Will Practice Really Make Perfect?

From the perspective of a career sports coach, the old adage doesn't quite ring true.

If you are playing a song on the piano in a well-lit room with no distractions (closed environment) and you are somewhat talented, the answer may well be yes. However, if we put that very same piano in the lounge of the Titanic, and play the same song as the ship is being buffeted by waves and listing 30 degrees to starboard (open environment) the answer might be no!

You see, playing a diligently practiced song on a piano is a CLOSED SKILL and when executed in a closed environment by a moderately talented human one would expect perfection and fairly so.

If we apply the same concept to sports, tennis in particular, the thing you need to understand is that tennis strokes are CLOSED SKILLS that are never ever executed in a closed environment.

Let's just imagine you are practicing your most basic flat crosscourt forehand on the ball machine. Something as innocuous as a gentle puff of wind changes the entire mental equation and therefore the foot position, the body angle and the swing path itself.

That is the demand of an OPEN ENVIRONMENT on what is theoretically a closed skill (your basic flat forehand).

As long as you live, you will never have a ball come toward you the same way twice and therefore you'll never actually swing the same way twice.

If you have absolutely amazing footwork and can adjust to all of the variables an incoming tennis ball may present you, you will be able to use your diligently practiced stroke to great effect but never perfectly.

Try as you may, practice hours on end if you feel the need, your thought of perfecting your strokes is going to be dashed by the fact that playing tennis is always done in a WIDE OPEN ENVIRONMENT and inasmuch - practice can't ever make perfect.

Howie Burnett is a USPTA Elite Level Professional with over 50 years of coaching experience. Before accepting the Tennis Director position at the Island Country Club in 1998, he operated the Net Advantage Tennis Club management company and concurrently served for 10 years as Head Coach of the USTA Training Center for Elite level Juniors in Central Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Howie was inducted into the United States Professional Tennis Association New England Hall of Fame in 2016. He is currently teaching part-time on the Tennis Staff at the Marco Island YMCA. His Book --NET NOTES (common sense ideas to lift your game) is available on amazon.com. You may contact him with tennis questions or lesson inquiries at marcoY10s@icloud.com or hb10s@me.com.