Throughout this year I have continued to play tennis multiple times a week, and now alongside my technique and skill training for match play, have also started training my stamina more. This has been slightly more difficult than just practising the skills needed to make shots, as it takes a much longer time to improve endurance than compared with the way in which I strike or place the ball on the court. It generally involved a lot of running, as within matches I am required to continuously run for shots over a long period of time. I think that continuously doing this in line with my regular tennis training was quite challenging as especially once fitness training started it took a lot more effort and energy from me than I realised. As a result, although it was quite challenging, I have had to practice this consistently, so that over time I could start to improve in this area of my game. Even though I am generally able to be consistent over the course of a match, by training my endurance I have been able to improve the consistency and quality of my shots as I have more energy due to training this way.
Other than this aspect, another area I have been working on recently is doubles gameplay. This is because I am most used to playing singles matches and that is the type of match I have the most practice in, however, sometimes within tournaments I need to play doubles and this requires a lot more communication and strategy than singles. In focusing on doubles I have to collaborate and communicate well with my teammate so we both know what we are planning the structure of the point to be, as well as when each of us will take a shot and where we intend to place it. In practising this, a lot of the time there was a miscommunication between me and the person I was playing with, which resulted in losing more points than we should have. However, in playing doubles over a period of time, it got easier to communicate and understand how my partner would play a shot, resulting in us playing a better game overall.
#LO2 #LO5
#CAS
