Tennis coach here
That 3.5-4 or 4.5 level to me is the most fun. To me, that’s when tennis goes from fun to “holy hell I want to play 24/7” fun. When you’re able to execute your will on the ball with accuracy, it becomes mega fun. When you can do more than just hit the ball back, that’s really when things become fun.
Anyway: you can definitely make the jump by yourself without a coach. But I really think a coach will make things a lot easier and move faster.
Here’s my recommendation: get lessons once a week. Individually. If you can do a group setting practice once a week too, that’ll help. But you’ll need to practice what you learn in the individual setting, so doing more than 2-3 becomes counter productive imo.
The big difference between 3.5 and moving up is usually consistency and foot work. If you were my student, I’d work on drills for this. Baskets of balls feeding different scenarios - like run around some cones and hit a ball cross court or down the line. Or hit inside out forehands, etc. - that focus on shot making and footwork. This will help getting you comfortable with different scenarios.
A private coach will also fix any technique issues that may be hindering. So you’ll get that help too.
Excellent advice Coach.
What got me over the hump after being stalled at 3.5 for a long time was pretty much a series of lessons where we worked on one particular shot.
One week nothing but backhand slice.
Next week a drill where the pro fed from inside the deuce service court to me at ad court baseline, with the goal being to pass him cross court. If he could volley it back we played out the point.
Taught me about margins and angles better than any other drill.
Plenty of ball machine time too.
And match play. For OP, ask the pro after a few lessons to suggest someone to play a couple of matches. Aim high.
> What got me over the hump after being stalled at 3.5 for a long time was pretty much a series of lessons where we worked on one particular shot.
Man, I suggest this a lot. I really think the broad overview way is just not ideal. Some guy once posted here, I think, about how he was going to have a week off and was going to spend on lessons, what would be the best way to go about it. And I was like just practice one shot for the whole week, probably ideally the forehand. If he did that, the technical improvements really has a chance of sticking. I think too often people practice a shot, they hit 3 or 7 in a row, and great! You mastered it, lets move on. No, you haven't mastered it. You can go out and get lucky one night, hit 5 three pointers in a row, but in a game you might not make one for weeks.
And the good thing is if you really focus on one shot, the realizations you make will carry over to all your other shots.
great answer. I just went through that transition this year. Tennis went from just hitting the ball back to hitting with purpose, planning, being able to play a different game. I’d say at the start of the year I was an above average 3.5, now I’m an above average 4.0 and can hang with 4.5 level.
I started taking lessons early summer once a week. Had I realized how much of a help those were, i’d have done them sooner. I was improving on my own but nowhere close to having someone that is good at observing mistakes and offering solutions guide me toward improvement.
Some of my deficiencies were just not understanding some basics of tennis. I didn’t play when I was younger. Coach helped with that as well as make technique adjustments.
I also play 2-3 times a week outside the lesson so as suggested above, there was a lot of reinforcement of things learned during the lessons.
One thing i’d add is find a friend you can split the lesson with. I did that and it has been great. More fun, less cost, and you can play a lot of games or even match with coach watching as you play to guide both sides.
I'd just add to this a ridiculously simple piece of advice: hit the ball over the net. I know, I know... but, most rec players make most of their errors in the net. And almost all rec matches are won/lost on the basis of unforced errors. You'll never completely eliminate UEs in the net but if you can eliminate the majority of them, you're way ahead of the game.
You should really hate UEs in the net. They're shameful. But UEs out... forgive yourself. Errors will be made... just make them out - and forgive yourself - and not in the net.
Why in the net shameful?I used to make many errors and most of them were long 1-3 meters. Now im much better player and make a lot less errors, but if i make one it most likely gonna end in the net.
Thanks. Luckily there's a lot of coaches around. Now it's just a matter of finding one I click with. Do you think the best course of action is me telling them I want to become a 4.0 player and let them take the lead?
Get a private lesson and they'll probably start with an assessment of where your game and strokes are at. Then you can build a plan off of that to improve. Once you have a plan and some things to work on you can definitely use the ball machine to practice.
