Confidence on Court: What to Do When You Donât Feel It
One of my subscribers asked if there's a way to trigger confidence when she doesnât feel it â especially when facing opponents who are more skilled tennis players than her.
Here are my thoughts...
You canât really "fake" confidence. If it's not there, start with small ritualsâlike fixing strings, a few deep breaths, or walking aroundâto calm the nerves. Then shift your focus to the next tactical task:
> âIâll serve to the backhandâ
> Instead of getting stuck on the outcome (âI must winâ) or worse, on fear (âI donât want to loseâ).
Over time, learn to manage your thoughtsâor better yet, aim to let them go. Practice following your breath or zoning into an objective. Anxiety fades when you stop feeding negative thoughts.
Confidence in tennis isn't about knowing you'll winâyou canât control that. That kind of focus only invites more anxiety.
Real confidence comes from skill: knowing âI can handle whatever they throw at me.â Whether that's a kick serve, slice, deep topspin, or heavy paceâconfidence means trusting your ability to respond.
If those skills (or your fitness) arenât there yet, itâs okay. Confidence wonât flourish without themâitâs simply a gap that practice must close.
When facing a clearly stronger player, flip the script:
> âLetâs see how much trouble I can cause.â
> âTheyâll have to work for every point.â
> âIf they win, itâs because they survived me.â
That mindset shifts the pressure off you and sharpens your focusâand thatâs often when your best tennis emerges.
As Michael Flatley says in this short clip: www.youtube.com/shorts/WsuS7p...
âYou have to WORK!â Confidence isnât givenâitâs earned through effort, presence, and skill.
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Why Changing Your Tennis Technique Feels So Hard (and What You Can Do About It)
If youâve ever tried to fix your forehand, backhand, or serve â and found yourself slipping right back into the old habits â youâre not alone. And more importantly: youâre not broken.
What youâre really up against is not just muscle memory or poor focus. Youâre up against myelin â and itâs doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Motivated tennis players often get frustrated when trying to change their stroke technique because progress is slow and old habits keep reappearing.
They often believe that the progress should be faster or that once they know what the new correct movement is, that they should be just able to execute it at will.
So I went deep down the rabbit hole using the latest AI tools that allow us to research scientific studies on the process of learning new motor skills and how the brain creates new neural pathways, and I hope that the article below will give you a good understanding of what really happens when we try to learn new stroke technique, how many repetitions it takes and why the process is so tricky.
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đ§ What Is Myelin and Why Does It Matter?
Every time you repeat a movement â like your current forehand swing â the brain sends an electrical signal through a network of neurons. The more you repeat that motion, the more your brain wraps those nerve fibers in a fatty insulating layer called myelin.
Think of myelin like the rubber coating on an electrical wire. The more myelin, the faster and more automatic the signal becomes. Thatâs why your strokes eventually feel "natural" â because the signal is well insulated and deeply ingrained.
Thatâs great for solidifying skillsâŚ
âŚbut it also explains why changing an old stroke feels so awkward. You're literally trying to *redirect electricity through a different circuit* â one that hasnât been built or insulated yet.
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đŻ Why Mental Understanding Isnât Enough
Many adult players learn the *new* technique intellectually â they watch videos, take lessons, understand what needs to change. But when they swing in real time, their body runs the old, myelinated program.
And this is where frustration sets in.
You *know* what to do. You *see* it in your head. But your body won't cooperate.
Why?
Because the old pattern is still the fastest and most insulated signal in your brain. Until the new one is repeated enough times â and myelinated â it wonât feel natural, no matter how much you think about it.
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đ How Many Repetitions Does It Take?
Hereâs an estimate based on research in motor learning, neuroscience, and coaching experience:
| Experience Level | Age Group | Stroke Type | Reps to Rewire Technique |
| ---------------------------- | --------- | ---------------- | ------------------------ |
| Beginner (new motion) | Under 25 | Forehand | 300â500
| Beginner (new motion) | Over 25 | Backhand | 500â700
| Experienced (changing habit) | Under 25 | Forehand | 2,000â4,000
| Experienced (changing habit) | Over 25 | Backhand | 3,000â5,000
| Deep habit (ingrained) | Over 25 | Any Stroke | 5,000â10,000+
These numbers may feel daunting, but they also give you permission to take your time. Youâre not slow. Youâre just human.
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# đ§ââď¸ The Right Way to Build New Technique
To truly change technique, your goal isnât just to âtry harder.â Itâs to build a new neurological pathway â and then insulate it through quality repetition.
