Sometimes when I’m feeding balls to two or three lines of students who are warming up their groundstrokes at the beginning of a skills and drills class, I’ll notice that some, or all, of the players aren’t putting much effort into hitting the ball as well as they can. People who want to play games, and think warm-up drills are dull, can become lazy and have a hard time focusing on doing their best. Rather than boring players with tips on how to hit forehands and backhands more effectively, I’ll ask them to suggest a player they like to watch play. I’ll ask if those players ever look like they don’t get ready in time to hit the ball, or if they ever look off balance when they make contact. Then I’ll suggest that for the next few minutes they pretend that they are their favorite player.
I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I read once that when making a movie including scenes where professionals played tennis, the creators tried hiring professional tennis players as actors, so they wouldn’t have to fake the tennis played in the movie. Discovering that professional tennis players are not necessarily great actors, they hired professional actors. They told the actors not to worry about where their shots went, just to pretend they were professional tennis players, and great shots would be added later. And because professional actors are very good at pretending, they ended up hitting great shots simply by doing the things they thought professional players would do.
Whether the story is true or not, I always pretend that it makes perfect sense. And if players pretend that they are moving their feet, preparing their racquet, and keeping their balance when following through just like their favorite players do, then that’s what they actually do.