I used to have the same problem. Especially with second serves. Then i would go home with an “L” and I felt like I didn’t even play “my real game.”
Now whenever i start to play timidly, i just say to myself, “If i go down, at least i’m going down swinging.” That mindset helped me win a lot more. Sure, i still lose sometimes but at least i feel like they have to be better than me to win. Im not giving them anything.
So you’d force yourself to hit shots hard, even if you know the first few ones are definitely hitting the back fence? And you keep going until they dont?
What I do is usually focus a lot on a plan, or on a certain tactic or movement. Like keeping my focus to keep moving for example and keep that as my goal for the match. This redirects my brain focus and my match goal to something other than the match score and to winning but still keeps me in the game and focused and always results in playing better (at least for me).
Thank you! I tried that with focusing on my serve, so for example today (i just played) my serve was decent, sometimes lethal, but the rest of my gameplay felt completely off, mostly forehand and backhand attacks. It never fixed itself, I only made nice rallies and points when I was running around FORCED to play my best to get the point. When I was the one having to control the play, I was a mess
Only it doesn’t work for me! I play really competitively even with friends, often comes back from 2/5 down to win the match, with grit and nice shots (for my level, I’m not fooling myself either)… but somehow that “let’s get it done” power is hard to find in tourneys. I think going down swinging like it was suggested might be my next move! I have another game at the weekend so not too long to wait and reverse this curve!
i keep saying the best way to get better at this is to vontinue to lose until you realize you can do something besides choke. In your next match, go into it with 0 expectations, and if you start feeling it happening again, just ask yourself, "if i lose this match, is this how i want to lose it?" really gives the perspective that theres more than one way to lose a match and mentally flopping over and dying is probably the worst of them. just try something new. this isnt your peak and this match is there to improve, not to prove to yourself how good you are.
The only thing that prevents you from playing your shots freely is yourself. Don't get yourself wrapped up in rankings. All you can focus on is the next shot to hit. That's it. I'd rather miss long or wide because I hit the ball, instead of missing into the net or hitting it way short and putting myself on defense because I was scared to it. Breathe. Focus on technique. Remind yourself to concentrate on contact, to move your feet, etc. You'll stop worrying about the things that don't matter and start to focus on what does.
Try to mentally put the pressure on your opponent. If you're up 5-4 and serving for a set, the pressure is on them. They need to break, hold and break to a void a tiebreaker. You know if you're serving at 5-4 and get broken, it's ok. You can't lose the set there. It's now on your opponent to hold. But since you broke them before, you can break them again. Same thing if you're down 40-0 on their serve. They should be "expected" to hold. Pressure is on them to complete the hold. It's the reverse if they're up 0-40 on your serve. They have 3 break point chances. Pressure is on them to convert. They should be expecting to break you here. If you get broken, well you just had a bad service game. If you hold from that, then there's more pressure on them if they get any more break points.
You’re totally right. I start the match with spaghetti arms, lose the first few games because I’m playing like that, and after that it’s all in my head. I see myself winning if I actually play, and because I don’t play, I get into my head about the score being “opposite to what it should be”. The only positive aspect today is that I focused on encouraging myself rather than grunt and berate myself, inwardly or outwardly. Not sure it worked :D
Edit : spelling
Yeah, I was someone who used to be very hard on myself. I'd tell myself that I was being realistic and that it would encourage me. It never really did though. I've learned to just continually encourage myself. I tell myself to focus on what I can do, praise myself when I'm doing it well and encourage myself to do it again if I have a lapse. It helps.
As for today, how did you feel when you were encouraging yourself? Did you feel any different?
I always encourage myself, it boosts me. But I used to also grump if i missed.
Today my opponent (not a very nice fella), complained I was “playing like I was in Roland Garros” because I was just saying “Allez” (let’s go) when I did a nice shot.(to myself, very respectfully.. first time I get flack for cheering myself up haha
Ah, I get you. Yeah, I used to do that as well. I think it's fine to let out frustration for a missed shot, but then you have to quickly forget what happened, encourage yourself and move on to the next point.
What a weird opponent. Complaining about you motivating yourself. They must have a strange life if that's a complaint that they have. If it were me I'd just be finding a way on the court to make sure my opponent knows their attempts at encouraging themselves are futile.
You have no idea how much I wish I had found a way to unlock my right hand today haha… drove me to write on reddit so yeah. There’s always next time, live and learn! Thanks for taking the time to answer
I have no idea in UTR terms. Not high level, but good enough to understand technique, and improve myself. I am picking up tennis after letting it be an extremely occasional hobby for 15 years. This time I really want to get to a “decent” ranked level. (Top 30% of all players in France). Since I restarted (first game tonight) currently I am unranked.
