[wilson37]

I started out my highschool tennis season pretty well, winning my first two challenge matches. But then i lost to a person who i should have quickly beat 6-0. This just made my moral drop quickly, and now my tennis game is going down the drain. My losses are slowing adding up and my rank is decreasing, I am finding myself in a hole. It's strange because my ability in tennis is pretty good, but my mental strength is way too low. How can i fix this?

[dunlopkickserve]

Originally Posted by wilson37

I started out my highschool tennis season pretty well, winning my first two challenge matches. But then i lost to a person who i should have quickly beat 6-0. This just made my moral drop quickly, and now my tennis game is going down the drain. My losses are slowing adding up and my rank is decreasing, I am finding myself in a hole. It's strange because my ability in tennis is pretty good, but my mental strength is way too low. How can i fix this?

1) Go get a basket and serve. A lot. Until your arm hurts. This is the easiest way to reduce your mistakes and get free points. (Well maybe you shouldn't do it until your arm hurts).

2) Slow down between points. Take your time to catch your breath and calm yourself.

3) Create plays. I have a few set plays that I like ex: kick serve deep out wide come to net and volley cross court. Have a general idea of what you are going to do before each point (you shouldn't use the same strategy more than twice a game). This will give you confidence as routines tend to calm and focus people.

4) Play with people who are better than you the day before a big match. Pick someone who can beat you 6-2 6-4 or something. This will keep you sharp and the person you play the next day won't seem so good. (My college club team does this all the time. We played Yale who is a bit better than us and lost 12-2. The next day we played Fairfield U who is on the same level as us and we won 13-1).

5) Sort out your personal life. People have a tendency to play worse when they have unresolved issues nagging them in the back of their head.

[wilson37]

Your advice helped, but what I did was finally recognize my mistakes, fix them, and just relax a little and not take losses as seriously. It worked, I haven't won yet, but I am on a slow steady road to recovery.

My biggest problem was i was giving my opponent too easy of shots, I never left "practice rally mode" and it ruined my game. Also, I really need to fix my topsin groundstrokes, they need to go higher, deeper, and they need to be more consistent. Any advice?