Help! I suck at night
 

So, I have been taking lots more lessons over the summer and playing matches. But always in day time (morning hours).

I had won all of my matches pretty handily.

Last night I played a team practice for the upcoming fall season and I got destroyed by my team mates. I just couldn't do anything right. It was horrible.

Honestly though, I have always sucked at night. It isn't anything new. But it highlighted the disparity to me becuase my competition last night was not any better than usual.

Is this uncommon? Is there anything that can be done?

I had the same problem, until I got eyeglasses. For me, it was a visual problem.

Inside or outside? I struggle with the lights at the local club as well. I find it very hard to pick up spin and depth perception under the lights.

Best topic title of the year?!

Outside. Yeah, things like that. But even my serve was off.

I hope I don't need glasses. I have optical insurance, but have never used it before. Supposedly I'm well covered for it.

My eyesight is quite marginal and I need corrective lenses all the time for tennis. While I can manage in the daytime with contacts, I get much better depth perception in any artificial lighting when I'm wearing glasses. Don't know what it is about that light, but lots of players have trouble with the transition, especially when the indoor season starts in the fall.

You ought to take advantage of your coverage and get checked out. It might bring you a lot more ability to judge the ball and play comfortably under the lights.

if your serve was off and you brought it up, i'll take it you have a grooved toss. I think the problem here is sleep management. if you really want to win you'll have to alter your sleeping, like the pros do. you probably do well in the morning because you've had a nights sleep, so if you have a big competition up at night, sleep through the day a little and wake up 3 hours to an hour and 1/2 before your match. if that doesn't work, it takes a while to get used to seeing the ball under the night lights, if that still doesn't work...its glasses/contacts time! (which suck).

Yeah, I was wondering about that.

My toss seemed fine, or at least as good as usual.

I guess it couldn't hurt to get checked out by the eye doc though, just to be sure.

It's true what guys are saying--a little bit of blurred vision might not be a problem in daylight but at night your pupils are bigger, which makes the blur more obvious, the quality of the light is poorer, which limits the information your visual system gets in the first place, etc.

Or maybe you're just scared of the dark!:rolleyes:

It has to do with the color of light as well as light reflection off of surfaces. At night, the underside of the ball is dark. As it transitions through the court your eye is constantly trying to adjust to what it is seeing and then not really seeing. It's the same phenomenon that we saw with Federer at the Wimby finals last year and this year's AO. As the court faded into shadow the transition of the ball from light to dark messes up timing etc. I'm not sure there's much of anything that can really be done.

For me it has nothing to do with the light or darkness. Sometimes I don't play well at night because I had been working the whole day. Maybe I just don't focus as well after a long day. Even if you don't work, the stress of the day could be the reason you don't play well at night.

I concur.
Since '74, can only play well in natural sunlight, foggy better of course ( :shock::))
Any artificial lighting, I have trouble with depth recognition and spin pickup, so I just play badly.
Both my big losses in Q events were nighttime indoors, while I beat some top 20 Div1's outdoors in foggy SanFrancisco.
I hate indoors, even hoops indoors, which cramped my high school basketball career.
Fencing was OK indoors, but I never tried it outdoors.
Give me natural light any day.

I wouldn't worry about the lighting too much. Just play the game, I feel like I play better in the dark since I really have to focus on the ball.

I don't think it's really too much on your part. There are two possible options:

1. Your team mates are vampires who either:
a) Sparkle in the daylight
b) Wear sunscreen so they won't be affected by the sun

2. The lights were off.

I excel at night actually lol. Usually I don't play well at all during day time when it's hot and the sun is big right there, but at night when it gets cool I play better. Just focus on the ball and you should be fine!

Well, it's good to hear that I'm not the only one.

Thanks for the posts guys.

Agreed. Surprised it's not been edited/censored. :twisted:

There are many with this problem playing under artificial light. it takes me a half set usually to get used to the spin/depth. When playing at night I usually try and get to the courts a half hour earlier, then rally to let my eyes adjust.

I do think computer work all day also affects night play.

:D What if your opponents in the morning had the problem of playing at early hours? Just a thought that popped up in my mind.

This is true. The long hours at the computer, and my long commute just do me in come evening. I play like crap after that. Weekend evenings are much, much better, especially if I have a good nap... :) the serve really sizzles when that happens!