Appropriate Tournament Scheduling Matters
The process is the process. There’s no way around it. If you try to do things a different way, you’re relying on hope. And hope is not part of the development process.
If someone’s tournament schedule isn’t handled appropriately, they won’t be prepared to play well. And if they don’t know what constitutes an appropriate tournament schedule, they’ll incorrectly have high expectations going into an event. They’ll be all excited as they’re playing their first tournament in a while. They’ve practiced a lot. They think they’re ready to compete!
And then boom!
They experience nerves under pressure for the first time in weeks.
Odds are, they’re going to struggle. They’ll think they’re not playing well, but it wasn’t them at all. It’s the preparation. It’s their first tournament in a long time. It’s actually normal.
Warm up events are part of the preparation for a big event. The nerves created by a match that counts cannot be recreated in practice. And executing under those emotions is a skill that needs to be practiced like a forehand. It requires repetitions.
And the best way to get those repetitions is by….well….playing more tournaments. And there’s a certain scheduling format that helps prepare players the best.
A basic tournament/practice schedule for a player is as follows:
Train for 3-4 weeks
Play 2-3 tournaments in a row with the last tournament being the most important one
Train for 1-2 weeks
Play 2-4 tournaments in a row with the last 1 or 2 tournaments being the most important ones
4-6 days off. 3 days of everything. Then start doing fitness until you’ve decided to play tennis again.
Start the cycle all over again
This is a basic format to follow. Slight changes are made depending on the following:
Family vacations or other events like exams that will interfere with playing on a certain week
Events that will prevent a player from preparing appropriately for an event
Injuries or pains that come up
Fatigue
As you can see, planning roughly 3-4 months in advance is important. If you try to make things up on a week to week basis, you’ll find yourself at a tournament unprepared.
If that happens, that’s okay. Life isn’t perfect and things don’t always work out the way we plan. Just change your mindset. The tournament that you are now unprepared for has simply become practice. So practice. Let the results be what the results will be. Just get the reps in and get better.
As you can also see, it’s not this basic 2 tournaments a month thing academies sell you. That’s a thoughtless way to get you to play 24 tournaments a year. The estimated sweet spot for high performance junior players.
But that’s not a good enough schedule. If it was, then the best juniors in the world would follow it.
So plan ahead, pay attention to where you are on the cycle, and manage your expectations accordingly. Increase your training regiment at the beginning of the cycle. The first few events are simply for practice. And as you get into the later part of the cycle, manage your energy. Rest is also part of the process.
Good luck out there!