Hi, This is the second in a series of tennis tips. I don't assume to tell you something new every time, however sometimes you need to hear something you already know one more time! As promised, this time I will give you some tactical advice. It's called: CONSISTENCY! In tennis the basic idea is to hit the ball over the net into the field of the opponent and preferably one time more often than him/her. If you succeed you win the point. That's the basic idea. Now I know there's more to it, however since it is so basic, so essential, it's worth paying attention to. On almost all levels you win more points of your opponent's mistakes than you do of your own winners. Every now and then on a professional level you will see a player hit more winners than his/her opponent made unforced errors, but often it is the other way around even on that level. This balance between taking risk and not making to many unforced errors is very delicate and very important if you want to enjoy some success in tennis. A good example of this is the match Dutchman Verkerk played against Federer in Paris in 2004. Verkerk hit an enormous amount of winners, but unfortunately made almost as many unnecessary mistakes as well. His unforced errors evened out his winners. Although he had the initiative during most of the match, in the end he lost. Experience (gained from years of practice and playing lots of matches) and talent will help you decide when to go for the winner and when to play it 'safe'. This is called playing the percentages (or percentage tennis). It's all about consistency in all game situations. (More about that next time.) All this is assuming you can already play both offensive and defensive shots. If you just started to play tennis the most important thing for you is: CONSISTENCY! Yep, just concentrate on keeping the ball in play. Try to get to every ball, run the soles off your shoes and hit the ball to the other side. Be persistent and you'll drive people crazy! "All he/she does is bringing back the ball", they will say. (You will smile and know that you consciously chose this strategy while you are still developing your game.) So, remember to play with consistency! HAVE FUN, Mark Luyk

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