Patterns Are More Powerful Than You Think — SS #30

If you’ve been playing tennis for a while, you will have heard the term “patterns of play.”

Surprisingly, the first time someone truly explained what this meant to me was when I was about 17. I had been training at a center, and a coach, after observing me hit down the middle for hours with my sister, asked me, “How do you start your points?”

I was floored by the question. “What do you mean how?” I stammered.

“What are you trying to do when you play?” he pressed.

“Umm….”

I just serve, and depending on where the ball goes, I react to it.

That’s what went through my head, anyway.

Seeing that I was stumped, he grabbed some paper and a pen from the pro shop and sketched out patterns on a diagram of a tennis court.

“I can see that you have a good kick serve… so let’s start with that. It’s important to build these patterns around your strengths.”

In the space of about 15 minutes, the coach gave me two serve patterns to try out on the deuce and ad sides. They were simple, but upon reflection, the most mind-boggling thing for me was that I had never thought about playing tennis this way—with an intense focus on where I should be placing the ball.

The Results: Patterns Create Purpose

Trialing these patterns wasn’t an instant game-changer—but it was powerful. When I managed to focus on them, I had a clear plan for what I wanted to execute during each point. My focus shifted away from unhelpful thoughts like “What will it mean if I lose?” or “I can’t mess this up” and zeroed in on execution: Where do I want to put the ball? How well am I following my patterns?

By the way, if you want a simple sheet that allows you to make your own patterns and lists the benefits of using them from a sports psychology perspective, you can find that here.

You’re welcome 😉.

But my suggestion is to first finish reading this because I lay out in more detail why using patterns is so beneficial to your performance.

Examples of Patterns on Serve

These are the patterns he created for my service games. For the sake of this newsletter, I’ll just recreate the ones he illustrated for the deuce side. Notice how 80% of the time, I’m using one pattern, and 20% of the time I’m using another.

“Won’t it become obvious what I’m doing if I go 80% to the same spot?”

Here’s an additional piece of advice that he gave me:

“When you start playing at a higher level… it’s not as if your opponent won’t know what you’re trying to do to them or the pattern you’re using. It’s that the quality of your execution is so high that it becomes difficult to combat it.”

Notice, also, that they are not extravagant by any means or fancy… which is another misconception that is floating around.

These patterns became my go-to strategy in my freshman year of college, yielding consistent success.

Anecdotes

Personal

I have struggled with performance anxiety. I have mentioned this before. But here I’m recalling a set I played against a French friend of mine who has a 0 rating—which, I believe, is about a UTR 11.

Before the start, I remember being extremely specific with what I was hoping to do during each point. My plan was simple; I would stick to these patterns

• On first serves, I would serve and volley.

• If I got into the rally, I would try to hurt him with my forehand.

• And I would use every opportunity possible to try and make my way into the net.

• First serve returns? The goal was to neutralize and return right through the middle.

• Second serve returns? Either chip and charge or stand back and wail the first ball right through the middle of the court.

And what do you know? I played pretty well that day. I remember being so focused in on what I wanted to achieve before the point and during it, that there was little room for me to start ruminating on what it meant to win or lose or feel anxious when I was trying to close out the set. Not that there wasn’t some anxiety there. I was able to manage this through breathing and some self-talk strategies.

But reflecting on that performance, I believe I played well because of how specific I was before the start of the set about what it was that I wanted to achieve.

Collegiate Coaching

When I was an NCAA assistant coach, I had a few players who played and competed well.

Only recently have I learned how impactful what I was instructing them was. By the way, I don’t mean this in the, “look at how great I am at coaching way.” I had no idea what I was doing back then and the why behind why encouraging my players to focus in on their specific tactics was so powerful.

Let me tell you about the story of Roger (name has been changed, obviously); he was having a great year. We were playing a ranked opponent, and Roger played #1 singles for the team. During the match, while I sat on the sideline, I kept reminding him to stick to the simple tactic of hitting high-heavy-balls through the middle during the rally until it pushed his opponent beyond the baseline and then when he got the chance to step inside the court and attack with his forehand. Roger had a big forehand. (And if you didn’t know, coaching is allowed in NCAA tennis.)

Simple tennis. That’s all he played. And having that simple, specific focus during points, helped him to perform at his best when the score got closer and when he inched nearer to the finishing line.

Process Goals & Automaticity

So here’s where it gets crazy—well, at least to a tennis-playing, coaching, and sports psychology nerd like me.

If you recall, we’ve been talking process goals for the last few weeks. Well, I want you to think here, what are patterns of play but process goals? Before the start of the point, you are essentially focusing in on what you want to execute during the point. Pre-planned patterns of play, then, can be viewed as process goals.

