Mario Ancic got invited to practice with Andre Agassi in San Francisco when he was still a junior. Mario was naturally quite curious on how the best players in the world are practicing.
When they walked on court the first exercise was very simple; Cross crosscourt drill like every tennis player in the world has tried before. Mario and Andre hit cross court and then after 10 minutes Andre took his first break. They sat down and came back to the court and they started doing the same exercise again forehand crosscourt, but this time the intensity, the pace of the rally was really, really high. After 5 minutes Andre Agassi put his hand up and again, he needed a break. This time Mario was a little curious, and asked his coach very quietly: “What’s happening to Andre? Is he out of shape? He looks really tired.”
Mario’s coach replied to him: “Mario, I want you to learn a very important lesson today from what I’m going to tell. So, I’m looking at you two. I’m looking at how you practice, and I see a good rally ball and a high level. BUT I see also one very big difference. I see you moving inside of a one-meter circle and focusing on returning back to Andre without making a mistake. Then I look at the other side, I see Andre, he’s moving back and forth after each of his shots and touching almost the middle of the court, he’s hitting full pace and intensity in every shot. He’s trying to keep his body in the perfect position. You can feel the energy behind his game. In other words, the amount of effort that Andre gives each shot is much higher than yours, and that’s why he loses more energy and that’s why he’s a little bit more tired.
Many years later as Nick Horvat was the assistant coach of Mario Ancic, Mario told Nick that it took him a while to really understand and process what his coach had told him that day, but Mario Ancic also said that it forever changed the way that he approached his practices.
So, does the best players practice the same as everyone else?
Of course not!
They just use the same exercise as everyone else, but they do it differently. For them, the key is less about what they do and more about how they do it.
