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.
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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