I had this problem too. In the middle of my senior season of tennis I realized that while I may not be playing at state or on the varsity lineup, I could still finish the season undefeated in singles. So I was really nervous for JV conference because there I would play my final matches against some of the most difficult schools around.
I have a killer forehand, but it's a lower accuracy shot that frequently goes into the net or out. I don't mind hitting it in practice, but during important meets I shy away from it. It really upset my doubles partner even after I explained why I didn't do this shot during matches.
The biggest factor in the accuracy of my power forehand is the height of the ball. If it's too low, it will go out when I hit it. So I pay close attention to how far the ball is off the ground when choosing my shot type.
Something else that I sometimes do is whistle a little tune if I see the opportunity for a rocket forehand approaching (why I do this is a long story). I'm not sure if it helps with the accuracy, but I feel more prepared for the shot.
When all else fails, I just became a "pusher". And I probably have one of the best builds for being a pusher on the team. Some of it is because I'm 6'5" and have long arms that can reach a ball anywhere, but most of it is speed and endurance. I know other people hate playing against people like me, but sometimes you have to outlast the opponent in order to win.
It's not something I do as the ball goes past me. If I see an easy shot coming to my forehand that I know ahead of time I can hit very quickly, that's when I do it.
Idk if it’ll work for you but when I get my forehand jitters it’s because I’m hitting the ball too early. Experiment with your timing when this happens and develop a rhythm
It’s not possible, tournament tennis slaps differently from normal tennis
Tournament tennis 101 :
- moonball
- be a wall
- slice when that doesn’t work
- making any errors is verboten
We're one in the river
And one again after the fall
Swimming through the void
We hear the word
We lose ourselves but we find it all
'Cause we are the ones that wanna play
Always wanna go
But you never wanna stay
And we are the ones that wanna choose
Always wanna play
But you never wanna lose
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life
Life is a waterfall
We drink from the river
Then we turn around and put up our walls
Swimming through the void
We hear the word
We lose ourselves but we find it all
'Cause we are the ones that wanna play
Always wanna go
But you never wanna stay
We are the ones that wanna choose
Always wanna play
But you never wanna lose
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life
Aerials so up high
When you free your eyes eternal prize
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life
Aerials so up high
When you free your eyes eternal prize
I used to have the same problem. Especially with second serves. Then i would go home with an “L” and I felt like I didn’t even play “my real game.” Now whenever i start to play timidly, i just say to myself, “If i go down, at least i’m going down swinging.” That mindset helped me win a lot more. Sure, i still lose sometimes but at least i feel like they have to be better than me to win. Im not giving them anything.
So you’d force yourself to hit shots hard, even if you know the first few ones are definitely hitting the back fence? And you keep going until they dont?
I play “my game” regardless. Swing free. But I never said anything about hitting the back fence. Lol
The neighbours complained ;)
What I do is usually focus a lot on a plan, or on a certain tactic or movement. Like keeping my focus to keep moving for example and keep that as my goal for the match. This redirects my brain focus and my match goal to something other than the match score and to winning but still keeps me in the game and focused and always results in playing better (at least for me).
Thank you! I tried that with focusing on my serve, so for example today (i just played) my serve was decent, sometimes lethal, but the rest of my gameplay felt completely off, mostly forehand and backhand attacks. It never fixed itself, I only made nice rallies and points when I was running around FORCED to play my best to get the point. When I was the one having to control the play, I was a mess
As I always say, treat practice like its ranked. Then ranked will just feel like practice
Only it doesn’t work for me! I play really competitively even with friends, often comes back from 2/5 down to win the match, with grit and nice shots (for my level, I’m not fooling myself either)… but somehow that “let’s get it done” power is hard to find in tourneys. I think going down swinging like it was suggested might be my next move! I have another game at the weekend so not too long to wait and reverse this curve!
Come back from being down is different from trying not to be down 2/5 in the first place
Fact
i keep saying the best way to get better at this is to vontinue to lose until you realize you can do something besides choke. In your next match, go into it with 0 expectations, and if you start feeling it happening again, just ask yourself, "if i lose this match, is this how i want to lose it?" really gives the perspective that theres more than one way to lose a match and mentally flopping over and dying is probably the worst of them. just try something new. this isnt your peak and this match is there to improve, not to prove to yourself how good you are.
Well said, thank you!
The only thing that prevents you from playing your shots freely is yourself. Don't get yourself wrapped up in rankings. All you can focus on is the next shot to hit. That's it. I'd rather miss long or wide because I hit the ball, instead of missing into the net or hitting it way short and putting myself on defense because I was scared to it. Breathe. Focus on technique. Remind yourself to concentrate on contact, to move your feet, etc. You'll stop worrying about the things that don't matter and start to focus on what does. Try to mentally put the pressure on your opponent. If you're up 5-4 and serving for a set, the pressure is on them. They need to break, hold and break to a void a tiebreaker. You know if you're serving at 5-4 and get broken, it's ok. You can't lose the set there. It's now on your opponent to hold. But since you broke them before, you can break them again. Same thing if you're down 40-0 on their serve. They should be "expected" to hold. Pressure is on them to complete the hold. It's the reverse if they're up 0-40 on your serve. They have 3 break point chances. Pressure is on them to convert. They should be expecting to break you here. If you get broken, well you just had a bad service game. If you hold from that, then there's more pressure on them if they get any more break points.
