Players who excel at tennis not only use ‘skilled' tennis strokes or techniques, they usually play within a mental ‘competency level' that often occurs at or near a subconscious level of thought.

In any sport, when a performer is playing or executing at superior levels of play, they are often quoted as playing ‘unconscious' or ‘in the zone'—a reference that they were operating at a level that required very little thought. I call this playing at one's ‘competitive intuitiveness.'

Let's take a small test. Get out of your chair and walk to the nearest light switch and turn the switch off and on. Go on, do it. I'll wait.

Good. You can come back now.

Now, let me ask you some questions about this activity. Did you think about which foot to step with first towards the wall? Did you think about how big of a stride you should take to efficiently get you to the wall? Did you over run the wall and bang your head on it? Did you think about how high to place your hand to touch the switch, how much pressure to use to turn it on or off? Did you miss the switch all together?

Obviously, you performed this simple task at a level of competency that did not require much, if any, conscious thought. Walking and reaching stationary objects don't require a great deal of skill. However, we did initially, as young children, move through a short period of trial and error, gaining balance, and generally failing (falling) many times until we mastered the simple art of walking and reaching for stationary objects.

Unlike walking, skilled tennis strokes, grips and swing patterns are neither simple nor common actions that novice players execute on a daily basis. Even when we are taught correct patterns and grips, these usually feel foreign and uncomfortable. Certainly, players trying to teach themselves tennis simply by trial and error will seldom attempt shots using foreign or uncomfortable grips or swing patterns. Likewise, players who understand that skilled tennis strokes require patience and dedicated practice will eventually create comfort and confidence in such previously unfamiliar actions.

Competency in any sport requires a dedicated and purposeful progression using ‘competent' techniques. Such competency will lead players to do two things:

Hit more effective shots more consistently.

This phase is the epitome of skilled tennis played at high levels. While there are many ways to hit a tennis ball over the net, most methods do not lead to the acquisition of this phrase. While many dinkers and hackers can play fairly consistently, few can hit progressively more effective shots. (This defines why so many players stagnate far below their potential.) In addition, if players do indeed improve, they generally will play against progressively better players. (Who can also hit more effective shots more consistently!) Sure, many techniques can get 3.0 level shots back. But at the 4.0 and above levels, balls come lower, faster, with more spin, more finesse, and greater disguise. Thus, most novice techniques fall short both in their own effectiveness as well as defending against these more effective shots.

Skilled Competency

Players who thus strive to work on difficult grips and strokes eventually gain a level of competency using such swing effects. Understanding that this will occur should provide all players with the confidence to proceed with such learning. Yet, this is just one step.

The following description of competency should open your eyes to the progressive nature of tennis for those who are actively seeking higher levels of skilled play:

Four Levels of Competency

• Unconscious incompetence: We play instinctively with what feels comfortable but we don't know we are doing anything wrong. An example of this is when I had an adult student claim she was hitting topspin when in fact she was hitting a slice!

• Conscious incompetence: The first step towards awareness. Here we know we are doing it wrong but we may or may not be willing to change our incompetent—but comfortable—methods. This is a player who continues to dink second serves with no spin. They know that their serve is a puff ball, but they either don't know how, or are not willing, to make the necessary changes.

• Conscious competency: This is a serious student who has taken lessons and is actually executing proper techniques BUT has to consciously think about doing it or otherwise old patterns take over.

• Unconscious competency: The ultimate level of mastery; a player almost automatically responds with the proper and desired stroke or technique without conscious thought. Tennis the way the pros play it.

So, how do we reach this unconscious competency? Well first we must move from conscious incompetence, (recognizing we have a problem!) to conscious competency. (Conscious control.) When we create opportunities to practice conscious control of our strokes, like walking, we eventually do it without thinking.

At the pro level, players instinvtively stroke the ball without having to think about their technique.

Like playing the piano, if we only play with our two index fingers for twenty years, we won't be able to play much more than ‘Chop Sticks' during those two decades.

Tennis must be attempted within the framework of skilled grips and strokes, even while they are unfamiliar and uncomfortable. This is the ONLY way that we can become competent tennis players. People don't spontaneously master such actions. Avoiding them certainly won't allow you to master them! Hitting a million shots with bad form will not suddenly make you have skilled form! If that were possible, we would have millions upon millions of skilled tennis players!

As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.

(Click link to purchase Dave Smith's book, Tennis Mastery, at tenniswarehouse.com.)

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