It’s the equivalent of the penalty box on the football pitch. You need to get into the penalty box to increase your chances of scoring the point. The zone of truth is a crosscourt shot close to the sideline. But it’s not a deep crosscourt shot, it’s a little bit shorter. It’s in a square just after the service box against the sideline.

I (Carl Maes) call it the penalty box because for me that is a crosscourt shot where you have an ideal combination between having enough pace, having enough speed on the ball and having some topspin to it. If you draw that geometrically on a tennis court, if you’re able to play the ball in that zone of truth, you will make your opponent run 1,5 meters more outside the court. In fact, it’s 3 meters because it’s 1,5 meter outside the court and also 1,5 meters to get back in the court.

So, in that respect, I (Carl) find it a good combination of pace and spin, whereas if you have the very deep crosscourt shot, a good counterattack player can get into the corner and play a good down the line shot. If you have fit enough players that like to change direction, they can really benefit if you play a normal deep crosscourt shot.

Likewise, if you play too short and with too much spin inside the service box, this short crosscourt ball, can put you in danger because it’s too slow due to the spin. So, for me (Carl), this in-between zone, I (Carl) call it the zone of Truth. Particularly it’s interesting in female tennis because in female tennis, there is a little bit less spin. So, we don’t want to ask them to play with too much topspin. We want to focus on that zone. For me (Carl), it’s the penalty box of the tennis court, because if you hit it there, I (Carl) think your chances increase of scoring the next ball.

Let’s have a look at it from a motor learning perspective. When we learn new movements, we do that based on what we feel. In terms of the instruction, you do as a tennis coach certain studies suggest how much and what type of feedback we should be giving to the players.

Now, here’s a very simple mathematical model. If we’re spending 15 minutes on the court and we’re with three players, that means five minutes rotation with these two on one side, one on the other side. I (Carl Maes) would always choose whatever the goal of the exercises is, this could e.g. be the wide defensive backhand.

When I (Carl) have decided what the aim of the exercise is I (Carl) will always try to have two players on the sides of the subject that we are practicing. So, if we are practicing the wide defensive backhand and I (Carl) am feeding this first difficult ball, I (Carl) would have two people on the other side of the net. Now, you could argue they’re going to be two rotations of five minutes there.

So, in terms of numbers of balls that the players are hitting, this is exactly the same as if they were to be there alone for five minutes and two players on my side.

However, spending 10 minutes on this wide defensive backhand end alternating with the other person, it’s also there is in my (Carl) opinion, better and in terms of the feedback that we are able to give and the retention of information will be better.

Imagine that you are playing one backhand and the next point the other player is playing. What I (Carl) as a coach can then do is to provide you with some feedback and you’ve got 10-15 seconds to think about it whilst the other player on court is doing his/her wide backhand.

So, I (Carl) always try to have two players on the side of the goal of the exercise. That sometimes requires some creativity, but I (Carl) do feel that it’s better to have them 10 minutes where they’re alternating shots rather than five minutes and have this short burst of practice and information all crammed into five minutes.

In tennis, we are always trying to hit the ball in the court. That’s how our scoring system works. We try to play as deep as possible and as close as possible to the line. If we miss the ball by two centimeters, we lose the point. So, we’re always a little bit conservative in exploring what it is to play deep or what it is to play more to the sideline.

Variation Scheme theory takes me back to my days at university. I’m (Carl Maes) a master in exercise physiology, and what we learn in motor learning is to have parameters to execute a certain movement. Now, this principle, if you apply it to tennis and you look from a motor learning perspective, in order to find the sideline or the baseline, we need to learn how to hit out because it’s only when we hit out that we feel the difference on what it is like hitting the ball inside of the lines.

I don’t recommend doing a drill like this the day before you play a match, but on some occasions, we need to let our players hit out on purpose. Let them hit the ball out, because that will, from a muscle memory and a learning perspective make them feel the ball better and know better how to hit a certain target.

