Getting ahead of the competition

I often hear players at tournaments, weekly competitions and some students complaining about how they take a set to warm up. Are you one of those players?

Learning how to use the warm-up to allow you to start the match confidently comes with experience.

This week, I will try to save you some frustration by helping you get out off the blocks faster so you can be more competitive right from the very first point of the match.

During your warm-up your main goals should be to get your muscles warmed up to avoid injury, groove your strokes so you feel confident hitting to where you are aiming and to discover your opponent's weaknesses. Getting into long rallies with your ground strokes (forehands and backhands) is the best way to warm-up the muscles.

Try to keep the ball in play and pick a target that's about five to six feet that's right in front of your opponent. Hit the ball consistently right to them; in doing so you will gain confidence and you will also be able to see their level of consistency and accuracy.

Aiming right at your opponent will naturally tell you which side they are stronger on as they will have to choose between their backhand and forehand. If your opponent knows how to warm-up they'll be doing exactly the same thing.

When you head to the net to warm-up your volleys, use short strokes and try not to miss a shot. Use the same target and just keep the ball in play.

Ask for some overhead smashes and make sure you swing through smoothly. Don't smack the ball as hard as you can because you will most likely make silly mistakes or just plain miss it. Hitting the ball sweetly and consistently is more intimidating than showing your opponent how hard you can hit a ball!

Finally, some warm-up serves.

Start out slow with little power to find some accuracy, pick a target in the service box. Then, gradually increase the pace until you have reached the pace you intend to use for your match.

If you start out by hitting the hardest serve possible you will most likely end up serving a lot of double faults during the match and/or run the risk of injuring yourself.

When you are ready to start your match you should feel confident about your striking of the ball, accuracy and consistency.

This will hopefully intimidate your opponent a little too.

You should have gained some valuable information about their strokes, but most importantly your muscles and your mind will be ready to go.