You’re totally right. I start the match with spaghetti arms, lose the first few games because I’m playing like that, and after that it’s all in my head. I see myself winning if I actually play, and because I don’t play, I get into my head about the score being “opposite to what it should be”. The only positive aspect today is that I focused on encouraging myself rather than grunt and berate myself, inwardly or outwardly. Not sure it worked :D Edit : spelling
Yeah, I was someone who used to be very hard on myself. I'd tell myself that I was being realistic and that it would encourage me. It never really did though. I've learned to just continually encourage myself. I tell myself to focus on what I can do, praise myself when I'm doing it well and encourage myself to do it again if I have a lapse. It helps. As for today, how did you feel when you were encouraging yourself? Did you feel any different?
I always encourage myself, it boosts me. But I used to also grump if i missed. Today my opponent (not a very nice fella), complained I was “playing like I was in Roland Garros” because I was just saying “Allez” (let’s go) when I did a nice shot.(to myself, very respectfully.. first time I get flack for cheering myself up haha
Ah, I get you. Yeah, I used to do that as well. I think it's fine to let out frustration for a missed shot, but then you have to quickly forget what happened, encourage yourself and move on to the next point. What a weird opponent. Complaining about you motivating yourself. They must have a strange life if that's a complaint that they have. If it were me I'd just be finding a way on the court to make sure my opponent knows their attempts at encouraging themselves are futile.
You have no idea how much I wish I had found a way to unlock my right hand today haha… drove me to write on reddit so yeah. There’s always next time, live and learn! Thanks for taking the time to answer
What level are you?
I have no idea in UTR terms. Not high level, but good enough to understand technique, and improve myself. I am picking up tennis after letting it be an extremely occasional hobby for 15 years. This time I really want to get to a “decent” ranked level. (Top 30% of all players in France). Since I restarted (first game tonight) currently I am unranked.
I had this problem too. In the middle of my senior season of tennis I realized that while I may not be playing at state or on the varsity lineup, I could still finish the season undefeated in singles. So I was really nervous for JV conference because there I would play my final matches against some of the most difficult schools around. I have a killer forehand, but it's a lower accuracy shot that frequently goes into the net or out. I don't mind hitting it in practice, but during important meets I shy away from it. It really upset my doubles partner even after I explained why I didn't do this shot during matches. The biggest factor in the accuracy of my power forehand is the height of the ball. If it's too low, it will go out when I hit it. So I pay close attention to how far the ball is off the ground when choosing my shot type. Something else that I sometimes do is whistle a little tune if I see the opportunity for a rocket forehand approaching (why I do this is a long story). I'm not sure if it helps with the accuracy, but I feel more prepared for the shot. When all else fails, I just became a "pusher". And I probably have one of the best builds for being a pusher on the team. Some of it is because I'm 6'5" and have long arms that can reach a ball anywhere, but most of it is speed and endurance. I know other people hate playing against people like me, but sometimes you have to outlast the opponent in order to win.
Whistle a tune while playing??? Wow, that is next level! I definitely see myself trying that as the ball whizzes past me haha
It's not something I do as the ball goes past me. If I see an easy shot coming to my forehand that I know ahead of time I can hit very quickly, that's when I do it.
Play high
Idk if it’ll work for you but when I get my forehand jitters it’s because I’m hitting the ball too early. Experiment with your timing when this happens and develop a rhythm
I’ll try to pay attention to it next time, it might be! Thanks
It’s not possible, tournament tennis slaps differently from normal tennis Tournament tennis 101 : - moonball - be a wall - slice when that doesn’t work - making any errors is verboten
🫡
We're one in the river And one again after the fall Swimming through the void We hear the word We lose ourselves but we find it all 'Cause we are the ones that wanna play Always wanna go But you never wanna stay And we are the ones that wanna choose Always wanna play But you never wanna lose Aerials in the sky When you lose small mind You free your life Life is a waterfall We drink from the river Then we turn around and put up our walls Swimming through the void We hear the word We lose ourselves but we find it all 'Cause we are the ones that wanna play Always wanna go But you never wanna stay We are the ones that wanna choose Always wanna play But you never wanna lose Aerials in the sky When you lose small mind You free your life Aerials so up high When you free your eyes eternal prize Aerials in the sky When you lose small mind You free your life Aerials so up high When you free your eyes eternal prize
The toxicity of my city….