Totally agree. Male in my late 50’s, as junior players we were dropped off at the courts in the morning and played all day competitive matches against everyone, my peers, older guys at the courts, girls, whoever wanted to play. Competitive matches against serve and volleyers, pushers, chip and chargers, etc. There were no tennis pros in Southern Louisiana at that time. Never took a lesson as a junior. Watched every tournament on tv, every match, Conners, Mac, Borg, all of them. Learned from watching them, learned how to win and compete from playing sets all day long. Played for LSU in the early 80’s and have been teaching ever since. I turn down lessons and money all the time and tell my students to go out and play matches, learn how to win, to lose, to face adversity. Sadly, it falls on deaf ears. There’s something missing…
Some gold advice here Nick! I'm a senior player and I can completely appreciate that matchplay is huge if you want to win matches and tournaments. I've learnt this to my own detriment as I think I hit too much and dont play enough matches so I'm not match fit enough and hence when pressure moments come in matches, I'm just not there. Assuming technique is solid, matchplay experience and matchplay fitness is everything if you want to win matches and tournies. Thanks Nick👍
Great points. I was a wrestler in high school and the coaches always said, “if you want to get better at wrestling, you have to wrestle.” Meaning that you had to actually go full speed, in order to truly progress. Drill all you want, but nothing will prepare you like actually going out and doing it. You need those hours just as much as you need training hours, if not more.
US culture is so focused on winning and being the best that the idea of losing is so ingrained from a young age to equate to failure as a person. Kids are under a lot of social pressure to not be 'losers' which creates a generation of anxiety around trying to stay perfect. It is a fixed mindset, not a growth mindset. The healthy approach is to accept losing as part of the game and for personal growth. It is ok to lose and shouldn't be seen by parents as weakness. Roger Federer has lost more matches than most have played.
Absolutely agree, Kids are brought up in glasshouse conditions and meeting reality is too cruel making them neurotics with avoidant disorder , they've got too many silly distraction not being able to concentrate on one issue at a time
This is exactly what I noticed when my son was growing up in Tennis here in Florida! I am glad to hear you affirm that. I think part of it is that parents are sold on the notion that unless their academy or coach mediates the students play, it is not productive. This keeps the academy or coach financially involved more IMHO.
I completely agree with that. it amazes me how difficult is for kids to just put together or text each other to go out and play, there are so many public free courts. I would have died for free courts when i was young. I'm from South America my friends and I would call each other and go to the courts and play sets from 9am-5pm.
This is very true. I've played juniors who look great in warm up. But as soon as the match starts, they can't handle the pressure and their technique goes out the window.
That also happens, but I think that Nik's main point is that they lose those matches even when technically they are not doing anything wrong because the game is a combination of technique, strategy and mental resilience. We all have seen players losing against "technically weaker" players, more often than not because of strategic mistakes.
When I play USTA tournaments I realize that I generally "lose" in warmup. Since I am a serve volley player they have stronger forehands and backhands and are super consistent. When the game starts they play like a looped program where they try to play a 30 ball rally hitting only crosscourt. They usually don't use their brains when playing. Against these players, I completely overuse drop shots and underhand serves knowing that they stand on the baseline no matter what. Having more match experiences allows people to be less robot-like and adapt to games and opponents.
I - as an old player returning to the game - play with anyone no matter how much worse or better they are. To me a loss to a dominating player is just a learning lesson, and playing a weak player forces me to always react aggressively to the unexpected and practice executing correctly the easy balls.
I think the reality is most people who play tennis like the feeling of hitting and don't like playing matches. Matches are uncomfortable, stressful, and make you feel like you're playing poorly. Most people just don't admit to themselves that they don't like matches or don't realize it. I say this as a person that doesn't like tennis matches, but I like hitting.
Question: How is the European tennis system funded? How are they paying players as opposed to the USA system in which prize money is so little or scarce?
With all respect, the United States has the most atp players in the 100 (12). Yes it is hard to compete with all of Europe, but as a whole all the best athletes from the US pick American Football, Basketball and baseball because it is a lot more financially rewarding.
What you should take into account is that USA has a population of about 330 million (12 ATP players in top 100 ), and Europe in whole some 750 million people (60+ ATP players in top 100). One would assume that, if all else equal, the ratio of players should be approximately 1:2. This disparity indicates that all else is not equal, and Nik is sharing his opinions on why that is.
Hi, I'm a subscriber for some time now. I have a translatable idea that could fix this for my city and also for yours. Would you mind charging me 1 hour of your instruction for a zoom meeting so I can talk to you about it? I'm in the beginning phase of my idea and one hour of your insights would be very valuable.
And when they practice here, they don’t give it 100%. Also when you tried to push people here in US they take you as insult. Which is no good because you have to tell them the truth so they can get better.
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You need to make a podcast where you talk about tennis. About when you were young and what you did. Funny stories. Everyone would watch it
Yes!!
Totally agree. Male in my late 50’s, as junior players we were dropped off at the courts in the morning and played all day competitive matches against everyone, my peers, older guys at the courts, girls, whoever wanted to play. Competitive matches against serve and volleyers, pushers, chip and chargers, etc. There were no tennis pros in Southern Louisiana at that time. Never took a lesson as a junior. Watched every tournament on tv, every match, Conners, Mac, Borg, all of them. Learned from watching them, learned how to win and compete from playing sets all day long. Played for LSU in the early 80’s and have been teaching ever since. I turn down lessons and money all the time and tell my students to go out and play matches, learn how to win, to lose, to face adversity. Sadly, it falls on deaf ears. There’s something missing…
Great discussion. Big difference between learning technique and gaining competitive experience.
