Watch this Youtube video (listen to Novak at 50:22 min, watch for 3 min.)
I love this Jay Shetty interview with Novak Djokovic. Novak touches on many deeper topics, but I wanted to highlight the best nuggets from this interview. I love it when Novak discusses preparation and habits. My favorite quote: "80% to 90% of the success you have is the result of work before you stepped on the court....it's about the homework....Preparation is a big big thing!" Definitely watch just 3 min of this interview.
In celebration of Novak's wise words regarding the importance of preparation, I wanted to share a tactical tournament checklist that I think could be useful to my students (tournament checklist here). For "early stage" tennis students/parents, it may seem a bit intimidating when you first look at it. But for "later stage" tennis students/parents, you might think this checklist is already familiar to you. My checklist focuses mainly on equipment/tools, but as you progress in your tennis journey, you may become interested in a mental checklist as well.
When I reflect back to my own childhood experiences when a checklist might have been useful, I am reminded of my first ski trip with my own parents. It was absolutely AWFUL! As a middle-class Chinese American family, we had absolutely no idea what we were doing (skis, boots, clothes, hat, gloves, order of operations, we were a hot mess!). Just getting to the first chairlift was exhausting. Now, I look back at this terrible experience fondly. My parents, sister and I went from amateurish to near pro skiers in just 2-3 years (my parents demonstrated a "growth mindset" before I knew what that even was).
Now as an adult, I realize that my own family's own stamina for doing these pre-tourney tasks has improved as we have practiced these tasks together over time. Like most things, the more we practiced, the easier it became. For players, if you are having a hard time with it in the beginning, start with just mastering 5-6 items on the checklist. When you have your 5-6 core checklist items mastered, you can decide to expand your checklist items.
For students, I think of creating a checklist as an important life skill; as adults, we use checklists all the time and well beyond our tennis lives (before family travel, before starting the day, before preparing a great meal, before planning a wedding). One of the reasons I was inspired to write about the tennis checklist because of my work with a ex-Google friend, Dennis, who is preparing for upcoming job interviews. As we worked together on my friend's job interview prep, we noticed that there were certain recurring issues that were impediments to success (poor Zoom audio/video, dim room lighting, distracting visual background). A robust checklist helped us reduce the potential interview blunders but perhaps more importantly, helped Dennis become more confident before actual real job interviews.
Start practicing using Coach Jason's checklist. Make 10 printed copies and put them somewhere prominent in the house (your tennis bag, your refrigerator, your entryway, your phone) so it's always easy to see and review. (personally, I prefer a printed version vs. a iPhone checklist because I believe it's better for students to physically tick off the checkboxes using a pencil and deepen their learning of the process)