We have all been there. You have been playing great tennis coming up to a match. Timing everything well, your serve and forehand is on point and even your backhand is working and you enter the match with great confidence. However, on match day you look out the window and see the leaves and bushes moving violently and when you step out on court you feel like you can get blown away. Many players when they experience this instantly get in a bad mindset and start to think only negative thoughts and just focus on excuses. "oh if the wind wasn't there I would've destroyed my opponent...". I am sure this has happened to all of us so in this blog I will give you some simple but effective tips that will definitely help your game.
Adapting Your Game
In order to succeed in windy conditions you have to realize that you simply cannot play the same way you would in perfect conditions. It is all about adapting. Many people already know this but do not know how to do it. Below will tell you how.
Step1: Adapting your strokes and strategy depending on the type of wind
First thing you should do is ask yourself what direction the wind is blowing. Is it with you? is it against you? is it blowing sideways? These are all the questions that you should be trying to solve when you are warming up.
Playing with the wind: If you are with the wind that means the wind will blow towards the direction you are hitting your shots. Therefore you will naturally be hitting with more power which sounds great but it is very easy to overhit in this scenario. Naturally you will have less control over your shots which could lead to many unforced errors. The best thing to do is to hit with a lot of top spin. The more spin you put on the ball the more control you will have over it. Hitting high balls with no spin is your worst enemy when playing with the wind as they can easily fly out. The same thing can happen when you slice so make sure you keep them nice and low. Going to the net is a great strategy as it will be very hard for the player against the wind to hit it past you especially if you hit a good approach shot. When serving a flat serve you do not have to swing as hard as usual as the wind will naturally speed up the ball. Slice serves can also be very effective.
Playing against the wind: your main goal is to be as solid as possible. As discussed above, the player with the wind is more prone to errors so just stay patient. The shots you hit will naturally be slower so when you have time to set up for a shot do not be afraid to go for it. You can afford to be more aggressive. Another shot you can implement is the drop shot as the wind will keep the ball from going to deep in the court (you will have to hit a pretty bad one to achieve that).
When serving it is very important to focus on having a high first serve percentage. There is no point to be constantly going for high risk hard serves as you wont be winning many cheap points due to the wind slowing down the ball. By trying to go for aces too often, you will most likely miss a lot of 1st serves and its never fun hitting second serves especially when against the wind. With regards to your groundstrokes, you should definitely shorten your swing as the balls will be coming at you at a way faster speed than usual. The bigger swing you have, the greater the chance you have of hitting it late.
When wind is blowing sideways: In this case you should always try hit most your shots against the direction the wind is blowing. This way you will reduce your errors drastically as you are reducing the chance of the ball being moved with the wind.
Footwork
You can implement everything I discussed above but without good footwork none of it matters. It is crucial to give extra attention on your footwork in these conditions as the ball can bounce anywhere. You should constantly focus on being on your toes and split stepping every single time your opponent makes contact with the ball. All this will help you be more explosive and will allow you to readjust your body quickly depending on where the ball is going.
A lot of times you will find yourself in a situation where the ball is swirling directly into your body and if you are caught flat footed you won't have the time to move and create enough space between the ball and your body. This will result in a very awkward shot!
Step 2: Change your mindset
Michael Jordon once said "There are only two options. Make progress or make excuses." Your performances in the wind will never improve if you do not have the right mindset. When you know that the conditions are not ideal try to come to peace with the fact that you will not play your best tennis. Just focus on what you can control which is your strategy, footwork, shot selection etc and stop worrying about the things you cant control. The fact that tennis is not only played indoors means that wind will always be a part of tennis so try think of it as another stroke or element that you have to try get better in. The only way to do that is to go out and play when its windy more often.
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