Hereâs the process:
1. Slow it down.
Start with slow, controlled reps that focus on *feel*, *rhythm*, and *awareness*. Speed reinforces old patterns.
2. Isolate it.
Practice the new movement *on its own* â shadow swings, drop feeds, mirror work â where youâre not under pressure.
3. Repeat with feedback.
Record yourself, or work with a coach. Myelin grows strongest when you repeat the correct pattern.
4. Donât mix new and old.
Switching back to your old technique (even âjust for nowâ) reactivates the old myelinated circuit and slows your progress.
5. Commit to the discomfort.
It will feel worse before it feels better. Thatâs not failure â itâs neural rewiring in progress.
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# đ ď¸ Can Old Myelin Pathways Weaken?
Yes â but slowly.
Thereâs evidence from neuroscience that unused neural pathways may weaken over time through a process called *synaptic pruning*. However, myelin is sticky. Old techniques donât just vanish â they become less dominant if you stop reinforcing them and build the new pattern consistently.
Youâre not âerasingâ the old habit. Youâre overpowering it with a better, more useful one.
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# đž In Summary
Changing technique is not just about discipline. Itâs about biology.
Youâre retraining your nervous system, rep by rep. The myelin that once locked in bad habits can now work in your favor â if you stay consistent, patient, and process-focused.
So the next time you catch yourself slipping into old habits, donât beat yourself up.
Smile instead â and swing the new way one more time.
Because every correct repetition is one more layer of myelin on the stroke you want to own.
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How to Shake Off Rust After a Long Break from Tennis
A tennis player recently asked me if the rusty feeling after a long breakâlike a month off for travelâever truly goes away. After returning from a long trip, he jumped back on court with his friends and quickly realized how far off his game felt.
Fast topspin balls seemed to vanish after the bounce, his timing was gone, his biomechanics felt unnatural, and his serve had lost its rhythm. After five consistent years of play, he was surprised (and frustrated) by how quickly it had all slipped.
He wanted to know: Does this get better over time? Will I ever come back from a break and not feel completely lost?
My answer: yesâand no.
Yes, it does get better over time. But only if you approach the comeback in the right way.
After 30 years of playing tennis, Iâve found that your ability to recover faster from breaks grows with experienceâbut the rust never disappears completely. What changes is how quickly you can regain rhythm and confidenceâif you follow the right process.
Here are three key things to focus on when returning to tennis after a long break to shorten the rusty period and minimize frustration:
1. Accept that youâre not at your previous levelâyet.
This is the first and most important step. Donât try to hit the way you used to before the break. Instead, slow down your rallying pace and stand a bit farther behind the baseline. This gives you more time to track the ball and re-establish your timing.
www.feeltennis.net/fundamental-rally-conditions/
Tennis will humble you if you donât respect this step. It will remind you that itâs one of the hardest sports in the worldâand demand your patience.
2. Shift your focus to truly seeing the ball.
When youâve been away from tennis, your eyes and brain are no longer trained to track the speed, spin, and bounce of the ball. Nothing in normal life keeps those skills sharp.
www.feeltennis.net/watching-ball-drills/
So now, your job is to give full attention to the ballâhow it moves, spins, and bounces. This visual focus will help your brain and body recalibrate much faster than if you just âhit balls and hope.â
3. Acknowledge and reinforce clean hits.
Whenever you hit the ball cleanlyâright in the sweet spotânotice it. Let that moment sink in. This simple awareness sends a message to your subconscious: âThatâs what we want more of.â
Your brain will begin refining your movement patterns again, helping you coordinate your body more efficiently and smoothly.
These sweet-spot hits are like breadcrumbs guiding your subconscious back to your peak form.
If you follow these three principlesâaccept, focus, and reinforceâyouâll get back in full flow much sooner, and with far less frustration.
And remember: this transition becomes smoother over the years, but the path is always the same. Respect where you are now, and build from there.
Tennis will reward you for that.
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Should You Ever âGo For Your Shotsâ in a Tennis Match?
Youâve probably heard this common piece of tennis advice: âGo for it!â or âGo for your shots!â
But is it actually good advice?
Letâs dig a little deeper into what this phrase really means. When someone tells you to âgo for it,â theyâre often implying that you should stop caring about the outcome, take a risk, and hope it works out.
But does that sound like a smart, long-term, high-percentage strategy â especially in competitive matches?
It doesnât to me.
â When âGo For Itâ Doesn't Work
In my playbook, âgo for itâ is NOT something you should do in a typical match where the outcome is still undecided â whether you're slightly better, evenly matched, or even slightly outmatched.
