Deliberately 'breaking' a stroke to improve it

[Narcissist]

I'd managed to develop a fairly consistent serve but it was by no means totally there. Over last couple of weeks I've finally managed to change it by watching videos on the net so that my wrist comes through properly resulting in much more power and spin.

Played a match and sure enough hit a load of doubles faults. No surprise since in practice it was still less than consistent right now; despite being a better serve since I'm still adjusting to it.

How do you deal with the learning period/pain of changing a stroke while playing matches? Do you go back to you 'old' stroke and risk messing up 'in work' one?

[fgs]

narcissist,
you definitely don't go back to your old stroke unless your aim is not to gain any confidence in the new one. just set yourself some targets or milestones like: no double faults in this set, or taking back a little bit on speed and going for 70% of first serves in. thus you can chart your progress and gain confidence in your new stroke.

[maverick1]

How do you deal with the learning period/pain of changing a stroke while playing matches?

One possible approach:
- In matches, don't think about technique. Use what comes naturally
- In practice, always use the correct technique
- practice more than you play matches.

Hopefully match habits will change without you knowing it.

I came across this advice in some book my son was reading to improve his basketball shooting form. I think it worked for him.

Do you go back to you 'old' stroke and risk messing up 'in work' one?
My bigger concern would be messing up matchplay while you are working on new technique. But it is still a small price if long term improvement matters much more to you than current match results.

[ChocolatePie]

If your strokes are on the shaky side and you don't feel confident about them even in rallying, then that's not a good sign. If you can't hit in a rally or during practice then a match could surely be worse.

[oldhacker]

Apart from serves I find it nearly impossible to conciously work on a new stroke under the pressure of a match situation. Once I am in a rally I just seemt o do waht I do and afterwards could not tell you whether I was hitting with my new or old form.

So I think the key is to really make sure you use your new form all the time in practice, and ideally get your coach / practice partner to tell you when you deviate from it, and practice a lot more than you play matches. And then you will find you use the new form naturally in matches without even having to think about it.

BTW - I also find it best to work on changes in technique in the off-season when I only play friendly matches.

[Narcissist]

narcissist,
you definitely don't go back to your old stroke unless your aim is not to gain any confidence in the new one. just set yourself some targets or milestones like: no double faults in this set, or taking back a little bit on speed and going for 70% of first serves in. thus you can chart your progress and gain confidence in your new stroke.

This is the route I'm going, it is all too easy to lapse into the old serve at the moment though I see what you are getting at maverick1.

My matches are division 6 so long term improvement is much more important! It is a painful process, so lots of practice is required to get it sorted as quickly as possible. I can see why so many people stagnate since they are too scared to make the changes required to improve their strokes.