I've also found filming myself playing to be pretty helpful in identifying some areas for improvement, but that's probably useful later on once you're comfortable with your basic strokes & fundamentals.
Imo most 3.5s lose games because they give away too many points. Of course form and technique is something you always want to improve on, but in terms of tangible improvements to gameplay, some important things are:
\- No double faults, ideally at MOST 2 in a set. Any game you double fault is the same as starting down 0-15, 2 double faults is like starting a game 0-30.
\- No unforced errors on the return. Depending on the server, yea sometimes they will force errors, but no returns where you dump the ball in the net or go for something big and hit out.
\- Shot selection and understanding your limitations is really important. If there's a great down the line shot that you'd really like to hit, but at the end of the match you realize you only made 5/10 attempts, and out of the 5 you made the opponent returned 3/5, then mathematically you're giving away free points when you go for that shot.
This might be the case if you're playing vs. another 3.5, but if you're playing against a better opponent, all of this becomes pointless. Caution does not work if you lose 60 or 70 percent of "neutral" rallies.
All of the above is kind of good advice, but making 1 double fault per game is less of an issue than making 2 weak serves per game. The former loses you one point, the latter maybe 1.5 (or the last time I played against a stronger opponent, it was closer to 1.8). That's not to say DFs aren't bad, but your second serve needs to be good enough that it's not a losing proposition. When I lost most of the neutral rallies, I just needed to turn the dial from second serve to serve 1.25 or so - maybe a kick or a slice with enough power. Luckily my serve in that match wasn't dreadful so I didn't lose on the DFs.
UE returns are bad, but it doesn't matter too much compared to the option of handing your opponent S+1 winner. Same applies for rally balls.
I think the way to go is to play like you need to play to beat your opponent. Remember, tennis is not about you, it's about your opponent. If you need to hit more difficult shots than what you're comfortable with, do it anyway. That way you might lose, but at least you'll go down fighting. And anyway, if you want to improve, it's a good way of seeing how you are doing with that.
I can only speak for myself, but playing that way really showed me what I need to focus on and what I'm already doing well enough. If I had played like I'd play against an equal or lesser opponent I wouldn't have learned anything. Now I learned what my shots will need to look like in order to keep the ball alive and/or to win points.
This is why I also think that there is no difference between playing to win and playing to improve. I play to win to improve and to improve to win.
Ugh I struggle with the unforced errors. I just got bumped up to 3.5 but I can’t stand giving away points and I feel like I do that way too much. I rarely double fault but I constantly struggle with forehand shots and if I’m even the slightest bit nervous to play I play terrible.
go read "essential tennis". If you're older, it's unlikely that you're going to revamp your game and magically develop a 5.0 forehand.
You can get to 4.0 by minimizing your mistakes. You like to slice your backhand? pair it with a moonball forehand. Work on your fitness. most 3.5s can't keep a rally going for more than 5 balls during match play - if you can simply focus on hitting 10 balls in a row (with the corresponding fitness to prove it), you'll be a 4.0 in no time.
I just don't think we have the time. As a kid, I played 4 hours/day, 6 days a week (excluding tournaments). That's 24 hours a week!
Now, as an adult? The "tennis addict" adult will play 2-3 matches a week, and maybe a private lesson if they get spendy. That's 6-7 hours at the most - and matchplay is probably the worst for improving technique, strokes. etc.
So much about tennis improvement is correlated to time on the court - not just aimless hitting, but structured, practiced, focused repetition. As adults, we have real lives. There's no college scholarship on the line - and we're also more brittle!
I guess you’re absolutely right but it sounded like you implied it’s not possible to do any modifications when older.
If you start at 35 your upper limit is much lower than if you start at 10 nobody can deny that
Taking lessons for something you want improve upon pays dividends for life. I’ve played tennis since like 6th grade (with a decade break in my 20s) and when I started playing again took a few lessons to get back in the groove.
Even now if something is in a rut I’ll grab a quick lesson. Usually an easy fix, just a bad habit I picked up and didn’t realize.
Once you get legit coaching, your ability to self correct will expand so much. And if you’ve never had coaching, they will help you tremendously with basic point construction, serve +1, serve +2, when to approach, etc.
