Tennis Pro Aryna Sabalenka's Tips For Every Skill Level (Beginner, Intermediate, Collegiate)

SELF Magazine

Tennis Pro Aryna Sabalenka joins SELF to answer questions from players of different NTRP rankings, from beginners to aspiring pros, helping them level up their game.

Transcript

00:00I'm curious how you're able to read your opponents so well and anticipate their next move.

00:04That's a good question because I have no clue.

00:09Hey Self, I'm Marina. Let's answer all of your tennis questions and this is how you level up.

00:18Hi, my name is Vicky Unborn. I would like to have some tips on my cert.

00:23Okay Frankie, I think we need to work on a couple things. First of all, I think you're

00:27facing the court like too straight like with your kind of like body stomach. So I think you need to

00:34turn a little bit like kind of like cover it just so you have this rotation and then when you move

00:41it's kind of like gonna help you to move to the right direction and it's gonna help you to speed

00:47it up a little bit and you have more control and then we have to work on your grip. Open up your

00:53grip a little bit also gonna help you to to improve your serve. Hi, Marina. We have two

00:59questions for you. Question number one. What is the best drill for a fast serve like yours?

01:04I think the main thing which can help you to kind of like speed up the swing take something heavier

01:09than the racket probably like one kilo ball and just try to swing with the ball or try to throw the

01:15ball with the coach or you can just take like the tennis ball and throw it as far as you can it's just

01:21going to help to lose up your arm and it's going to help to speed up your serve because most of the

01:26time when you try to speed up your serve you're actually getting tight because you're trying to

01:30overheat it so you actually it's like work opposite you have to lose it up and make make the motion more

01:36like smooth. Question two. What's the best tip for having the best movement on the court? Well,

01:41I think most of that is like a coordination drills. Kids likes to do like this little stairs. It's

01:46basics like there is no secrets whatever like your coach suggesting you to do like do it every day

01:52before and after the practice so like in a month you're going to see a huge improvement. I feel like

01:57I need to be there to show that I'm like talking they're going to be like what she just said like ah.

02:03My question is how often should I get my strings restrung if I play about once a week? I think it's

02:10doesn't matter how many times you're playing a week like once a week you can restring them because

02:15anyway with days like sitting there they're getting loose and probably going to feel a bit less

02:20control. If you're just like playing for fun it's okay to restring the racket like once a month you

02:25know but if you ask how often I do that like every day I play with a fresh racket because yeah for me

02:31it's a big difference like if the racket sit there for a few days and they take it it's it's completely

02:36different feeling and I have to adjust the technique even. In my bag I have four rackets with one tension

02:43and then my coach he has four rackets yeah we have eight rackets. What's your favorite play to

02:48approach the net on? Well I think because my game is quite aggressive and at some point I'm going to

02:53get like a short ball depends where the player I just like to do the approach shot and like follow

02:58the ball to the net and then finish the point there but sometimes when I felt pretty confident I

03:04like to slice and come to the net because like when you slice the ball is quite low and when you get to the

03:09net anyway what the player gonna do is like love you so you kind of like have like high ball or even

03:15if they try to spin like it's anyway it's high enough to finish the points you have to be confident

03:20in your game on the net and also like overall on the baseline to do that. When you're playing somewhere

03:27where the weather is really hot and humid and your hands get sticky I assume it can be really hard to

03:32kind of keep that grip on your racket and hold on so what are your tips for preventing that slippage?

03:38Well there is not much you can really do every brand has their like own gel um how to keep your

03:44hands dry. Me personally I don't like those gels and there is not much you can do so I'm I'm just

03:50trying to keep the towel close to me so I can make sure that the towel observe it and I can play a point

03:56and then I can do it again so that's what I do. We have a question for you check this out.

04:08Marina help us out how do we what do we do wrong? Yeah how do I get better at tweener?

04:16Everybody wants to learn how to do the tweener help us out and look cool while doing it.

04:20Completely a wrong person to ask that question because I'm struggling with that as well but I think

04:27like on that video what I saw like you have to try to keep the ball like wait a bit longer just so the

04:33ball gets a bit lower and that's how you can like grab it with the bottom of your racket and make

04:39the ball go higher up I think she hit it like quite high so I think she needs to wait a little bit

04:45longer before she hits the ball. I love to the tweener I think it's so fun and every time I see the

04:50opportunity I'm like oh I'm going for it I'm trying so hard but like so far I was able to hit the ball

04:58over the net but I wasn't able to win the point but I'm going to keep trying till I win the point

05:03and it's going to be the biggest achievement in my career probably. How much time in a given week

05:10do you dedicate to tennis versus fitness? Well I'd say my everyday schedule and it's it's all depends

05:18usually I have one day off which is Sunday but most of the days is two tennis sessions two hours and then

05:25hour and a half or two hours another one and then I do two fitness in between which is like takes an

05:30hour if it's conditioning can be like 30 minutes and it's always like micro dosing so like before

05:36the tennis in the warm-up we sneak in like some exercises then after obviously it's a fitness then

05:41there is the warm-up before the second hit and we also sneak in some exercises and then after the second

05:48hit we also kind of like adding some stuff and it's like the whole day work. My question is

05:55I'm curious how you're able to read your opponents so well and anticipate their next move? That's a

06:00good question because I have no clue. No I think it's all experience it's all experience and I'm watching

06:07my opponent before the game so I kind of like know what they like to do in the game and then I kind of

06:13like can predict their movement especially when you play against the same opponent so many times so you

06:18kind of like know their game you know what they're going for it's all experience

06:25Currently I'm playing in college and planning on becoming a pro after graduation I've been following

06:31your tennis journey since the start how are you handling the nerves during important matches because

06:35that's something a lot of players including me are struggling with thank you for your time and

06:40hopefully I'll see you on tour after graduation. About the nerves I think what actually helped me

06:46when I was younger and I was just starting is understanding that everyone is nervous and this

06:52is part of the process and do not focus on that and do not try to fix it or try to avoid it you're

06:58going to be nervous you're going to be stressed and you just have to know that you're not the only one

07:03out there and everyone in the same conditions I really hope to see you after your graduation I play

07:09tennis for the University of Georgia I'm currently a senior and graduating in May and after that I

07:15want to go pro so my question for you would be if you could go back in time to a period where you

07:22just started playing your first pro tournaments what would you say to your younger self when you were

07:27just starting honestly I think I wouldn't change anything in my mentality because I was so disciplined

07:35and I sacrificed everything for tennis stay disciplined and make sure you do enough of

07:43fitness so you protect your body from the stress injuries so you like physically you're strong enough

07:51and mentally you honestly you have nothing to lose just like you have to go there and fight and

07:56be like you know like so focused and never give up and you will have opportunities for sure thank

08:02yourself I really hope I was helpful with my answers I'm not sure if I actually was but I really hope

08:09I helped some of you guys it was really fun to film this

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