Start At The End

If you were to think about what you’d like to look like when you’re playing at the very best in your entire life, what would that look like? What game style would you be playing? What would your footwork look like? Would you be playing high loopy balls? Or would you be looking to hurt your opponent?

If you’re unsure of what you’d look like, and what you’d have to do to beat the best opponents you’ll face in your life, then start watching videos of the players that are at the level you’d like to attain.

If you’re unsure of what you’d like to look like because you don’t know what your goals are, then write some goals and watch some videos. Seriously.

From there, you start working backwards to see what things would have had to have been in place in order for you to get to your highest level. Then you start implementing those things in your training.

The majority of people start thinking with today, and the next tournament. Their thought process is:

 “What do I need to do to win more matches in my current division?”

“I’m a 5.8 UTR and I struggle with 6.5 UTR opponents. How can I beat them?”

And that’s completely…..wrong. 

That’s short term thinking. 

When you’re focused on beating your current opponents, you’re only focused on marginal improvements. But players make their biggest jump in playing level when they’re under the age of 18. Their bodies are growing. Their muscle memory is still open to big changes. Their brains are ready to learn new things. Players need to take advantage of this and think of how they can make the biggest long term improvements in their game to reach their ultimate desired level of play.

Most of my readers are interested in being a division 1 collegiate player or a professional, so if you’re on the men’s side, you’ll need to get to a 10-14 UTR. If you’re on the women’s side it’s an 8.5-12 UTR. So what are you going to do to beat the players in that UTR range?

And what are you going to do not just on the court, but in the gym too! Players at that UTR level are in the gym getting stronger and faster. They didn’t get to that level and THEN start going to the gym. They went to the gym first.

So who cares that you beat a 6 UTR when your ultimate goal requires you to be at a much higher UTR? What matters is how did you play that match? Did you moon ball them to death? Or did you step up in the court like an 18 year old would and tried to be aggressive? And if you lost, did you lose practicing how you should be playing in the future?

Everything between today and those important matches later on is just preparation. Look at your long term goals and put the things in place that get you closer towards accomplishing your dreams.

*If you need help in writing goals or figuring out how to reach your peak level, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to help!