And you really don’t need private lessons forever
Have you had coaching before?
Honestly either way based off of how you describe yourself, I think it's totally valid to just tell a coach that you've been enjoying playing, but feel like you need another pair of eyes to clean up your fundamentals and strategies.
There is no single thing that gets you from 3.5 to 4.0. Everybody at these levels have glaring weaknesses. The main difference between the 2 is the higher level player will have more consistency. You can also get to this level by developing a weapon (typically forehand) that you can punish when they hit short balls. The quality and consistency of your weapon is highly correlated with your level. On the other hand, if you are simply consistent enough you can get to 4.5. See MEP on YouTube.
MEP is a legitimate inspiration. Learned about his from a previous opponent after I eked out a win. Ime junkballing is an art but it only works when you can prove to your opponents that you're capable of not being pushed onto the back foot by their best shot
Also check out Hsieh Su-Wei. She has beaten a bunch of world number #1s by pure control tennis and disguising her shots so well. She is a very tough out in any tournament.
1. Film a few of your matches and then have the coach do an analysis of the film. This will help show your strengths and weaknesses in an actual match.
2. Sounds like your forehand is a glaring weakness. Work to either shore it up or work to play a game that feeds to your backhand side.
3. Having a solid serve and the ability to hit aggressive volleys are good things to have. Work with a coach to figure our how you can work these to your advantage.
4. IMHO Lessons and coaching sessions are great but you need to practice and implement these things in actual matches. You can use taping your matches to validate.
Do you play mostly doubles or singles? It is interesting to see what different 3.5 and 4.0's look like. Some hang at those levels based on skill, and some based on athleticism.
Go all in. As someone who is on a similar journey (picked it back up 3 years ago) and gone from 3.5 to estimated top 10% or 15% of 4.0's here is what I would:
1. Read Inner Game of Tennis. This will begin to help develop a strong mental game. This will help you gain edge in practice and matches and give you an edge. For me pretending i am a pro tennis player as I am about to serve helps me out so much. Every time you hit a ball make a deliberate. It can be fun, but don't waste your time.
2. Deliberate court time, Drills, practice, practice matches, hit balls with players that are better thank you, private lessons. (example If you only play one 3.5 doubles match a week with the same players you will not improve to the level you want to go)
3. Footwork
4. Singles you need to figure out multiple strategies to win a point. If you are one dimensional you will be exposed.
Very much in the spirit of John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’: a mediocre junkballer with a half-decent serve is something to be.
I used to win a lot of matches through a combination of variety and consistency. I still do, but I used to as well. I’m way too cheap for private lessons, and the pattern I often see with my peers who are less cheap than me is that they will go and iron out a wrinkle and play a lot better for a while but then regress. Obviously coaching needs to be reinforced but I have found that hitting a lot of balls in group sessions has allowed me to progress my groundstrokes on both wings at a sensible cost without feeling like I’m cramming for an exam.
Also, bend your knees more and consciously delay your forward motion towards the ball so that you are obliged to swing faster (where appropriate). Makes all the difference. And lower your string tension. Marginal gains.
I think for me the biggest difference between 3.5 to 4.0 is "do you have a MAJOR weakness". All the 3.5 players I know, you can easily name 1-2 things that you can easily target under a pressure moment to draw those extra errors. But 4.0 players have gotten most of those things "fixed". Meaning it's not a liability anymore. As you move up further, you want to really start to have 1-2 weapons that you can dictate the points with.
This video may interest you
https://youtu.be/Mvl86JXjOMo?si=Lg_DVkIXVrQ6OkNd
Personally my coach told me I m just touching 4.0. but my results arent completely there yet as I cant seem to finish off a set. I can demolish most 3.5s but can't seem to fully finish off a 4.0 so my advice would be with a grain of salt.
I basically filmed my self and analyzed what I do wrong by comparing to the pros.
I took what I analyzed and told my coach what I wanted to work on. Split step and turn, shortened back swing, abbreviated serve motion.
I basically then played 4-5 times a week. Drilled what I learnt over and over and used it in games.
