tennis stuffs <techniques,shots etc>

[Karen]

YES!!! I got it right. No, not psychic I also teach tennis for juniors in what spare time I have.

Okay this is all I can remember from my notes. I don't have my mental stuff with me right now.

1) Your opponent is hot early in the match and within 15 minutes you are down 0-4 even though you are playing well your opponent is making every shot so you start to force or press your shots. You get irritated and mad and your level of play drops....instead of acting this way you should not show your emotions to your opponent and act like this hot streak this person is on doesn't concern you because a player will get hot for awhile but eventually their level will drop sometime during the match. But because this person has seen your reactions and drop in play it gives them the chance to stay hot. If you act calm and keep your level of play up they will eventually come back to earth and you don't get blown out 2-6 1-6, you make a match of it and hopefully win.

2) And this one has happened to me.
You are the one that jumps out to a big lead like 5-0 in the 1st set then you kind of make some UE and this person is catching up. So now you start playing not to lose and are not as aggresive as you were and thoughts go though your head hoping for mistakes from your opponent and it doesn't happen and they are closing in on your lead.
Stick with your game plan because it's what got you there and if you stay calm and don't press or over hit you should be able to finish this person off with the strokes/strategy you started with.
Keep those eyes focused on different targets like your strings, ground, where you want to hit the next ball but avoid looking around. And don't forget your breathing a playre constricts their breathing when they get stressed. You already know this but breath in through the nose out through the mouth.
So you've kept you're lead because your cool and relaxed so time to close the match out. Just like the points you've just played keep the focus on each point, stay loose, and stick with your strokes. Even a smile can loosen you up to kep your mental edge. Keep your head down, don't let your eyes wander. When the eyes wander so do your strokes. And if those negative thoughts come around. Forget them and tell yourself....I'm not going away and he's going to have to beat me.

I have better notes on this but they are at my club so i'll get them tomorrow. Hope this helps some until I get them.

[lau]

What do you wanted my help for Karen?

[Karen]

Give some of your tennis advice. ;D

[lau]

karen said:

Give some of your tennis advice. ;D

;D ;D That can be a nightmare with my English level, Karen *lol*
But let me give an advice to Ily, hahaha. ;D

Don´t shoot me Ily I`ll give you a really silly advice....
If you`re having this problems while playing, specially after being broken, then you should talk about it with your coach... You can work on it if you have a good coach..., that`s an important aspect of the coaching job, in my opinion
It´s really complicated giving this kind of advice writting on a message board...
Every athlete is different (I`m talking as sport psychologyst here...*lol*) and this differences are very important in this cases And it depends on how seriously you take your tennis, too. (Of course, I`ll never look for a sports psychologist to improve my tennis ;D ;D ;D That`s not my case, because I`ll allways suck and I don´t intend to make a career out of it... ;D ) There are different tecniques that can help you deal with the pressure and the frustration of the moment. Tennis is a really difficult sport to play.... What happends in a tennis player`s mind is that he`s/she`s all the time, during the whole match, in a "penalty" situation (football.../soccer analogy...). I don´t know if I`m clear enough.... It`s a sport where you can´t relax, take some time, etc, as they are other sports played in matches like football, basquet, rugby, etc, that, BTW, are team sports... That makes tennis even more complicated too... As you know, there are players that have a better performance while playing in teams (DC for example) and that`s the mental advantage of playing in a team.....
But I`m going off topic here, hahahaha.
You should talk to your coach about it, if you have one, Ily

[Karen]

I went to the club, got my notes and found one my coach gave me for my, " Hell With This I'm Getting Off The Court " attitude. That's the actual title he wrote on the note.

You have to be willing to stay on the court in tough situations, it will teach you to be a more consistent competitor.
You lose your concentration and allow your opponent back in the match instead of being able to rebound, fight, and close out the match.
You have a problem with discipline when you see no weakness in your opponent and you can't dominate the match so you begin to use low-percentage shots, exploding on the court, and making a string of errors.
You must keep your game together and stay optimistic when you are behind. You are not willing to hang in there and wait to find that weakness your opponent has.

This is what I want to see:
I want you to control the tempo by slowing down the pace of points. The longer you stay out there the better you chance you have to find a way to win. Your opponent can not play any faster than you let them so take your time change and slow down the pace of the ball, also take your time between points and compose yourself before stepping up to the line. Focus on your strings between points but do not look around as I've seen you do. ( I noticed this when Roddick lost to PHM, he was looking all over the place, mostly looking at people in the stadium, PHM looked at nothing but the court and his racquet)
Bottom line is stop rushing, slow down the pace of the game by slowing down the ball. Take time between points if you're not ready to return serve, wait your alloted time. The server may try to rush you up to the line but you have time, wait. This way you are playing at your own pace and controlling your match long enough to find your rhythm, figure out their weakness, and at the same time learning to keep your composer by controlling the pace instead of playing at your opponents pace and getting frustrated.
Also by slowing things down it will put your opponent in a situation where they could lose their timing and focus because they like pace and taking time away from them is your way to control the situation and throw them off-balance.

That's it from the coach but I've done this and it worked. I don't throw a fit on the court like I used to because I'm playing at my own pace and my opponent ends up being the player I just was, spraying balls and talking to themselves.
I now have some control of the match and to slow it down and get in position I'll hit with heavy topspin to give me time, I refuse to hit a moonball not my style. I don't get mad and toss my racquet when I miss a shot I always make. I forget ASAP and start thinking of the next point and spend my time finding out the shot my opponent is uncomfortable with. Most of the time it's their BH side, lots of topspin to get the ball high up to their shoulders because most don't a slice BH good enough and I get that short put-away ball. Work on your slice they will do the same to you.
Forget the could-have should-have and stay out there. You can hit the ugliest shot you have but make them hit one more ball and go from defense to offense. The other player will see you're not going away and they don't see any tantrums so now their mindset changes and watch what happens just by slowing things down when you need to.
Your mental toughness changes because you now control the pace and the match.

[annie]

*Annie takes notes for her future brilliant tennis career*

[SAFINNO1]

*Ily takes not and try's to get his head round all of this Info* Faints*

Thanks Karen for all that but since i wont be hitting a tennis ball for a while i still recover. Do u know any excersizes that i can to make me mentally tougher. E.g see how long it takes me to deck my brother, while he is punching me. LoL

[annie]

rotflmfao Ily........

[Karen]

lly, how long before you are able to hit again?
When I couldn't play I played topspin tennis game on Xbox. Still can't beat Sampras

And the brother, I lost one of my brothers so just be glad he's around to punch you. He could of lost you in that car crash so he might latch on to you for awhile.
My other brother I check up on 14 times a day. ;D

[SAFINNO1]

LOL Karen
I will be back on the court say October/november but i wll not be playing any compettive matches until next year.

AS for Top SPin you cannot beat Pete, he is easy , mind you i can only beat him as Lleyton and Marat, (I created him the best i could with 5 stars on his BH !)

[Karen]

I have to check my Topspin, I don't think Marat is on mine.

[SAFINNO1]

na, Marat is not on the game i created him in the career mode, the best to my ability. It kinda looks real

[lau]

Hey, Ily, did you read the little article ("Marat's Brain On Grass") "inside" the GQ article that Nicki posted? Those are the kind of teqniques I was talking about.

[Karen]

lly, where are you ?

Just won 2 matches coming back from surgery and I'm in the finals tomorrow. Now where are you ?
Got my one-handed BH smoking and being easy serving but did get one serve in at 108 mph, had 5 aces yesterday. Woo-Hoo ;D

[Annie]

Ily is away for a couple of weeks. He'll be back soon though