An example could be practicing the sliced 1^st serve e.g. in deuce side. We want to keep our percentage high on the first serve, but still apply pressure to the opponent. Once in a while when you are practicing the sliced serve try putting some cones in the middle of the doubles lines and let them aim for the cones using their sliced serve. What you will likely experience is that the players will not hit the target that you have put up in the middle of the tram lines, but instead go very close to the sideline of the service box, right where a perfect sliced serve from deuce side of the court is meant to be.

It’s ingrained throughout the years for us to play inside the line. There is an expression to “think outside of the box” and I (Carl) believe that in certain moments it’s very important to also practice “hitting outside of the box” because the variation scheme theory tells us that we need to practice the 2 extremes to identify what’s in the middle.

Previously many coaches were insisting on practice matches much more than today. I (Nick) would say it was normal to practice in the morning and play a practice match in the afternoon. These days, I see especially with the junior players, less and less practice matches, or they just play a quick set or something like this where there is not the same simulation of real pressure. I (Nick) think practice matches should be something normal and the players can learn from them to deal with the pressure in competitive matches better. It’s the closest simulation that we have got.

Q: Why do you think that is?

I think before there was not so many people involved in the younger age in the players careers. Players and parents did what the club coach said and there was no big deal about it. Now the parents are much more involved. More often players are avoiding the tough situations because practice match, especially in the club, against your friends is difficult to handle.

Sometimes it’s okay, to not expose yourself to pressure, but all of a sudden maybe a couple of weeks or even months has past by, and you don’t even realize that you only trained but didn’t really compete. It’s tough for the player. It’s easier to practice. You’re sweating, but mentally it’s tough to go out there in the afternoon and play against your best friend for match. It’s a challenge also for the coaches. Our challenge, because coaches don’t want to say to a parent that the player lost today against a player that he or she is “supposed” to be better than. So it’s sometimes a combination of different reasons.

I’ve (Nick) been inspired to write my principles down by the words of John Wooden, the famous basketball coach and one of the biggest coaching authorities in our era. Wooden said: “I believe more in the concepts and principles and less in solutions for any specific situation. If the former is good, the latter comes naturally”. This is one of the most important coaching quotes for me because it explains a lot and explains something very essential in coaching.

My first principle is called Power of Basics.
First, is that every complex game pattern in tennis depends on the quality of basic shots. For example, if a player cannot hit a backhand down the line under pressure, every tactical pattern that comes with that backhand down the line makes no sense.

Second, point that a lot of people have a tendency to make things complex and sometimes this is not necessary. People make things complex because they want to sell them. Basics are very hard to sell. From the other side, there is a concept called “Hiding Behind Complexity”. This talks about how people are looking for something to hide behind, while they are actually failing at the very basics. Complexity gives us excuses and sometimes ways out, but many times what really matters is just to show up and do your work.

Finally, my last point here is about coaching. Good coaching is important, but at the end it all comes down to how well players are able to execute the basics. So, it’s great to be able to explain to a player, for example, what’s going on in his/her head or to talk about tactical patterns or game patterns. Also, it’s very important to make a good technical analysis. But for me, it’s only the cherry on the cake. It’s only the final few percent. That’s not going to make someone into a champion.

Let me (Nick) provide you with an example. Rafael Nadal was asked how he practiced his mental toughness. Many might expect him to tell us about a special method. What he said, and I’m quoting:

“You work mentally when you are on the court every day. You don’t complain. You keep the right attitude. You give your best focus to each shot. This is for me mental training.”

These are the basics. They are boring. Sometimes they are not exciting. They are simple, but not easy, and they are crucial. That’s why this is the first of my principles.

My second principle is about choices
This is based on a belief that most tennis matches are won or lost long before they even started. It’s based on a quote from Dr. Deepak Chopra and he says: “Everything that is happening at this moment is a result of the choices we’ve made in the past”.

Tennis matches are won on the practice court, where you show up every day without complaining, on your previous matches, it’s won in the previous matches where you were losing but kept fighting. You didn’t give up in the athletic field where you were running and training and you feelt pain, but you didn’t quit. Believe it or not, even in the restaurant where you order things that you need to order to have the right fuel for the next day, tennis matches are won by showing respect to people that support you. If you don’t make those right choices weeks and months, even sometimes years before eventually you’re going to fail.