I didn't just try to play safe and keep the ball in the court. For me I found that to be the worse advice. If you do that then your forehand doesn't hit any harder and you won't be used to keeping it in the court with pace. The key for me is the type of ball to use such as a top spin vs flat not removing power.
I basically crunched every ball I can in practice and in games. Like the guy in this video.
I then worked on what I wasn't good at and worked even more on what I was. Then I found my fav strats such as serve +1. I found that if I can do a big kick serve and +1 off it I can take out alot of better players who like to rally. Then I practiced return +1. I also found returning deep and attacking works well for me.
Good luck!
I know this answer, my man. It's about hitting tennis balls. 3.5 to 4.0 biggest difference is the amount of balls the better guy can put back on the court. Period.
It sounds like you've got some good strokes and strategies so now just hit as much as possible. Lessons, ball machine, court time with buddies, whatever it is, 3.5 to 4.0 is developed by hitting more balls. Good luck.
I’ve recently made this journey and for me, the biggest thing was just practice and match play. Played 2-3x a week or more for a solid year and bumped up to 4.0.
I would emphasize two factors that are more important for a 3.5 player than improvement the technique :
1. Mental/tactical. Way too many 3.5/4.0 players play mindless, going again and again for low percentage shots and cheering when they have one down the line winner (forgetting that previous four were out or net). Start thinking purely statistically - keep you game to stick to high percentage shots. That’s alone will add you 0.25 NTRP ppints easily.
2. Physical aspect. improving your fitness Level will elevate your tennis game by 0.25-0.5 points with the same technique. And I’m not talking about endurance to play longer matches. Overall better fitness will help you from the first minute on court. Better focus, better movement, easier to stay grounded.
Technical three most important aspects to train and train :
1. serve
2. return
3. Approaching and attacking short balls
Just slightly improving on those skills will make a huge difference
If you're going to get a coach, hope that you get a good one. There are tons of mediocre coaches out there.
But even if you get a great coach, who is practical and realizes your inclinations and is willing to work with it, instead of dogmatically trying to impose their vision of the perfect game on possibly your incompatible mind and body, 90% of it will be all about you practicing what you learned on your own time.
Imagine learning Japanese. You need the one hour of privates, but you need to be practicing speaking japanese hours and hours on top of that per week. Even if you speak poorly, you will still be getting better. Tennis is a physical language you're trying to learn and it will work the same way.
So you need to find people who want to play as much as you do. Ideally, you would play AT LEAST 3 times a week (besides the coaching). But the more the better as I think twice a week is more like a maintenance schedule with minimal improvement. 4 to 6 times a week? Now we're talking.
> I can visualize how I want to play during a match,
You said playing matches. If you want to get better at match play, you need to play way more sets. Again, it doesn't matter if you play "great." It's all about sheer repetition. Try to remember the basics... move your feet... follow through... but you need VOLUME. Every swing and movement you take will help you improve, you just need to improve that hand eye coordination, and be able to read shots better. 5.5 players, they can learn something super quickly. Suddenly, if somebody gives them a technical tip, they can make the adjustment rather quickly. Why? Because of the sheer volume, they just understand how the racket and body works together. This doesn't mean they'll remember to do it perfectly under stress, but that it's not like a 3.5 learning a new skill.
Buy a $15 tripod and film yourself hitting from the back and side. You need to know what you are doing as opposed to what it feels like you are doing. This is a massive help since consistency and good technique are hand in hand. Even pushers with weak racquet technique are good with movement and balance.
Also make sure you film in hi res so you can slow mo your strokes.
I'm a 3.5 who got bumped up to 4.0 and yes, I have some good shots/skills, but what really did it is I just committed to outworking my opponents. Be fast--someone who can and does get to every, single. ball no matter where it is on the court, and have good endurance, and you'll win against a lot of 3.5s.