Taking high-risk shots in those situations will likely lead to unforced errors, gifting points to your opponent and losing momentum.
â
When It Might Be the Right Call
Thereâs one scenario where I might advise a player to let loose and truly âgo for itâ:
When youâre playing someone significantly better than you, and you have nothing to lose.
If you're the underdog and expected to lose, then swinging freely and playing above your normal pace may be your only chance. Maybe the stars align that day, your timing clicks, and you surprise both yourself and your opponent.
But again â thatâs a rare exception, not the rule.
đ The 90% Guideline: A Smarter Approach
So what should your mindset be in most matches?
I recommend what I call the "90% guideline".
That means you hit as aggressively as you can as long as about 90% of your shots land in.
In other words, missing one out of ten is acceptable.
This gives you a clear mental framework:
* Youâre still playing assertive tennis
* Youâre minimizing unforced errors
* Youâre not chasing perfection (which only leads to tension and pushing)
This balance keeps you loose, confident, and consistent â all while staying offensive.
đ§ Why âJust Getting It Inâ Isnât Enough
If you go to the other extreme and just try to âget the ball in,â youâll likely end up playing too passively.
At a 4.0 NTRP level and higher, pure defense wonât win you many matches. Youâll just give your opponent time to set up and dictate the point.
So yes â allow yourself to make mistakes. But donât confuse that with "going for it". Mistakes will happen because tennis is a tough sport, and none of us are pros. Accept that.
đŻ Your Action Step
Try out the 90% guideline in your next match. See how it shifts your mental focus, shot selection, and confidence.
You might find that this one mindset shift changes your game more than any technical tip ever could.
Let me know how it works for you â and keep playing smart, not risky.
75 - 6
Why Thinking About Technique Will Cost You Points
One of the most common mistakes tennis players make is trying to apply new techniques during matches.
Maybe you just watched a YouTube video or had a great lesson with your coach. You learned something that makes perfect senseâa small adjustment that could fix a weakness or add more power and control to your shots.
Naturally, you're eager to try it out.
But here's the hard truth:
Trying to consciously change your technique during a match will almost always backfire.
Why You Want to Use New Technique in Matches
Most players look to improve their technique because theyâre struggling in match play. Theyâve identified (or been told) that a certain stroke is costing them points. Or maybe the stroke is reliable but lacks the penetration to pressure their opponents.
In either case, the solution seems obvious: improve the stroke technically, and you'll win more matches.
Thatâs trueâbut only if you make those technical changes in the right setting.
The Match is the Worst Time to Think About Technique
During a match, your mind is already under a heavy load. In the 1â2 seconds between your opponentâs shot and your reply, you're processing a lot:
- Anticipating what your opponent will do
- Reading their body position and racket motion
- Tracking the ballâs trajectory, spin, and depth
- Preparing your feet and racket for the incoming shot
- Deciding on the best tactical response
- Factoring in the surface, wind, your opponentâs weaknesses, your current confidence level, and more
- Watching the ball with full concentration
And on top of all that, you want to remind yourself to âdrop the racketâ or âengage your hips moreâ?
Thatâs not going to work. Your brain simply can't handle both detailed technical instructions and high-speed decision-making under pressure.
What usually happens? You perform both the tactical and technical tasks poorly:
1. You make bad decisions because you're distracted
2. You mistime or mis-execute shots because your mind is focused on body parts, not the ball
The result? Unforced errors, short balls, and lost points.
Technique Must Be Automated Before Itâs Match-Ready
Real improvement comes from practicing technical changes until they become automatic. Once theyâre deeply ingrained, theyâll show up in matches without any conscious effort. Thatâs when youâll start to see the results.
Yes, it might take dozens of practice sessions. But thatâs the only realistic path forward.
What Matches Are Really For
In matches, your focus should shift entirely to tactics and the mental game.
- Learn to read patterns of playâyours and your opponentâs
- Discover what strategies work and which ones donât
- Adjust your game plan based on the flow of the match
- Strengthen your rituals and routines between points
- Monitor and regulate your self-talk and emotional state
All of that requires your full mental bandwidth. If you're still thinking about how to move your wrist or drop your racket head, you're not in the matchâyouâre in your head.
The Takeaway
Practice is for technique.
Matches are for tactics and mindset.
Trying to work on both at once will compromise both.
So next time you play, let go of technique. Trust what youâve trained, stay present in the match, and use the experience to sharpen your competitive skills.
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What Is The "Aggressive Safe" Tennis Strategy?
Tennis players of all levels, up until 5.0 NTRP, tend to struggle with finding the right amount of risk when playing matches.