My third principle is physical and mental capacity.
I put these two elements together because in some way you can’t really have one without the other. First, physical capacity. This is a must have for every player. From my perspective, it’s not a matter of I can, or I can’t. It’s more a matter of if I want or I don’t want. It’s a simple decision thing. Sorry for being so strict, but this is how I (Nick) see this, and I’m not saying this is easy. It’s far from easy. It’s very hard. But players must take this responsibility and make the most out of what they were given genetically.

Then we have mental capacity. There are two elements of mental capacity. First is mental endurance and second is mental strength. Mental endurance is the ability to keep your focus for longer periods of time or the ability to keep going when you want to quit. By approaching your physical limits in your fitness training, you are also working on that mental muscle because you’re dealing with stress. When you have technical exercises on the court and you keep your focus for longer you are also working on your mental endurance, which is important in tennis. Then we have mental strength, and this is the ability to stay strong in mentally challenging situations. This is where it gets tricky in tennis. You can’t practice this with your physical activity. We’re dealing with fears and emotions. So, this is where most of the players struggle.

I’ll (Nick) tell you one quick story. I was at a tournament a few weeks ago, and the player that I was watching lost in the in three sets. She lost easily in the third set and she played two great sets. The coach approached me after and asked me, why is this happening to her? She’s a good player, but she cannot show it in the important moments. I asked him this:” How many times did she practice her technical and physical skills in the last two weeks?”

He said 5 hours every day, maybe six, except maybe Sunday. I then asked him: “How many times in the last two weeks did you practice mentally challenging situations like the one today?”

And the answer was zero. There we have it, this is a very simple answer to a very complex issue. I told the coach that this player learned something today and if she would be in the same situation tomorrow, she might feel some improvement already. But if and this is where the problem is, if her next mental practice will be in two weeks or three weeks, she will probably fail again. So, our brain is also a muscle that needs to be trained and that is our job as tennis coaches. We need to make sure that our players are spending enough time in emotionally challenging situations. But that’s not enough. We need to hold them accountable for when they are in those situations, hold them accountable for things that they can control, like attitude, body language, et cetera,

That’s the way to improve. When a player is losing in the first round too many times we have to wait for another mental training for too long. So, we as tennis coaches can and has to make some adjustments. First, we need to remake the player’s schedule. Maybe have them play lower-level tournaments where they can get more matches with even higher pressure because you are favored and that’s even better brain training. Second, practice matches are a very underestimated element of training because these days practice matches are more or less like playing a few games, like a warmup. Practice matches can serve as a relatively close simulation of a real match. They need to be approached in the right way, which means don’t play only one set. Play until the match is finished. Prepare for it in the same way that you would for real match and most importantly, hold the player accountable for things that she or he can control.

My 4^th principle is repetition
Nothing helps the player to master skills like a quality repetition. The key word here is quality because it includes focus and intensity. Repetition is not enough. You can make two hundred serves and be thinking about something else and you wasted your time. Technical analysis and different coaching methods can help and speed up the process, but after that the player has to go to the court and find his/her own way. Take e.g., timing as a key element, because every player hits a little bit different. One millisecond too early or maybe too late makes the difference between a perfect and, for example an average shot. Timing is the key here, timing is something that I cannot show you, I cannot teach you. You can only feel it by yourself and that’s crucial. That can only be learned by repetition.

My last and 5^th principle is called practice what you preach
Many don’t realize how important this can be. Without being a good example with your own personal standards, it’s very hard to get players to buy in to you and your coaching philosophy these days. There’s a point in a relationship between coach and player where the coach has said most of the things, he/she knows. Let’s say most of it is said after 3 months and what’s left is everyday hard work, commitment and routines. It’s all about that. This is where the personal example becomes important. It’s tough to demand from a player something that you are not living up to yourself. Players can feel that. In some other types of teaching, for example, in the classroom where we don’t spend so much time with the students, it might not be that important. But in professional tennis, thirty-five weeks per year with the player. This is where your own example is, a very powerful, and sometimes crucial skill.

Practices during tournaments is a really special kind of practice because it’s done in a very specific environment with limited conditions.