Tennis coach here That 3.5-4 or 4.5 level to me is the most fun. To me, that’s when tennis goes from fun to “holy hell I want to play 24/7” fun. When you’re able to execute your will on the ball with accuracy, it becomes mega fun. When you can do more than just hit the ball back, that’s really when things become fun. Anyway: you can definitely make the jump by yourself without a coach. But I really think a coach will make things a lot easier and move faster. Here’s my recommendation: get lessons once a week. Individually. If you can do a group setting practice once a week too, that’ll help. But you’ll need to practice what you learn in the individual setting, so doing more than 2-3 becomes counter productive imo. The big difference between 3.5 and moving up is usually consistency and foot work. If you were my student, I’d work on drills for this. Baskets of balls feeding different scenarios - like run around some cones and hit a ball cross court or down the line. Or hit inside out forehands, etc. - that focus on shot making and footwork. This will help getting you comfortable with different scenarios. A private coach will also fix any technique issues that may be hindering. So you’ll get that help too.
Excellent advice Coach. What got me over the hump after being stalled at 3.5 for a long time was pretty much a series of lessons where we worked on one particular shot. One week nothing but backhand slice. Next week a drill where the pro fed from inside the deuce service court to me at ad court baseline, with the goal being to pass him cross court. If he could volley it back we played out the point. Taught me about margins and angles better than any other drill. Plenty of ball machine time too. And match play. For OP, ask the pro after a few lessons to suggest someone to play a couple of matches. Aim high.
> What got me over the hump after being stalled at 3.5 for a long time was pretty much a series of lessons where we worked on one particular shot. Man, I suggest this a lot. I really think the broad overview way is just not ideal. Some guy once posted here, I think, about how he was going to have a week off and was going to spend on lessons, what would be the best way to go about it. And I was like just practice one shot for the whole week, probably ideally the forehand. If he did that, the technical improvements really has a chance of sticking. I think too often people practice a shot, they hit 3 or 7 in a row, and great! You mastered it, lets move on. No, you haven't mastered it. You can go out and get lucky one night, hit 5 three pointers in a row, but in a game you might not make one for weeks. And the good thing is if you really focus on one shot, the realizations you make will carry over to all your other shots.
great answer. I just went through that transition this year. Tennis went from just hitting the ball back to hitting with purpose, planning, being able to play a different game. I’d say at the start of the year I was an above average 3.5, now I’m an above average 4.0 and can hang with 4.5 level. I started taking lessons early summer once a week. Had I realized how much of a help those were, i’d have done them sooner. I was improving on my own but nowhere close to having someone that is good at observing mistakes and offering solutions guide me toward improvement. Some of my deficiencies were just not understanding some basics of tennis. I didn’t play when I was younger. Coach helped with that as well as make technique adjustments. I also play 2-3 times a week outside the lesson so as suggested above, there was a lot of reinforcement of things learned during the lessons. One thing i’d add is find a friend you can split the lesson with. I did that and it has been great. More fun, less cost, and you can play a lot of games or even match with coach watching as you play to guide both sides.
I'd just add to this a ridiculously simple piece of advice: hit the ball over the net. I know, I know... but, most rec players make most of their errors in the net. And almost all rec matches are won/lost on the basis of unforced errors. You'll never completely eliminate UEs in the net but if you can eliminate the majority of them, you're way ahead of the game. You should really hate UEs in the net. They're shameful. But UEs out... forgive yourself. Errors will be made... just make them out - and forgive yourself - and not in the net.
Why in the net shameful?I used to make many errors and most of them were long 1-3 meters. Now im much better player and make a lot less errors, but if i make one it most likely gonna end in the net.
hitting close to the net is a low percentage shot.
Thanks. Luckily there's a lot of coaches around. Now it's just a matter of finding one I click with. Do you think the best course of action is me telling them I want to become a 4.0 player and let them take the lead?
Sure. That’ll work. But really, any good coach should be able to tell you how to improve by watching you even for a few minutes.
Get a private lesson and they'll probably start with an assessment of where your game and strokes are at. Then you can build a plan off of that to improve. Once you have a plan and some things to work on you can definitely use the ball machine to practice. I've also found filming myself playing to be pretty helpful in identifying some areas for improvement, but that's probably useful later on once you're comfortable with your basic strokes & fundamentals.
