There are slightly over ten weeks until New Year’s Eve when many people will set resolutions, goals, and intentions for 2025. Why wait? Rather than putting off your goals until January, you could get a head start on your personal development starting now. When the ball drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, you could have several weeks of hard work and progress in the rearview mirror. Starting today offers the opportunity to kick off the new year with a victory lap rather than just future good intentions.
As I have alluded to in recent posts, I started my off-season training block early this year. Ordinarily, I don’t make that psychological shift until around Thanksgiving. As it currently stands, I have four somewhat important tournaments over the next few weeks. I probably should have looked more closely at the calendar before committing, but I refuse to let that derail me.
I am working with a new coach who has already made a couple of transformational changes in my mechanics and technique. However, I also decided to add a second voice to my “team” in the form of Artificial Intelligence. Specifically, I asked ChatGPT for three distinct things to work on that will improve my on-court performance between now and the beginning of the year. As I pressed enter, I told myself that I was going to embrace whatever it recommended, no matter what. I got lucky. Two of the three suggestions were things I am already working on, and the third is a good idea and doable.
The first suggestion from ChatGPT is to perform footwork drills. Specifically, it directed me to dedicate 10-15 minutes daily to my footwork. That’s never a bad idea for tennis as improved footwork enhances court coverage and positioning, which are critical in tennis when both attacking and defending.
My current footwork routine consists of jump rope interval training and a high-intensity “fast feet” drill. For the jump rope, I do 30 intervals of 35 seconds of jumping followed by 25 seconds of rest. In addition to conveniently totaling 1 minute, 35 seconds is the length of an average tennis point, and 25 seconds is the maximum time allowed between points. It’s like playing 30 intense points consecutively and a solid 30 minutes of training… on the days I do it. The kicker is that I don’t do it every day. → → I previously wrote about my jump rope training routine in “Jump Rope and the YaoYao App.”
My current “fast feet” routine consists of taking as many rapid, small steps as possible for 10 seconds and then resting for another 10. I do 12 sets of this for a total of 4 minutes. This drill was recommended by Serena in her MasterClass, and it also appears in the book “Training for Speed, Agility, and Quickness” which I recently reviewed on this site. After I was inspired to add this drill by those two recent sources, I experienced an immediate improvement in my small adjustment steps on the court.
I will have to make some adjustments to hit the minimum of 10 minutes per day, as suggested by ChatGPT. On days when I play two or more matches, I typically skip my footwork training. My initial plan is to make a daily commitment to 4 minutes of “fast feet” supplemented by 6 jump rope intervals as part of the warm-up routine. Since I have meaningful tournament match play scheduled for the day this post is published, that will be the first true test of that intention.
So again, why wait until January to start working on your tennis goals for 2025? With just over ten weeks until New Year’s Eve now is the perfect time to jump on your personal development. Starting immediately allows you to make consistent strides in your game, whether focusing on footwork, fitness, or technique. Use these weeks to sharpen your skills, gain confidence, and build momentum. When New Year’s Eve rolls around, you’ll celebrate your progress while others are just starting to set their intentions for the season ahead.