You typically get one hour per day with somebody that you don’t know. You have to adjust to that. Most of the time I see one typical tennis practice at tournaments. First, 20 minutes hitting from the middle of the court. Then it’s a warmup of volleys, a smash for 5 minutes per player. Then it’s 10 minutes serve and return. That’s the first 40 minutes and we have now only got 20 minutes left. Often, it’s only 15 as there is also the occasional water break. Then we play a couple of points before we finish the session.

What I (Nick) just described is plenty good for the players that are winning a lot of matches. Then this type of practice serves purely as a warmup that are winning a lot of matches. Most of their real practice is done on the match court.

For the players that are not winning that much. If they do like described above, there is very little chance for improvement. The conditions are that you get this one hour and you get the player on the other side of the court. You cannot always choose what you’re going to do on the court, but what you can choose is how you approach the practice time and what you are doing. This is the most important you can do. The thing we can change, is how we approach this one hour.

This is the perfect opportunity to use what we learned from Mario Ancic’s story on practicing with Andre Agassi and the fact that it’s not necessarily what we do on the practice court, but it’s how we do it.

It’s about the amount of focus and energy we give to what we are doing, nothing more. There are a lot of things that you can practice. Even when hitting down the middle, you can focus on many technical elements, situations or targets. Another suggestion would be to play more points. Sometimes it’s more efficient to warm up your serves and returns during the points than to spent the time before and then play just a few points at the end.

The last thing from a organizational point of view. Yes, you have to use this one hour that you get officially from the tournament and make the best out of it, but there are other options that you can do. For example, early mornings the site is often empathy. So, you can wake up a little bit earlier and go on site. There’s usually plenty of time to practice. There are indoor courts, there are often other sites nearby. This is a coach’s responsibility to research before going to tournaments and to put those repetitions of specific elements in, because this is important for all players. As a coach you need to be prepared for a first-round loss on Monday and the next match could be a week or several weeks away. You need to figure out how you are going to organize that week in order to not only affect the next match but also the future of the player’s career.

People often say: “Oh, he lost it mentally”. So, is this only a mental problem when you miss a certain shot in a difficult moment? I’m not so sure.

Let me tell you one quick story. It’s a true story about a man whose name is Drazen Petrovic. He was the best European basketball player, and he was one of the best shooters in the game of basketball. My (Nick) university professor worked with Drazen as his physical conditioning coach.

And he said to us, Drazen was never the tallest or the most athletic or the strongest player, but he was by far the best player. Drazen gradually developed a routine of a shooting practice that he did every day after the normal practice when everybody from the team went home. He did 400 shots from different court positions. If he was not happy with some position he did or with the score in some position, he did it over again and he did this every single day.

So, the interesting thing here is this. There was one typical strategy that all the coaches from NBA and national coaches applied when Drazen was playing. When the difficult moments in games arose and when the team needed to score, the strategy was always to pass the ball to Drazen.

No matter if it was a free throw, a three pointer or a little shorter, his scoring percentage was through the rough. The question is do you really think that Drazen was so much better mentally than all other players?

Or was it also a question of his training routine and the finest invisible technical skill that he developed with the years and years of consistent practice?

When the emotions get involved in a tennis match, there are no easy shots. And if you keep missing certain shots, please don’t purely call this a mental problem.

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.

In tennis you need to be there all the time, independently if you are down or if you are winning.

There is this point in a final between Djokovic and Nadal from US Open that exemplifies this very well.

Djokovic won the first set; Nadal won the second. Djokovic was 4-1, Nadal goes to 4-4. Nadal tends to struggle with Djokovic, because Novak finds Rafa’s weaknesses very well.

There is one point where Nadal is serving. Nadal is down 0-15 or maybe even 0-30 and there is this point where Nadal sleds on the court. He falls first on his knees, then the hip and then with his body on the ground. He is lying on the floor and he still wants to shoot the ball. Nadal has for sure lost the point, but he understands the importance of trying his best.

He then goes to 0-40 on his serve. Fights back and wins the game and the set 6-4 and the 4^th set 6-1. The most important is his mindset of always trying no matter the situation.

Right now, we all have to deal with Covid-19. The mindset from tennis is that we are going to play this match until the end with the best effort.