Most matches at the junior level aren’t lost on the big points. They’re lost in the ten seconds after a missed forehand — when a kid is still arguing with the last shot instead of getting ready for the next one. I’ve watched it for thirty years on courts all over Sarasota, and I see the same thing in nearly every player who comes to me frustrated with their results.
When parents ask me what separates the juniors who keep climbing from the ones who stall out, my honest answer surprises them. It’s rarely the forehand. More often it’s what Michael Boothman has spent the last decade drilling into every player at SRQ Tennis: a repeatable Between-Point Routine. The strokes get the attention, but the twenty-some seconds between points are where matches are actually decided.
Why the space between points matters
A tennis point lasts a few seconds. The time between points — roughly 20 to 25 seconds under the rules — adds up to the majority of any match. A player in a tight three-setter might spend more than an hour of clock time not hitting a ball at all. That hour is either working for you or against you.
This is the heart of the sixth of our Six Pillars at SRQ Tennis: Channel the Fire. Competitive frustration isn’t a flaw to coach out of a kid. It’s fuel. The players who care enough to get angry about a missed put-away are the same ones who care enough to grind out a long match. The goal isn’t to make them calm robots. It’s to give them a structure that turns that fire into focus instead of letting it leak out as a string of unforced errors.
The research backs this up. Sports psychologist Jim Loehr studied thousands of points and found that consistent between-point rituals were one of the clearest behavioral differences between top competitors and everyone else. Players who followed a routine recovered their heart rate faster and made better decisions on the very next point. You can read more about the mental side of competition through the USTA’s player development resources, which echo a lot of what we teach on court here.
The four-phase routine I teach
I keep the Between-Point Routine simple enough that a ten-year-old can run it under pressure. Four phases, in order, every single point. No exceptions, win or lose.
Phase 1 — Response (2-3 seconds). The point ends. The player is allowed to feel something. A quick fist pump after a winner or a short, sharp exhale after an error is fine and healthy. What we don’t allow is the response leaking past three seconds. The racket stays in the hand. No throwing, no muttering at Mom in the stands.
Phase 2 — Turn and walk (5-8 seconds). The player physically turns away from the net and walks toward the back fence or the side fence, eyes on the strings of the racket. This is the part juniors skip and the part that does the most work. Turning your back on the spot where the error happened tells your nervous system the point is over. We literally rehearse the walk in practice until it’s automatic.
Phase 3 — Prepare (5-8 seconds). Facing the fence, the player decides one thing about the next point — where the serve is going, or a single target for the return. One decision, not five. I tell my players: pick the shot, see the target, then let it go.
Phase 4 — Commit (3-5 seconds). The player turns back to the line, takes a breath, and steps in ready to play. The decision is made. Now it’s just execution.
The whole sequence fits comfortably inside the allowed time, and after a few weeks it runs on its own.
How we build it — with evidence, not lectures
Here’s where Channel the Fire connects to another of our pillars, Confidence Is Built, Not Given. I don’t just tell a kid the routine works and hope they believe me. We track it.
In a live practice set, I’ll chart two numbers: how many points the player ran the full four-phase routine, and how many points right after an error they won. Almost every time, the win rate on the point after an error climbs once the routine is consistent. When a junior sees on paper that they went from winning 2 of 10 post-error points to winning 6 of 10, that’s not me cheerleading. That’s their own evidence, and it sticks.
We also build it inside live ball, never with a lecture and a clipboard alone. Live Ball Is the Method — the third reason the routine holds up under pressure is that we rehearse it during real rallies and real competition, not in some artificial calm. A routine that only works when you’re relaxed isn’t a routine. It’s a wish.
What parents can do this week
You don’t need to be a coach to reinforce this at home or at the local courts. Three things help:
First, stop coaching strokes between points from the sideline. A kid trying to fix their grip mid-match while also managing frustration has no chance. Let them run their routine.
Second, ask one question after matches: “Did you run your routine after the tough points?” Not “did you win” — did you run the routine. You’re rewarding the process you can actually control.
Third, model it yourself in your own weekend tennis or pickleball. Kids copy what they see far more than what they’re told.
I’ve watched quiet, frustrated juniors here in Sarasota turn into players who genuinely enjoy competing once they stop fearing their own emotions and start using them. That shift almost never comes from a new racket or a flashier forehand. It comes from owning the twenty seconds nobody else is paying attention to.
If you want to see how the Between-Point Routine fits into the rest of our development system, take a look at how we coach at SRQ Tennis. And if your junior is stuck spinning out after every error, that’s not a character problem. It’s a skill they haven’t been taught yet — and like every skill, it’s coachable.
Channel the fire. Don’t smother it.
— Michael Boothman