Some gold advice here Nick! I'm a senior player and I can completely appreciate that matchplay is huge if you want to win matches and tournaments.
I've learnt this to my own detriment as I think I hit too much and dont play enough matches so I'm not match fit enough and hence when pressure moments come in matches, I'm just not there.
Assuming technique is solid, matchplay experience and matchplay fitness is everything if you want to win matches and tournies.
Thanks Nick👍
Great points. I was a wrestler in high school and the coaches always said, “if you want to get better at wrestling, you have to wrestle.” Meaning that you had to actually go full speed, in order to truly progress. Drill all you want, but nothing will prepare you like actually going out and doing it. You need those hours just as much as you need training hours, if not more.
US culture is so focused on winning and being the best that the idea of losing is so ingrained from a young age to equate to failure as a person. Kids are under a lot of social pressure to not be 'losers' which creates a generation of anxiety around trying to stay perfect. It is a fixed mindset, not a growth mindset.
The healthy approach is to accept losing as part of the game and for personal growth. It is ok to lose and shouldn't be seen by parents as weakness. Roger Federer has lost more matches than most have played.
Wow! I really like this explanation.
100% agree with these sentiments. There’s an over identification with being a tennis player so in order to not be a ‘failure’ avoidance occurs.
Absolutely agree, Kids are brought up in glasshouse conditions and meeting reality is too cruel making them neurotics with avoidant disorder , they've got too many silly distraction not being able to concentrate on one issue at a time
Great conversation! Hoping for EP#9 to be the game of this warm-up, with some coaching from you.
Please keep it going ! I’m loving this road
Well stated. I've come across so many young players that have all the tools, yet no idea how to play matches. Technique only gets you so far.
This is exactly what I noticed when my son was growing up in Tennis here in Florida! I am glad to hear you affirm that. I think part of it is that parents are sold on the notion that unless their academy or coach mediates the students play, it is not productive. This keeps the academy or coach financially involved more IMHO.
I completely agree with that. it amazes me how difficult is for kids to just put together or text each other to go out and play, there are so many public free courts. I would have died for free courts when i was young. I'm from South America my friends and I would call each other and go to the courts and play sets from 9am-5pm.
Been a while since watching, great content as ever!
Great topic and I 1000% agree with you
Would love to see you play a set against Safin where both of you are wearing a mic. It would be interesting to hear both your thoughts while playing
He’ll demolish Safin outrightly
@@ifeanyiikpegbu6465 so what. He demolished all his students so far but it's still interesting to watch
This is very true. I've played juniors who look great in warm up. But as soon as the match starts, they can't handle the pressure and their technique goes out the window.
That also happens, but I think that Nik's main point is that they lose those matches even when technically they are not doing anything wrong because the game is a combination of technique, strategy and mental resilience. We all have seen players losing against "technically weaker" players, more often than not because of strategic mistakes.
In a warm up, we are "passing" easy balls to each. Big difference when you're playing to win a point
When I play USTA tournaments I realize that I generally "lose" in warmup. Since I am a serve volley player they have stronger forehands and backhands and are super consistent. When the game starts they play like a looped program where they try to play a 30 ball rally hitting only crosscourt. They usually don't use their brains when playing. Against these players, I completely overuse drop shots and underhand serves knowing that they stand on the baseline no matter what. Having more match experiences allows people to be less robot-like and adapt to games and opponents.
I - as an old player returning to the game - play with anyone no matter how much worse or better they are. To me a loss to a dominating player is just a learning lesson, and playing a weak player forces me to always react aggressively to the unexpected and practice executing correctly the easy balls.
There is more a life lesson here as much as a tennis one!
Keeping it real!
Super conversation.. tennis is the game not coaching.
I think the reality is most people who play tennis like the feeling of hitting and don't like playing matches. Matches are uncomfortable, stressful, and make you feel like you're playing poorly. Most people just don't admit to themselves that they don't like matches or don't realize it. I say this as a person that doesn't like tennis matches, but I like hitting.
Question: How is the European tennis system funded? How are they paying players as opposed to the USA system in which prize money is so little or scarce?
just curious, are you speaking with Safin's dad in this video?
Yes
there is no substitution for set play
With all respect, the United States has the most atp players in the 100 (12). Yes it is hard to compete with all of Europe, but as a whole all the best athletes from the US pick American Football, Basketball and baseball because it is a lot more financially rewarding.
What you should take into account is that USA has a population of about 330 million (12 ATP players in top 100 ), and Europe in whole some 750 million people (60+ ATP players in top 100). One would assume that, if all else equal, the ratio of players should be approximately 1:2. This disparity indicates that all else is not equal, and Nik is sharing his opinions on why that is.
Hi Nik , gibts in den USA keine Mannschafts Liga Medenspiele wie in Deutschland ?
Gibt es nicht
Do you think players should video tape their matches and analyze them afterwards?
Sure but don’t over analyze th-cam.com/video/HGnbRnB1VVc/w-d-xo.html
Hi, I'm a subscriber for some time now. I have a translatable idea that could fix this for my city and also for yours. Would you mind charging me 1 hour of your instruction for a zoom meeting so I can talk to you about it? I'm in the beginning phase of my idea and one hour of your insights would be very valuable.
👍
And when they practice here, they don’t give it 100%. Also when you tried to push people here in US they take you as insult. Which is no good because you have to tell them the truth so they can get better.
This could have been a youtube short lol. So long to repeat one point