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Learning to Be Patient – No Winners Allowed At the club or amateur tennis level, most rallies are decided by unforced errors caused by impatience, rather than outright winners. No Winners Allowed is a simple, fun game to play with a partner to help you improve your patience and reduced the mistakes and build pressure on your opponent. One of the most common strategic mistakes club players and beginners make is impatience. A lack of patience, trying to hit winners at the wrong moments leads to unnecessary, unforced errors and frustration, which lowers your confidence and enjoyment. The key to having more competitive success is "Aggressive Patience," an approach to playing that is attacking but also smart. And this No Winners Allowed game is a fun and surprisingly challenging game for practicing your patience on the court. It's also very good for your fitness, as you'll have some very long rallies! How to play: Start with a second serve or feed up the middle and simply play out the point, but neither player is allowed to go for a winner. The point should only end with a forced or unforced error. That should means very long rallies. You'll get into a mindset of being quite relaxed, rather than having a voice in your head urging you to smash a winner down the line all the time. As you go on, it gets interesting. To get the most out of the game, you should try to hit more than 80 percent of shots into challenging areas, not just gentle shots to the middle of the court. Soon you'll both start pushing the limits of a safe-percentage shot, and really start challenging each other and your own accuracy. You'll have to agree between you whether a shot was a 'winner' or just laziness by the loser to get to the ball! You'll be playing patient, high-percentage shots that gradually ramp up the pressure on your opponent. This is a mindset you can take into competitive matches. You may find the results are pleasantly surprising. Play first to 11 or until you both collapse! What you'll get: • You'll learn how it feels to be patient within a rally • The discipline of toughing out a rally • Confidence that you can last a long rally • Tactically, it will get you thinking outside your regular game plan and habits, and force you think outside the box • Physical stamina • Mental stamina — you've got no choice but to hang in there! ~ Shirley Ferguson TENNIS TITANS | LIFE IN SOLERA | DECEMBER 2023 | 51