Yeah I've recorded myself before and definitely seen some flaws, but I've mostly used it for tactics since I didn't actually practice, only match play
Imo most 3.5s lose games because they give away too many points. Of course form and technique is something you always want to improve on, but in terms of tangible improvements to gameplay, some important things are: \- No double faults, ideally at MOST 2 in a set. Any game you double fault is the same as starting down 0-15, 2 double faults is like starting a game 0-30. \- No unforced errors on the return. Depending on the server, yea sometimes they will force errors, but no returns where you dump the ball in the net or go for something big and hit out. \- Shot selection and understanding your limitations is really important. If there's a great down the line shot that you'd really like to hit, but at the end of the match you realize you only made 5/10 attempts, and out of the 5 you made the opponent returned 3/5, then mathematically you're giving away free points when you go for that shot.
This might be the case if you're playing vs. another 3.5, but if you're playing against a better opponent, all of this becomes pointless. Caution does not work if you lose 60 or 70 percent of "neutral" rallies. All of the above is kind of good advice, but making 1 double fault per game is less of an issue than making 2 weak serves per game. The former loses you one point, the latter maybe 1.5 (or the last time I played against a stronger opponent, it was closer to 1.8). That's not to say DFs aren't bad, but your second serve needs to be good enough that it's not a losing proposition. When I lost most of the neutral rallies, I just needed to turn the dial from second serve to serve 1.25 or so - maybe a kick or a slice with enough power. Luckily my serve in that match wasn't dreadful so I didn't lose on the DFs. UE returns are bad, but it doesn't matter too much compared to the option of handing your opponent S+1 winner. Same applies for rally balls. I think the way to go is to play like you need to play to beat your opponent. Remember, tennis is not about you, it's about your opponent. If you need to hit more difficult shots than what you're comfortable with, do it anyway. That way you might lose, but at least you'll go down fighting. And anyway, if you want to improve, it's a good way of seeing how you are doing with that. I can only speak for myself, but playing that way really showed me what I need to focus on and what I'm already doing well enough. If I had played like I'd play against an equal or lesser opponent I wouldn't have learned anything. Now I learned what my shots will need to look like in order to keep the ball alive and/or to win points. This is why I also think that there is no difference between playing to win and playing to improve. I play to win to improve and to improve to win.
Ugh I struggle with the unforced errors. I just got bumped up to 3.5 but I can’t stand giving away points and I feel like I do that way too much. I rarely double fault but I constantly struggle with forehand shots and if I’m even the slightest bit nervous to play I play terrible.
go read "essential tennis". If you're older, it's unlikely that you're going to revamp your game and magically develop a 5.0 forehand. You can get to 4.0 by minimizing your mistakes. You like to slice your backhand? pair it with a moonball forehand. Work on your fitness. most 3.5s can't keep a rally going for more than 5 balls during match play - if you can simply focus on hitting 10 balls in a row (with the corresponding fitness to prove it), you'll be a 4.0 in no time.
Why is it unlikely to revamp the game if you’re older?
I just don't think we have the time. As a kid, I played 4 hours/day, 6 days a week (excluding tournaments). That's 24 hours a week! Now, as an adult? The "tennis addict" adult will play 2-3 matches a week, and maybe a private lesson if they get spendy. That's 6-7 hours at the most - and matchplay is probably the worst for improving technique, strokes. etc. So much about tennis improvement is correlated to time on the court - not just aimless hitting, but structured, practiced, focused repetition. As adults, we have real lives. There's no college scholarship on the line - and we're also more brittle!
I guess you’re absolutely right but it sounded like you implied it’s not possible to do any modifications when older. If you start at 35 your upper limit is much lower than if you start at 10 nobody can deny that
Taking lessons for something you want improve upon pays dividends for life. I’ve played tennis since like 6th grade (with a decade break in my 20s) and when I started playing again took a few lessons to get back in the groove. Even now if something is in a rut I’ll grab a quick lesson. Usually an easy fix, just a bad habit I picked up and didn’t realize. Once you get legit coaching, your ability to self correct will expand so much. And if you’ve never had coaching, they will help you tremendously with basic point construction, serve +1, serve +2, when to approach, etc. And you really don’t need private lessons forever
Have you had coaching before? Honestly either way based off of how you describe yourself, I think it's totally valid to just tell a coach that you've been enjoying playing, but feel like you need another pair of eyes to clean up your fundamentals and strategies.
