The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
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Scenario Number Two:
Steve is a super talented junior. He has not one but two pro level weapons: A 120 mph serve and a killer forehand. When Steve sticks to his “A” plan of crushing serves and hunting forehands, as often as possible, he is unstoppable. His tactical plan mirrors an old student of mine Sam Querrey.
Steve’s issues lie in the fact that his natural physical talent is light years above his mental and emotional skill sets. After gaining a comfortable 4-1 lead, Steve often loses focus on the mission at hand and once again begins to change a winning game plan. This time it is for the sake of variation.
His thoughts race to “Yeah but…if I keep on killing winners with my forehand, he’ll get used to it.” So, out comes Steve’s reckless drop shots and thoughtless shot selection. He is now in a 4-4 dog fight and it’s all because of his misuse of variation. Steve’s reckless play has reawakened the opponent’s self-confidence.
“Steve has successfully deflated his energy while inflated the opponent’s energy.”
Now his opponent has recognizes he’s playing a “mental midget.” The opponent is now recommitted to winning this match and is 100% focused to do so.
Solution Two:
Variation isn’t always bad. If losing to a better hard hitting baseliner, applying variations is a smart tactical plan. In that situation, mixing the speed, spins and trajectories would pull the opponent out of their comfort zone.
In Steve’s situation, he has the match firmly in control and uses variations because he’s overthinking himself out of the match. Steve’s battle isn’t against the opponent, it’s with his own wandering mind and lack of concentrated effort. Steve’s solution to battle his sloppy play is to ignite a new inner-game.
His mission after building a lead is to play what I call: Mega Tennis: A game in which Steve is to focus his attention on winning 3 points in a row with his same old boring winners. He simply re-challenges himself to replay the game again and again- winning three points in a row. As he is re-focused in the “now,” he’ll actually stops applying reckless variation and wins the set without even thinking about the set.
Mega tennis assists in not allowing an immature competitor to complicate routine matches. This becomes incredibly meaningful in conserving energy for the tougher rounds later in the event.