Most first try to hit a lot of winners since thatâs what they see all the time in tennis highlights, and they assume thatâs how tennis is played in general.
But they forget that tennis highlights are really just highlights â a compilation of the most spectacular points that, in fact, comprise only a small percentage of all points played.
The majority of tennis points in a match are much more âboringâ â they are mostly unforced errors and some forced, ânothing specialâ errors.
So, as players realize that perhaps trying to hit fast and close to the lines is not the answer, they revert to the other extreme of risk â meaning, they take no risk and just keep the ball in play.
They aim in the middle of the opponentâs court and hit as far away from all lines as they can.
That can work at lower levels of tennis, and opponents lose patience and donât have enough power and control in their strokes to punish this kind of play.
But somewhere around the 3.5 to 4.0 NTRP level, such passive play usually leads to losses as players get good enough to make you run left-right all the time, and itâs very unlikely that you can win the match just defending all the time.
So then the players are lost and confused â they tried the risky game and they lost often, and they tried the safe game and also started to lose often.
What is the solution?
The solution is something I call the Aggressive Safe strategy.
For most players, the word âaggressiveâ is automatically associated with hitting close to the lines and high risk.
But it doesnât have to be. When you look closely at ATP and WTA baseline rallies, you will notice that players hit the ball very hard into big targets. Those âtargetsâ are around the middle of the last left and right quarters of the court. See the intro image to this post.
By hitting aggressively into those targets, players play fast yet quite safe shots. They make very few unforced errors and yet they create pressure for their opponents, often forcing short balls and errors.
So, realize that when you decide to play aggressively, it does not mean you need to hit risky shots close to the lines. Aim into bigger targets and find the speed of your shots where you are around 80-90% consistent. That means you hit 8-9 shots in before missing one.
That is the right ratio of consistency that still allows you to hit with good power that causes problems for your opponents.
So, the next time you feel lost on the court, not knowing what level of risk you should take, remember the Aggressive Safe tennis strategy and test it out. Let us know how it goes!
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Build Your Tennis Game Like a Bodybuilder Builds Muscle
Q: One of my members is asking if their practice approach is correct. They focused on hitting the sweet spot and had a very high success rate compared to their usual level, but they feel like theyâre sacrificing other technical aspects like stance, swing, and wrist lag since they don't focus on those at the same time. They want to know if this is normal and if theyâre on the right track.
A: So what concerns you is that when you focus on one thing, you cannot focus on another and then the other one is not executed perfectly, correct? This is a very common concern and players struggle so much trying to do everything right at the same time.
The truth is, NO ONE can execute everything perfectly at the same time. Itâs impossible in tennisâor any sport.
When you focus on improving one part of your stroke, the other elements will naturally be off. Thatâs just how learning works.
There is no other way, no human being can do better, that's just how our mind works, it can focus only on ONE THING AT A TIME!
The process is simple: fix one thing at a time and let the rest be. Yes, other aspects will suffer momentarily, but thatâs okay as there is no other way.
Think of it like bodybuilding. When working on biceps, youâre not training triceps, chest, or legs at the same time. And you donât worry about that because you know muscle growth happens over time with consistent training of each muscle group.
Tennis improvement works the same way. If you focus on watching the ball for 10 minutes, other parts of your stroke may be offâbut your ball-watching skill improves. Keep practicing it regularly, and it gets stronger, just like a muscle.
Later, when you shift focus to fixing your backswing, your ball-watching might temporarily sufferâbut thatâs part of the process. Improvement isnât instant; repetition and time create lasting change.
The bodybulder's biceps will start growing over a longer period of time because it has received regular stimulation and the body adapts to that. And the legs will grow too if they have been trained even though they were NOT TRAINED AT THE EXACT SAME TIME!
Each element of tennis or any other stroke is trained separately, and if done regularly, it will GRADUALLY improve. Every time you practice one thing, all other elements will be done poorly.
But if you practice each regularly, then each element improves gradually over time until one day they all fall together into a your ability to play tennis at a higher level.
P.S. And yes, the image of the bodybuilder with a tennis racket was created by ChatGPT. ;)
43 - 9
From 4.5 to 5.0+ NTRP Tennis: What Really Makes A Difference
At 4.5 level, almost all of the technical fundamentals are in place. The movement is good, early preparation and timing are good. Tactically, the player makes most of the right choices. So, what to work on to get to 5.0 NTRP and beyond?
At this level, the difference is in the details, and the ones that make the most difference are:
- watching the ball
- hitting the sweet spot more often
- being more calm and stable as you hit your shots
And why did I choose these 3 among hundreds of elements of the game of tennis?
