this ‘No Winners Allowed’ game is a fun and surprisingly challenging game for practising your patience on the court. It’s also very good for your fitness, as you’ll have some very long rallies!
How to play:
This game does what it says on the tin!
Start with a second serve or feed up the middle and simply play out the point - but neither player is allowed to go for a winner.
So the point should only end with a forced or unforced error. That means - or should mean - very long rallies. You’ll get into a mindset of being quite relaxed, rather than having a voice in your head urging you to smash a winner down the line all the time.
But as you go on it gets interesting. To get the most out of the game you should try to hit proper, 80%-plus shots into challenging areas, not just gentle dobs into the middle of the court. Soon you’ll both start pushing the limits of a safe percentage shot, until you really start challenging each other, and your own accuracy. (This inevitably means that on many shots there’s a bit of a grey area - so you’ll have to agree between you whether a shot was a ‘winner’ or just laziness by the loser to get to the ball! )
You’ll be playing patient, high percentage but proper shots that gradually ramp up the pressure on your opponent.
This is a mindset you can take into competitive matches - and you may find the results are pleasantly surprising!
Play first to 11… or until you both collapse!
What you’ll get:
You’ll learn how it feels to be patient within a rally
The discipline of toughing out a rally
Confidence that you can last a long rally
Tactically it will get you thinking outside your regular game plan and habits, and force you think outside the box
Physical stamina
…And mental stamina - you’ve got no choice but to hang in there!
See also:
How to practice consistent cross-court rallying
How to cut down on double faults
How to practice your second serve consistency
Mastering the contact point: How to read the ball and get in the perfect position to hit it
Lizzie Flint is a writer and a practicing level 3 LTA professional tennis coach. Andrew Nixon is a club player and has road-tested this game to great success!