Hey guys,

We’re going to do a quick exercise. I want you to close your eyes and visualize a couple things.

First, picture this. It’s a beautiful day.  The sun is up providing just enough heat to warm your body so that your muscles will feel loose and relaxed.  And it’s producing  just enough light -  making the ball easier to detect. It’s about 78 degrees out on the court.

And there’s a very  slight and mellow breeze blowing in between the trees – enough to sooth but nowhere near enough to effect your shots.

…Got that image locked in? Perfect for tennis? I agree.

OK. Now, imagine something else. Visualize that the sun is nowhere to be found. The temperature is a skin cracking 47 degrees. Your muscles are tight. And you can barely feel your hands (…or your feet for that matter).

Perfect day for tennis? No, not perfect. But a day for tennis nonetheless. The ugly truth of the matter is that you can’t control the weather. You may be a great player, but not that great .

That being said, it doesn’t matter if it’s pleasantly warm, or blisteringly cold. You have to be prepared for both extremes.   Because hey, neither will delay your date with your tennis destiny. If you have a match tomorrow, the only way it’ll be canceled or postponed is if buckets of water are falling from the sky.

So that being the case (…and since we’ve already covered how to handle the heat in another post), here are 6 strategies to help you see success on the court when your surroundings are a little more frigid than you might like.

1. Stretch For Success: With cooler conditions, it wouldn’t be wise to start hitting as soon as you take your racket out of the bag.  The low temperatures will cause your muscles to be much tighter to start. This means your movements will be slower. And your body just won’t be ready.

But by stretching before you begin play and during your pre-game warmup, you’ll remove some of the tension and tightness and help your muscles relax. This is extremely important.Why?

Because when playing in any condition, you’re going to have to be able to sprint, stop on a dime, cut, and change direction (…almost non-stop).

Warming up your muscles and relaxing them, as a result, will help them to fire and explode while greatly minimizing the risk of a potential tear, pull, or other muscle related injury.

If your muscles are tight and tense, coupled with those sudden jerks and abrupt body movements, you may not see the end of the match and (…heaven forbid) might be in for a stretch of uncomfortable rehab sessions that could last anywhere between a few weeks to even a few MONTHS.

NOTE: The colder the weather, the longer your muscles may take to loosen up and unravel. So, be on the safe side and tack on an extra 7 to 10 minutes to your normal warm-up routine on these types of days.

2. Drink For Success: When the temperature  of your surroundings is low, your body’s temperature will soon follow.  And when your body does begin to take notice, your focus may begin to drift.

In other words, you may begin to pay more attention to the level of discomfort that the weather is producing rather than your actual game plan.

You can combat this simply by having a warm drink about 15 minutes before you take the court.  A great example to try would be tea that is caffeine free.

By doing this,  your body temperature will get a much needed kick and begin to rise. This will give your body a valuable head-start.  Then when you come in contact with the cool temperatures, you won’t be as susceptible  to its affects or  feel it as much – and thus be less distracted.

“Well, what do I do when the drink wears off?” Don’t worry. By that time,   you’d already have played a few games (… and revved up your engine so to speak). So, your body will naturally be able to keep it up for you.

3.  Dress For Success: Wear several thin layers of clothing, and periodically remove a piece (…one by one) as you progress in your warm-up. If you have on something incredibly heavy and thick, and then remove it, you’ll just shock your body and its senses.

Why? It’ll be to vast of a difference for your body to handle and/or smoothly adjust too. It’ll be going from one end of the temp. spectrum to the other too quickly. By wearing thin layers, you’ll be able to ease your body into it and feel a lot more balanced.


4. Grip For Success: The colder your hands are, the harder it’s going to be for you to maintain a good tight grip on your racket.

So, wearing a pair of thin gloves can really help you here. Gloves will definitely increase the warmth in your hands and provide you will a stronger grip. Oh yea, and you’ll be able to feel your fingers too. But…

Ahhh, yea there’s a catch. I only recommend doing this when you’re involved in training breaks or change overs. Why? When you’re engaged in ground strokes as well as your serve (…while wearing gloves), it’s very difficult to find your way around the handle.

It’s almost impossible for you to actually feel the small indentations where the handle changes – thereby preventing you from adequately obtaining the proper feel for a variety of shots. It just feels like one big stick all the way around.

Not only that, but it’s much harder to slide your hand across the handle as well. So, even if you could feel the indentations for formulate the proper grip for, you might not even be able to get it there in time. Yea, BUMMER!

So, this is definitely an “on again, off again strategy.” When you head to the bench to get a drink and refocus, slip the gloves on. Then, simply remove them when you storm back on to the court for your next game. Problem solved .

5. Hit for success: Not only can the cold affect your focus and how you feel, but it can also alter your shots as well.  …More specifically, the way it bounces. The lower the outside temperature, the lower the bounce your balls are going to take. 

This is a direct result of  a major dip in air pressure inside the ball – much like when a basket ball loses its air. It naturally doesn’t bounce as high.   And because of that, you want to make it a point to hit shots that have a tendency to stay low.

Why? Because, since  the bounces they take are already low to start with, when the weather is cold, they will be twice as low and twice as difficult for your opponent to reach, without you having to do anything extra.

Two great examples of those would be the slice and the drop shot. When you hit them, they’re already engineered to stay low. So under these conditions, these shots will practically die when they arrive on your opponent’s side.

REMEMBER: This can also happen to you. That being said, you want to make sure you’re on your toes and have the mindset of going TO the ball, rather than letting the ball COME to you. If you wait, you’ll be “wiffing” twice of the amount of balls you’ll be hitting (…because the ball just won’t get there).


6. Attack For Success: If one of your reasons that you don’t come in to the net is because you fear your opponent’s passing shot, you’re definitely in luck. Since the balls will be staying much closer to the ground, they’ll be well below your opponent’s desired contact point.

As a result, creating a powerful drive will be very difficult. Instead, your opponent will be forced into popping the ball up – thus generating more high volleys that will be much easier for you to capitalize on and put away.

Try these 6 strategies out next time you feel a little nippy on there on the court. They should help a great deal.

Have a great day, and an even BETTER game!

Brian

TennisMindCamp