Time Management

I hear people say " my timing was off", or "I need to adjust my timing." What does that mean? Of all the technical things involved with playing tennis, what role does "timing" play?

Let's take a closer look. The longest amount of time available for any player to execute any single shot ( except the serve) is the time frame from the moment the ball leaves your opponent's strings until the moment it strikes your strings. We call this the "flight time" of that given ball. Obviously, the more of this flight time you can utilize for design, execution, movement, targeting, etc; then the higher likelihood of your success on that shot.

The single most important element is a physical response to the beginning of the time frame, which should be the split step. As discussed in other columns, it is crucial that you anticipate your opponent's contact, and begin your split step just prior to their contact. Then, your feet are landing back on court simultaneously with their contact, and you can respond to what you're reading as close in time as possible to the ball leaving your opponent's strings. That allows you the maximum time frame to read and react. A great rule of thumb is " shoulders turned, racquet back and ready, before the ball bounces".

If you execute like that, you will be able to initiate your unit turn well before the ball bounces, and have the remainder of the flight time to improve your balance and position through the use of multiple adjusting steps. It is important to adjust and re-align until you are about to swing, or to "commit the racquet to the ball". At that time, set your feet in a wide base and strike the ball.

I was very fortunate some years ago to do a good deal of work with Billie Jean King. I remember her once saying "the key difference between a club player and a tournament player is whether or not they time by flight". Which essentially means, are they splitting, and are they responding (turning, preparing) immediately to what they read in the split?

Work hard to develop fundamental habits of responding to contact and turning immediately out of the split step. Then, you can continue to adjust position, alignment, and balance until its time to commit to the swing. At that stage, you will be using the majority of the flight time .(This is the time period I refer to as "the front half of the clock", or that time frame from your opponent's contact until yours-we will save the back half of the clock for another column.)

As you become a player who manages time well, you will become a player who has more opportunity to manage better results.