Because they all affect the precision of hitting the ball, which determines the power and depth of your shots.
Good depth of your shots neutralizes / prevents your opponent from attacking you, and good power with high consistency, of course, creates pressure for your opponent and forces errors.
Good Neutralizing Ball Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOrS...
And simply put - a 5.0 player hits more balls in the sweet spot with good timing (not being late), whereas a 4.5 player hits more often off center and usually slightly late.
And the moment you hit the ball off center and slightly late, you are hitting a shorter ball (even if your technique is perfect) as the racket is less bouncy the more you go off the sweet spot.
And that shorter ball then allows your opponent to dictate more, which in the long term results in you losing the match.
Therefore, the keys to increasing the quality of your contact lie in the small details that you have to constantly work on to gradually and incrementally improve them over time.
So, hereâs how you can work on each of the three elements I mentioned above:
1. Watching the ball - spend at least 5 minutes per session practicing watching the ball. I like to do it at the end of the session so that itâs the last memory in my mind as I leave the court, but I highly recommend that you also focus on the ball at the start of every session for a couple of minutes. youtube.com/shorts/E_2j2s8XII8
2. Being aware of hitting the sweet spot - we cannot hit the sweet spot at will, but we can look to hit it more often. You simply create an intention or a âwishâ to hit the sweet spot, which means to repeat the feel and the sound that you just felt and heard, maybe a few shots ago, and your subconscious mind will work towards hitting more balls in the sweet spot. If you do not have that intention, then your subconscious mind does not work towards it, and you simply stay at the same level of precision in hitting the ball.
3. Moving smoothly around the court and being stable when hitting - it takes more leg work to move smoothly in athletic position with a good posture around the court, and yet youâll get to the ball faster and earlier, giving you more time to stabilize. When hitting the ball, donât jump off the court or fall off to the side. Focus on being even more stable and calm as youâre hitting the ball, as that again increases your precision of contact and allows you to hit deep with good power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yD2D...
And just to address the image of this post - itâs a curve of diminishing returns (also called asymptote in math).
It means that the progress at the start of acquiring new skills is faster at the beginning, and then it starts to slow down.
You progress much faster from 2.0 to 3.0 than you do from 3.0 to 4.0.
So if youâre a 4.5 and you want to get to 5.0, it will take you quite a long time to get there, so itâs important to keep that in mind so that you donât get frustrated along the way.
The differences are small, and itâs now time to really master the keys to hitting the ball really well, and they all boil down to precision in hitting it - so more shots in the sweet spot at the right contact point.
54 - 11
Overcoming Decision Paralysis on the Tennis Court
Tennis players sometimes suffer from the paralysis by analysis, but not in the stroke technique part of tennis, but in the decision-making process.
They want to make the right decision. In other words, they are afraid to make the wrong decision, but what happens is that they âjuggleâ all the options too long in their mind, and then they run out of time.
When you decide too late, your body and feet donât have enough time to align in a way that is best for the shot that you plan to play.
You end up in a messed-up stance, not very stable, hitting too late, trying to direct the ball just with the racket angle while your whole body is fighting you, and that obviously cannot end up in an accurate and powerful shot.
If you want to hit more accurate and powerful shots, you actually have to make very quick decisions of where and how youâre going to play the ball so that your body has enough time to align properly for the shot youâre about to hit and that you hit well in front of your body.
Surely you realize that hitting down the line requires slightly different body alignment than hitting cross-court?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o108f...
So you need to give your feet enough time to align correctly and to find the right spacing to the ball.
The absolute latest you can make the decision is when the ball is bouncing off the ground. But ideally, you should have made the decision of where and how to play the ball well before the bounce.
And to address those who want to make a perfect decision and keep hesitating because they havenât calculated all the possible optionsâŚ
If you donât decide early enough, you wonât hit a good shot. Period.
Even if your decision is not theoretically perfectly correct, you will still hit such a good shot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOrS... - that your opponent will not be able to attack you even if they are right at the ball. They will just have to hit back a neutral ball.
But if you decide very late and hit a theoretically perfect shot, it will not be a good shot, and your opponent will be able to turn defense into offense very quickly.
So hopefully, this logic will help you overcome the desire for perfection and put you more in a flow state where decisions come quickly and without judgment or hesitation.
The more you trust your instincts, the better they will become over time, and the earlier you will make the decisions which will result in good shots and making you a player thatâs very hard to beat.
50 - 11
Tennis instruction videos helping you develop basic and more advanced tennis technique through feel based drills and exercises.