Why Your Game Isn’t Improving (Even Though You’re Playing More)

If a player came up to me and asked, “What can I do to improve?” my answer would start with one word: plan.

Not all court time is created equal. The density and quality of those hours vary drastically depending on what you’re working on and why. Having a plan means thinking about three things:

1. Quantity—how many hours you can spend each week or month

2. Composition—what on-court exercises you’ll do

3. Focus—what skill or part of your game you’re working on and why

   
   

Are you just trying to improve shot quality? Or are you targeting specific components of your game that need development? And more importantly, how do those skills fit into your overall strategy? What makes you a threat on the court? What strengths define your game—and what weaknesses hold you back?

The truth is, the average player doesn’t get the most out of their five or ten hours on court each week. Here’s the reality: when someone tells me, “I play ten hours a week,” I dig deeper. Often that “ten hours” looks more like this: a two-hour hit with 20–30 minutes of warmup, 30 minutes of chatting, and maybe an hour or so of match play. Matches, while fun, are usually a poor use of training time. The hitting density is low, especially in doubles, where you might go entire points without touching the ball. After 90 minutes of play, you may have hit around a 100 balls total—and half of them could be mistakes made early in the rally.

That’s not the same as ten hours of focused, intentional training.

If your backhand is the thing that needs improvement, compare that to a regimented cross-court hitting drill. Not only could you hit thousands of balls in a shorter timespan, but being able to get into the right headspace during that hitting session and focus on exactly what you need to do to make your backhand better: that’s where the real improvement lies. The pressure of matches often forces players to make compromises in their game in order to win and feel good about their game instead of working to make it better.

Ideally, coaches should do more than run drills for an hour a week. They should give players the structure and educational tools to make the rest of their week more precise and targeted. After all, a coach might only account for 10–20% of your weekly court time. Most players don’t have every session guided by an expert, so self-discovery is a huge part of the process. Players need a foundation—a starting structure that helps them identify what type of player they want to be and what skills they should pursue.

This is before we even consider the off-court side—fitness, mobility, strength, and recovery. Those areas are just as important. You don’t want your serve limited not only by technique but also by strength, flexibility, or mobility.

In the end, real improvement isn’t about how much you play—it’s about how intentionally you play. Every session should have a purpose, whether it’s sharpening a specific skill, refining your movement, or reinforcing your strengths. Without structure, practice is just an activity; with a plan, it becomes progress. The players who grow the fastest aren’t necessarily the ones who spend the most hours on court—they’re the ones who know exactly what those hours are for.