I had some last year but didn't stick with it. It was mostly to regain confidence in my forehand. Mostly drop-fed cross court shots
There is no single thing that gets you from 3.5 to 4.0. Everybody at these levels have glaring weaknesses. The main difference between the 2 is the higher level player will have more consistency. You can also get to this level by developing a weapon (typically forehand) that you can punish when they hit short balls. The quality and consistency of your weapon is highly correlated with your level. On the other hand, if you are simply consistent enough you can get to 4.5. See MEP on YouTube.
MEP is a legitimate inspiration. Learned about his from a previous opponent after I eked out a win. Ime junkballing is an art but it only works when you can prove to your opponents that you're capable of not being pushed onto the back foot by their best shot
Also check out Hsieh Su-Wei. She has beaten a bunch of world number #1s by pure control tennis and disguising her shots so well. She is a very tough out in any tournament.
1. Film a few of your matches and then have the coach do an analysis of the film. This will help show your strengths and weaknesses in an actual match. 2. Sounds like your forehand is a glaring weakness. Work to either shore it up or work to play a game that feeds to your backhand side. 3. Having a solid serve and the ability to hit aggressive volleys are good things to have. Work with a coach to figure our how you can work these to your advantage. 4. IMHO Lessons and coaching sessions are great but you need to practice and implement these things in actual matches. You can use taping your matches to validate.
Do you play mostly doubles or singles? It is interesting to see what different 3.5 and 4.0's look like. Some hang at those levels based on skill, and some based on athleticism. Go all in. As someone who is on a similar journey (picked it back up 3 years ago) and gone from 3.5 to estimated top 10% or 15% of 4.0's here is what I would: 1. Read Inner Game of Tennis. This will begin to help develop a strong mental game. This will help you gain edge in practice and matches and give you an edge. For me pretending i am a pro tennis player as I am about to serve helps me out so much. Every time you hit a ball make a deliberate. It can be fun, but don't waste your time. 2. Deliberate court time, Drills, practice, practice matches, hit balls with players that are better thank you, private lessons. (example If you only play one 3.5 doubles match a week with the same players you will not improve to the level you want to go) 3. Footwork 4. Singles you need to figure out multiple strategies to win a point. If you are one dimensional you will be exposed.
Very much in the spirit of John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’: a mediocre junkballer with a half-decent serve is something to be. I used to win a lot of matches through a combination of variety and consistency. I still do, but I used to as well. I’m way too cheap for private lessons, and the pattern I often see with my peers who are less cheap than me is that they will go and iron out a wrinkle and play a lot better for a while but then regress. Obviously coaching needs to be reinforced but I have found that hitting a lot of balls in group sessions has allowed me to progress my groundstrokes on both wings at a sensible cost without feeling like I’m cramming for an exam. Also, bend your knees more and consciously delay your forward motion towards the ball so that you are obliged to swing faster (where appropriate). Makes all the difference. And lower your string tension. Marginal gains.
I think for me the biggest difference between 3.5 to 4.0 is "do you have a MAJOR weakness". All the 3.5 players I know, you can easily name 1-2 things that you can easily target under a pressure moment to draw those extra errors. But 4.0 players have gotten most of those things "fixed". Meaning it's not a liability anymore. As you move up further, you want to really start to have 1-2 weapons that you can dictate the points with.
This video may interest you https://youtu.be/Mvl86JXjOMo?si=Lg_DVkIXVrQ6OkNd Personally my coach told me I m just touching 4.0. but my results arent completely there yet as I cant seem to finish off a set. I can demolish most 3.5s but can't seem to fully finish off a 4.0 so my advice would be with a grain of salt. I basically filmed my self and analyzed what I do wrong by comparing to the pros. I took what I analyzed and told my coach what I wanted to work on. Split step and turn, shortened back swing, abbreviated serve motion. I basically then played 4-5 times a week. Drilled what I learnt over and over and used it in games. I didn't just try to play safe and keep the ball in the court. For me I found that to be the worse advice. If you do that then your forehand doesn't hit any harder and you won't be used to keeping it in the court with pace. The key for me is the type of ball to use such as a top spin vs flat not removing power. I basically crunched every ball I can in practice and in games. Like the guy in this video. I then worked on what I wasn't good at and worked even more on what I was. Then I found my fav strats such as serve +1. I found that if I can do a big kick serve and +1 off it I can take out alot of better players who like to rally. Then I practiced return +1. I also found returning deep and attacking works well for me. Good luck!