With patterns, you are creating an external focus (more on this later), and you’re setting in place specific ideas for ideally what you’d like to achieve during the point. Now there’s an important distinction here, you can set process goals that are kind of harmful to your performance in the sense that if you’re too nitpicky and technique-oriented then that can lead to conscious processing and a breakdown of automaticity (this is called the Process Goal Paradox in the sports psychology literature).

Example: you focus excessively on creating a ton of external rotation (racket drop) on your serve. Thinking this way during a match or performance can actually play havoc with how you serve.

But patterns of play in tennis are, at their core, process goals. They represent specific objectives you aim to achieve within a point—like targeting your opponent’s backhand on a second serve return or always attacking your opponent’s backhand every time you approach the net. These goals provide clear and actionable direction, steering you away from vague ideas like, “I want to win,” or “Be aggressive.”

Now here’s the cool part, research by Mullen et al. (2015) and Mullen et al. (2016) demonstrates the power of holistic process goals in supporting performance under pressure in two specific ways:

External focus: By setting a clear intention for the point (e.g., “serve wide, attack the open court”), your attention shifts outward, reducing the likelihood of internal focus on technical details or emotions and thoughts. Having an external focus has been shown to help athletes to avoid overthinking, internal rumination, and operate under a more automatic state.

Resilience under stress: As Mullen et al. (2016) found, having a clear, holistic focus helps athletes also perform better under anxiety. Patterns of play simplify decision-making and provide you a roadmap, enabling you to execute fluidly rather than second-guessing your choices mid-point.

Put another way, focusing on patterns of play can help you to avoid anxiety and perform better and more automatically under pressure-filled situations. I hope you understand how powerful all of this is!

This connection between patterns of play and process goals means you can approach point play with some certainty. Instead of serving the ball in or just getting the return in and then reacting and wondering what happens when nothing goes to plan, you should have a specific set of patterns that you try to follow. In fact, you should lean on these patterns when it really counts or when the score becomes tight and close. And your patterns, when practiced enough, become automatic—freeing up cognitive resources to stay present and adapt to the ball.

Apply It To Your Game

I know we’ve covered a lot of information, so let me restructure it in a way that will allow you to apply this to your own game.

1. Design your patterns: Start with your strengths. Create two serve patterns for each side and decide where you’ll place your third shot. Be realistic—it won’t go perfectly every time, but patterns give you a framework.
   
   Reminder: you can use this PDF I’ve created for you.
   

2. Simplify your returns: On first-serve returns, aim deep and down the middle to neutralize. On second serves, decide whether to attack—I like to chip and charge, but you have to decide whether this fits in with your game style and skillsets. You can also aim to move inside the court and hurt your opponent. Make sure you target a large area of the court, though.
   

3. Set rally patterns: Ok, if you’re in the small percentage of points that go beyond 4 shots, what are you going to do? I advise my players to keep it simple. Go crosscourt and target right in the middle of the opposite quadrants. Wait for your opponent to miss. If they hit it short, approach the net. Read that again. Approach—not try to blast a winner. Get the ESPN highlight shots out of your head. Keep it simple, and play percentage, aggressive tennis.
   

4. At least 15 matches: here is the most important part. Try these out first in a practice set. And then try them out for at least 15 matches. Seriously. At least 15 matches. Can you commit to trialing them for that long? As having them as your focus? I promise—not immediately, of course—but by your 8th or 9th match you will start to see a beneficial impact of using these patterns of play as process goals.

Let’s Build Your Patterns Together

Improvement in tennis doesn’t just happen because you spend more time on the courts. Patterns of play give you a clear path forward, helping you stay focused on what truly matters during points and freeing you from the stress of overthinking or reacting.

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you feel inspired to try building and using your own patterns. Whether it’s your serve, return, or rally strategy, having a plan can transform how you perform under pressure. And if you want my input or are unsure how to start, I’m here to help.

Let’s create patterns that suit your strengths and lift your performance.

References

Mullen, R., Faull, A., Jones, E. S., & Kingston, K. (2015). Evidence for the effectiveness of holistic process goals for learning and performance under pressure. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 17, 40–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2014.11.003 

Mullen, R., Jones, E. S., Oliver, S., & Hardy, L. (2016). Anxiety and motor performance: More evidence for the effectiveness of holistic process goals as a solution to the process goal paradox. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 27, 142–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.08.009

Disclaimer: I am not an AASP CMPC, certified sports psychology practitioner, nor am I a licensed mental health counselor or PsyD. My aim is to bring the best information to tennis players around the world so that you can apply it for long-term improvement—but sometimes I will make mistakes. If this is your area of research or expertise, and you feel I’ve misunderstood something, please get in touch with me and if required I will happily issue a correction.