/ Published in Tennis

Candiss – How To Practice For 4.0 Success

On Friday, January 15, 2021, Candiss George from Vancouver, Canada, purchased The 25 Golden Rules of Singles Strategy and The First 4 Shots. She was hungry to succeed in 4.0 singles and her coach had recommended these courses to help her understand the strategy required to succeed at that level.

It was later in the afternoon and I was at my computer working, so I sent a personal reply thanking Candiss for the purchase and added instructions to make sure she was logged in to the website correctly.

I didn’t expect anything back…

On Sunday, Candice replied. Here’s her email:

Hi Craig, I’m assuming this was an auto-generated email, but in case it’s live, I was hoping you could answer a question around training your principals. Quick background about my tennis: I started tennis 5 years ago. I started competing in 2.5 NTRP, now I play in 4.0. My best result there was a final, but that said I had a really “lucky” draw. In senior tournaments (ws40) my best result is Round of 16 and this was because I happened to meet opponents like myself, as opposed to ex juniors/ex-college players.

You can already tell Candiss digs tennis! 👏👏

 That is to say,  I’m barely competitive at the open level unless my draw is good. But despite being continually crushed in early rounds, I always come away with more wonder, more motivation, more desire to be better. I can’t get enough of the pace, the intensity, and the generally more aggressive nature of senior tournament matches. I’m very motivated to become more competitive there. 

If you are motivated, I am motivated!!! 😀

 I do play a little socially, but really, I play to compete.  I play every local tournament and travel across the border to Washington/Oregon for all of theirs. My coach and I have been discussing what’s required to continue getting deep into 4.0 draws, deeper in senior draws, and of course how to make my way up to 4.5. We agree that I’ve reached a bit of a threshold, something has to be added for me to break thru. 

Candiss is thirsty for success. She knows there is a better way to practice to become more competitive at 4.0.

 He suggested I purchase your coaching tips. I’m so excited and inspired, I can’t even tell you! I’ve devoured your content. Since you’ve turned my training 50 rally balls crosscourt upside down, here comes my question: I have 5 hours of on-court training per week.  How should I spend each hour?

Give me a recipe and I will follow it. FYI, I cross-train outside of tennis, for tennis, so I’ve got that covered in terms of general fitness, and on average, I play at least one competitive practice match per week. Any advice you can offer around this would be greatly appreciated.

I’m ready and excited to train smarter and more effectively.

Thanks so much,

It’s not often I receive such a motivational email from a player at any level. I had no idea who Candiss is, but I knew I wanted to go the extra mile and be an asset to her tennis. The other thing that stood out in my mind is that there are a lot of adult players like Candiss working hard to succeed at 4.0. If I could help Candiss, and we could record the conversation, then it would be a way to help other players as well.

So I emailed Candiss back and suggested we do a Zoom call. The goal would be to enhance her paradigm of what matters most to winning tennis matches and help her organize her practice court to succeed at 4.0.

So here’s the Zoom call! We talked for just over an hour, so I cut the video up into eight sections. I also outlined three topics that we discussed in each specific video.

Candiss Video 1 (6:34)

  • Introduction – Hi Candiss!
  • Candiss started playing around 5 years ago.
  • The journey from 2.5 to 4.0. Taking the ball early. Looking for winning patterns of play.

Candiss Video 2 (16:42)

  • 4.0 tennis. The mode = 1 shot.
  • 75% of points are in the 0-4 rally
  • Your No. 1 goal is not to hit winners. It’s all about forcing errors.

Candiss Video 3 (7:35)

  • Best to return to B and C.
  • The 8 ways to force an error.
  • 4.0 tennis = 75% errors. Got to play better defense.

Candiss Video 4 (9:37)

  • Candiss is happy to stop focusing on longer rallies in practice.
  • The new focus is on the serve and return.
  • Structuring her 5 hours of practice.

Candiss Video 5 (6:23)

  • Which rally length is the most important to win?
  • The comfort of Tuscany on the practice court.
  • Every point starts in Switzerland.

Candiss Video 6 (9:48)  

  • The 2-1 pattern.
  • Hitting winners need “assist” shots to help set them up.
  • Looking for run-around forehands in C+.

Candiss Video 7 (5:40)  

  • Don’t look to get into a war of attrition.
  • Play practice sets in practice.
  • The “Perfect Points” scoreboard. Hit four shots then catch the ball.

Candiss Video 8 (6:01)

  • Holding from 15-0 = 75%.
  • Holding from 0-15 = 33%.
  • Second serve win percentages.

SUMMARY

It was a pleasure to speak with Candiss and help her on her quest to improve as a tennis player. Hopefully, our conversation resonated with you as well and will inspire you to practice smarter and develop the winning patterns of play we went over in the video.

I look forward to catching up with Candiss again soon to get a progress report.

All the best,

Craig