Want to Improve Your Tennis? Start Reading.

As the 2021 professional tennis season winds down, it’s the time of year when the WTA and ATP announce their respective Player, Team and Tournament of the Year awards. It’s also a time of “off-season” for pros and many amateurs – a time for rest and recharging.

However, with end-of-year holidays simultaneously happening during off-season around the globe, the off-season is often more like a busy, “on-season” that flies by.

At Love-Love Tennis, our holiday wish for you is that you can utilize some of your off-season time to reflect on your 2021 tennis game and how you may improve it in 2022.

One wonderful way to gain insights into your game is by reading books authored by tennis pros, coaches, historians, amateurs, and even fans. Lucky for us at Love-Love Tennis, we love-love books and have a way to share that love with you. We kicked off our Love-Love Tennis Book Club in first quarter of 2021 with a goal to help you learn tennis strategies and tips through reading and discussing books. 

For example, our first quarter book selection, “Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won My Life Back,” by former tennis pro James Blake, gave one of our Book Club members the inspiration to recover from a recent injury and get back into the game. Then, our second quarter selection, “Courting Danger: My Adventures in World Class Tennis, Golden Age Hollywood and High-Stakes Spying,” by Dale Leatherman and multiple Grand Slam winner and tennis legend Alice Marble, gave another member of our Book Club a better appreciation for the many different locales in which tennis can be played and for the many different types of players who are currently playing the game. As a result, that member has decided to start testing her game further by registering to play in more tennis tournaments in her local residential area. 

And, our third quarter selection, “Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis – Lessons from a Master,” by Steve Jamison and former pro, tennis coach and ESPN tennis analyst Brad Gilbert, has personally inspired me to better capture and analyze my personal match data to achieve more winning results in the future.

So, what if the old expression, “reading is fundamental,” that is related to literacy can also be applied to tennis learning? What do you think? 

If you want to join our Love-Love Tennis Book Club and read our fourth quarter book selection, “All In: An Autobiography,” by WTA Founder and tennis great Billie Jean King, there’s still time. The book is available in both print and e-book formats.

And remember, your off-season can be a season for getting turned on to new ideas. If you’re serious about addressing the weaknesses of your game, you may just find the answer by taking the time to turn a page or swipe to the left.