Perfecting My Backhand Is a Lot Like My Business Strategy

In this series, professionals describe the skills they’re building this year. Read the stories here, then write your own (use #SkillsGap in the body of your post).

My advice in these LinkedIn columns tends to focus, understandably, on my business career. However, as I have often said, I see work as just one part of life and it is certainly not more important than play. They are two sides of the same coin. With that in mind, I wanted to focus in on one of my favourite ways to play — picking up a tennis racquet. Hopefully, the methods I have learned to try to improve my tennis could apply to your business career too.

I have always been an avid tennis player, and grew up dreaming of playing on Centre Court at Wimbledon. I didn’t quite have the talent to make it as a pro, but have been a keen amateur all through my life. I love the intensity, the artistry and the excitement of a great tennis match – and it’s a wonderful way to keep fit and relax too. If you ever want to track me down on Necker Island, if I’m not on a kiteboard I’ll be on a tennis court.

Image by Take Aim Photography

The mental side of tennis has always appealed to me enormously. While you do have an opponent on the other side of the net, the most challenging adversary is yourself. You have to get into the right frame of mind in order to perform your best, and need to be able to put setbacks behind you instantly. A key lesson that applies far beyond tennis is to treat each point separately. Forget the last mistake and move onto the next challenge. Tennis moves so quickly that if you dwell on the past for even a few minutes, an opportunity will have passed and the match will be lost.

I didn’t play tennis between September and December due to an elbow injury, but made it back just in time for the Necker Cup, which was tremendous fun. My highlight was playing with Boris Becker, who was coming back from a long-term injury himself. I try to pick up tips from the pros, keeping my eyes and ears open and writing down any learnings I find. If you don’t write down what you learn, you’ll forget it before it sinks in for good. Andre Agassi once gave me the simple tip of making sure my feet are always moving so I get into the right position to hit the ball. "Watch the ball and move your feet," were his exact words. I often rerun his advice through my mind while I’m on court.

Image by Manuela Davies / manuela.com

Advice from experts is vital if you want to improve a specific skill. We are fortunate enough to have a tennis coach on Necker, who I practice with each morning and evening (he also coaches our guests, many of whom are keen players too). I’ve been lucky to have some great coaches over the years, from Arthur to Mike to our current coach Josh. They all have different strengths and get me working in different ways — I try to soak up the varied expertise of each of them. I ask lots of questions, and am not afraid to look foolish by asking seemingly obvious questions — sometimes they get the most useful answers.

Now I’m playing again, I’ll be back working hard to improve my backhand. I’ll be practicing with Josh, breaking down the specifics of the stroke and repeating numerous exercises to both strengthen my wrist and my technique. It has always been the weaker side of my game, so I’ll be carrying out drills designed to push me into positions where I need to use it repeatedly.

I have four specific areas to focus upon to improve my backhand: 

1. Recovery – returning naturally to my neutral grip between shots, in order to prepare properly to hit either a drive or slice backhand.
2. Early preparation – reacting to your opponent’s shot and getting into position as quickly as possible.
3. Confidence – having the courage to drive backhands and go for winners, forcing errors from my opponent.
4. Practice – Repetition to build muscle memory and improve the consistency of my backhand.

Image by Take Aim Photography

A lot of this will be down to sheer repetition, and making incremental improvements as time passes. It isn’t just about sheer time spent hitting balls; it is also about the quality of the training. The renowned sports coach Vince Lombardi said: “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” While I’ll always be a long way from perfect, the more I practice, the closer I will get.