A Head Case
Have any of these feelings or thoughts plagued you?
“I am stronger than him, but he’s winning most of these rallies!”
“I hope they don’t hit it to my backhand. I hate my backhand.”
“Man, I should have poached that one! It was my backhand volley though. I can’t poach on my backhand side.”
“I’ll be happy to just to get this serve in the box.”
“She gets to everything and then lobs it! I hate pushers!”
These sayings are common among most recreational players. Feelings and thoughts of frustration, irritation, and overwhelming crippling anxiety (a.k.a choking). Most players in country clubs, public parks, and even most academies lack the tactical wisdom to overcome fears, weaknesses, and combat different playing styles that get under their skin. I was one of those players for my entire tennis career even through some college tennis. A whole new world was opened to me when I learned that I was missing a key component in my game……my brain! No matter how hard I worked on court, or the amount of lessons I took, or the amount of balls I hit or matches I played, my game pretty much remained the same. Does this sound familiar?
I tried to search YouTube for the advice of the “best” tennis teachers and trainers. Sadly, I only found a never ending warehouse of videos about how to hit like Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic or how they physically train for the tour. I was seeing my game advance. The people I was listening to were people who played in college or were competitive as juniors or maybe even played a little bit on tour. I eventually discovered that great players usually do not make great coaches. They play great but they seldom know how to lift your game to the level we are all hoping for. Unfortunately, like you, I was none the wiser. They all sounded so convincing and as a recreational player, I followed them blindly. Not anymore.
What if the solution to your problems on court are to stop taking lessons with “pros who don't know” for awhile, and start playing more matches and watching more tennis?
What if I told you that your greatest obstacles are probably not technical or mental, but tactical? And that tactical patterns can often help replace or fix technical and mental errors!
Why keep paying for lessons that are holding you back from realizing your true potential as a player? Some pros charge $100+ just to feed you balls from the service line (a ball almost none of us ever see in matches).
There are few words for us as players to accurately describe the resentment, frustration, and distrust that come with having someone tell you they have the solutions to your problems when they don’t. Their quick fixes and simple solutions don’t even scratch the surface of your disabilities, anxieties, and/ or fears. They only encourage your ego for the moment (during the lesson) and perpetuate your condition in the long run (during your matches).
I know what it’s like to be on both sides. I remember what it was like as a player to have coaches say they could help me, but I saw minimal improvements. It definitely wasn’t worth the amount I was paying them. In my early years, I was also a typical coach that fed balls to players and used them as hitting partners, only giving instructions when they asked questions. Furthermore, I thought I was a good coach! I was so wrong.
To add to my awareness, I have watched other teaching pros keep players trapped in their same ALTA level or USTA rating because they talk so much during the lesson, the players barely get time to even hit. I once stood on court with a pro that talked for a total of 30 mins during a 90 minute team practice! It was eye opening. The ladies we were coaching had a very annoyed look on their faces, but that’s basically the norm for their practices so they’ve just come to accept it, a sad and unfortunate reality.
You don’t have to be silent and be resigned to the fact that you may never advance or improve and that you can’t change or get better or that you can’t learn something new if you’ve been playing for a long time. There is hope. There are answers. There is satisfaction that can be experienced if we just change our MINDS. Stop being a head case, bound to choke, unable to problem solve in the moment. Be prepared, be proactive, be confident. If you have a plan when you step onto the court, you will become a member of a small group of tennis thinkers not just hitters.
It’s about patterns and tactics and outsmarting your opponent. You can become a better player. You can become an A or AA player. You can break through the wall of being a 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 player. You will be able to beat “better” (because what does that really mean) players because you will have a secret weapon. You will be using tactical weaponry to out fox them. I hope you find the right ones for you. There a many to choose from. This is going to be an exciting journey. It’s a lot to learn, but I believe in you. Never stop learning!
