Tennis in Winter

If you play an outdoor sport like tennis, winter can be the time when you take a break.

Or, it can be the perfect time to work on your game.

For me, the cold weather provides all sorts of challenges: 

1. Extra clothing like a jacket makes it more difficult to make good contact. 
2. With cold hands, it's harder to get the timing right, so delicate finesse shots become more difficult.
3. Good footwork and technique become even more important, because I'm less able to bail myself out with quick hands.
4. With fewer shots in my arsenal, I learn to be more conservative in my shot selection.  I learn to play within my limits and choose my moments to take risk.
5. When the wind picks up as it often does, my adaptability and patience are tested. 

Opportunities to train in adverse conditions are not limited to the tennis court.

Think about all the times when something goes wrong, or the conditions are suboptimal but you need to perform:

• The Wifi goes down and you have to present without your camera from your phone's hotspot.
• Your child is sick and can't go to daycare, so suddenly you're juggling parenting duties with your spouse on a day you expected to do a lot of focused work.
• The neighbors are doing construction, and it's making a racket while you try to concentrate.
• You were up all night with food poisoning, but today is the big working session with your client that's been scheduled for months.

When conditions get tough (either unexpectedly or seasonally) you can use it as an excuse to perform poorly or reschedule.  Or, you can use it as an opportunity to strengthen your game, so you're even more effective and nimble when the conditions are rosy again.