Gone With The Wind
Wilco. That's the name of the Rippner Tennins facility where I spend most of my on court time now. It's short for Williamson County Tennis Center, in the northern reaches of Greater Austin, TX. It's a fine facility and serves our program nicely, but it has an ever-present challenge. Wind. So much so, that my colleagues and I have unofficially changed the name from Wilco, to Windco !!
Any of you who have enjoyed Central Texas tennis are plenty familiar with playing in the wind, to say nothing of other notable wind tunnels of tennis in Texas like Corpus Christi, Abilene, and most of West Texas. Wilco is kind of out in a field with very few trees or buildings around, and although the windscreens definitely help, they are no match to a steady southerly (northerly, westerly, etc) torrent of 20+ mph. We have not just grown to accept it, we kind of like it. Our players train in these conditions so regularly, they will be better equipped to compete in them. Of equal importance, they will be better positioned to appreciate and perform on those days in Texas when things temporarily calm down.
At HP, we work on certain wind strategies. We train that there are four things you have to increase when playing in wind.
The first, and most important, is Visual Tracking. This is the process of following the ball's flight with your eyes from the moment of contact off of your opponent's strings, all the way to the moment of impact with your strings. On calm days, many players stop tracking the final 3-4 feet of the flight and strike the ball at a "predictable" point of contact. Normally this works out pretty well. But in the wind, the ball's position and location may change in those final few feet, and adversely affect the quality of contact. Improving tracking will enhance our capability to adjust to change in the final portion of the flight, and give us critical information about required changes in racquet face and body position in order to hit a quality shot. Which leads us to the second element we need to increase in the wind,
Footwork. Most players beneath the professional level already don't take enough adjusting steps, and they stop moving and plant their feet too early within the flight of the ball. We already train, regardless of wind, the concept of continual re-alignment until the player commits to the ball, that final step just preceding the forward swing of the racquet. This is so critical in the wind because the ball's flight will no longer be predictable. If you plant early, and the ball changes direction or position after you have planted, your alignment to the ball is altered unfavorably, and the quality of the resulting stroke is compromised. Move your feet later and longer in the balls flight during windy conditions, and you will retain the ability to adjust until the last moment before your swing.
Another critical adjustment that should be increased in the wind are your Margins. The "room for error" you should be including in your target selection for every shot, needs to be bigger. You will miss by bigger distances, and your ball's flight will "spray" more in steady wind, and even more so in gusty conditions. By using bigger targets, and bigger margins, you will make more balls, stay in the point longer, and suffer fewer unforced errors. You will also hit less winners, but in these conditions that's not going to decide most matches anyway.
Finally, if you are a player who gets frustrated, angry, or negative when you miss balls and make errors, then you need to increase your Tolerance. You are going to miss in the wind. You are going to shank balls in the wind. You are going to have excellent placements blow slightly out of bounds or into the net when you think you've executed them perfectly. Expect it, accept it, move on, and review 1-3 above !!
In order to compete better in all conditions, we train our HP kids to prepare for this from the time they arrive at the tournament site. When you walk into the facility, look for a flag. Determine the general direction and speed of the wind. When you arrive at your court, determine the wind's effect on the given orientation of your court. Ask yourself a few questions, "what will the wind do to my , and my opponent's shots, and how will it differ from one end of the court to another?" " Is it steady, gusty, swirling, or what?" "Does my opponent appear to be handling the wind well, or struggling because of it and how can I use that to my advantage?"
Pay attention to the wind and to these remedies to address it's affect on your game Soon, that will begin to pay you great dividends.
p
Start to deal with and take control of your game in the wind. As you observe and manage how the Texas wind blows, you will put yourself into more and better positions to blow away the opposition.
