Question: Is it best to attack or play safe?

As a coach, I often get the opportunity to speak to players when they've finished a match and I often ask them about their strategy. I do get some baffled looks, especially from juniors! Sometimes they admit they went on to court without any kind of plan whatsoever, even when the opponent was well known to them and even when an opponent's weaknesses were obvious! They failed to react to what went on during the match and just relied on their strokes to see them through. If they refer to the opponent at all, a few might assert that they "went after his/her backhand", but usually it's nothing more than a derogatory observation like "he's just a pusher and I can't play pushers!" or an exasperated acknowledgment of the defeat like "she was just too good!". If matches were journeys, these players were effectively nothing more than passengers.

Other players make confident assertions like "I just played my own game" or "I decided to go for it" or "I set out to play really consistent". They may have chosen their mode of transport, but these players are just passengers too.

Many players express strategy in very black and white terms. They either "go for it" and attempt to hit winners all the time or they just go out and play safe. The stats presented to viewers of televised matches reinforce this over-simplification by emphasizing the number of winners and the number of unforced errors. That implies that all the top pros adopt a policy of all-out attack, whereby they either hit their targets or they miss them. That's seldom the case. The most significant factor - the number of forced errors - is usually omitted from the stats altogether!

It's seldom appropriate to attempt to hit a winner with every shot and it's seldom appropriate to do nothing except play safe. Far better to strive to play forcing tennis, using your strengths to expose an opponent's weaknesses. Far better to deploy the right tactics to force your opponent into error or create opportunities for you to hit a winning shot.

So how can a steady player who has no weapons play forcing tennis? By varying your shots and moving your opponent around the court to elicit a mistake. By maintaining good depth to frustrate an opponent who might be tempted to take an inappropriate risk. Now, you might say that's the same as just playing safe, but it's not! The mindset is different. You're using tactics to exploit a perceived weakness.

Most players can and should use a variety of strategies and tactics, based on their own style of play, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent and based on the state of the match.

At every changeover in a match, you should ask yourself two simple questions: "what's hurting me?" and "what's hurting my opponent?". If necessary, you should then adjust your tactics to avoid your own pain and increase your opponent's. That's how you play forcing tennis. That's how you get out of the back seat and take the wheel for yourself during a match. That's how you can get on the road to success!

from www.tennisontheline.org