Preparing for my next tournament

Dear Alois and Jeff,

I am preparing for my next tournament which will be school team games. But I have a couple of questions. Firstly, should I train a lot or should I train a little bit less that week (the tournament is this saturday)? What about physical exercises? What shots should I train these last days? And another thing: How can I overcome my anger? I get quite nervous sometimes during matches and that of course is a disadvantage. If I help myself be calm all the time I'd win more matches.

Hi Peter,

Try to listen to your body.  It will tell you how much to train.  If you feel like training a lot then do a lot of sessions.  If you are feeling tired, then train less so that you are fresh for the tournament.  Each player is different even at the higher level.

You should train mainly your serve, return of serve and third ball drills.  These are the most important shots in a match.

To overcome nervousness, think about taking a deep breath when you start to feel nervous.  Firstly you need to recognise the signs that you are feeling nervous.  After you take a deep breath, get your focus onto the tactics you will need for the next point.  As you have worked out, you play a lot better when you are calm.  Start to understand the feelings when you are calm and when you are frustrated and nervous and you will start to be able to change them.

Good luck with your tournament.