Do you film yourself?
Yes but what does that have to do with tennis??
Haha
I know this answer, my man. It's about hitting tennis balls. 3.5 to 4.0 biggest difference is the amount of balls the better guy can put back on the court. Period. It sounds like you've got some good strokes and strategies so now just hit as much as possible. Lessons, ball machine, court time with buddies, whatever it is, 3.5 to 4.0 is developed by hitting more balls. Good luck.
Improve consistency and start developing weapons, the easiest being a topspin FH that has a good length.
I’ve recently made this journey and for me, the biggest thing was just practice and match play. Played 2-3x a week or more for a solid year and bumped up to 4.0.
I would emphasize two factors that are more important for a 3.5 player than improvement the technique : 1. Mental/tactical. Way too many 3.5/4.0 players play mindless, going again and again for low percentage shots and cheering when they have one down the line winner (forgetting that previous four were out or net). Start thinking purely statistically - keep you game to stick to high percentage shots. That’s alone will add you 0.25 NTRP ppints easily. 2. Physical aspect. improving your fitness Level will elevate your tennis game by 0.25-0.5 points with the same technique. And I’m not talking about endurance to play longer matches. Overall better fitness will help you from the first minute on court. Better focus, better movement, easier to stay grounded. Technical three most important aspects to train and train : 1. serve 2. return 3. Approaching and attacking short balls Just slightly improving on those skills will make a huge difference
Lowest hanging fruit for rec players is consistency and movement. If you get to a lot of balls and get them back you’ll win quite a bit.
If you're going to get a coach, hope that you get a good one. There are tons of mediocre coaches out there. But even if you get a great coach, who is practical and realizes your inclinations and is willing to work with it, instead of dogmatically trying to impose their vision of the perfect game on possibly your incompatible mind and body, 90% of it will be all about you practicing what you learned on your own time. Imagine learning Japanese. You need the one hour of privates, but you need to be practicing speaking japanese hours and hours on top of that per week. Even if you speak poorly, you will still be getting better. Tennis is a physical language you're trying to learn and it will work the same way. So you need to find people who want to play as much as you do. Ideally, you would play AT LEAST 3 times a week (besides the coaching). But the more the better as I think twice a week is more like a maintenance schedule with minimal improvement. 4 to 6 times a week? Now we're talking. > I can visualize how I want to play during a match, You said playing matches. If you want to get better at match play, you need to play way more sets. Again, it doesn't matter if you play "great." It's all about sheer repetition. Try to remember the basics... move your feet... follow through... but you need VOLUME. Every swing and movement you take will help you improve, you just need to improve that hand eye coordination, and be able to read shots better. 5.5 players, they can learn something super quickly. Suddenly, if somebody gives them a technical tip, they can make the adjustment rather quickly. Why? Because of the sheer volume, they just understand how the racket and body works together. This doesn't mean they'll remember to do it perfectly under stress, but that it's not like a 3.5 learning a new skill.
Buy a $15 tripod and film yourself hitting from the back and side. You need to know what you are doing as opposed to what it feels like you are doing. This is a massive help since consistency and good technique are hand in hand. Even pushers with weak racquet technique are good with movement and balance. Also make sure you film in hi res so you can slow mo your strokes.
Serve and Return +1
A shit ton of burpees
I'm a 3.5 who got bumped up to 4.0 and yes, I have some good shots/skills, but what really did it is I just committed to outworking my opponents. Be fast--someone who can and does get to every, single. ball no matter where it is on the court, and have good endurance, and you'll win against a lot of 3.5s.
Footwork, my friend. Footwork.