Diagnosis please: Lose tight 1st set ->tank the 2nd, BUT, near perfect 3-set record?

[DeShaun]

It has happened to me a couple of times now that, after dropping a very tight first set, I went on somehow to tank in the second, e.g.,
6-7, 0-6;
or,
4-6, 1-6.
So, you get the idea.

On the other hand, whenever I won the 2nd set after losing the 1st, I have never lost the 3rd.

Is this pattern familiar to you?

Is seems like my replies to dropping a 1st set are positioned at extreme ends of a behavioral spectrum, and I need to find more/better ways, after losing a 1st set, for gutting out 2nd sets.

 

[SwankPeRFection]

You're probably still thinking and worred about that first set. If that happens, you won't be in the first 3 or so games in the 2nd set. Next thing you know, you're down 3 games, then 4 and then you can't dig yourself out. Stop thinking about the previous set if you lose it or win it. It's one set down, go back to work for the next set as if it's the first set. I have a bad tendancy to not play hard enough in the second set if I win the first and then lose it or sometimes worry too much I'm down a set already and still lose it.

Today was a good example of what I'm working on in terms of bringing my mind back and trying to focus. Horrible day to play... very windy (15-20 mph gusts due to a storm off the coast). Serving was all over the place and I couldn't play the relaxed fast paced lineshots I normally play because the ball was moving too much from side to side. Needless to say, it was a 1-6 first set. Second set, I pounded it away at 6-0. All of a sudden the tables were turned, I learned to wait a bit for the right moment to take my serves and not rush, I learned to use the cross-winds and if it's blowing from the right to left to play to my friendn's extreme forehard and with the added wind, it'll pull him even wider off the court if I knife the slices wide and catch the wind gust after the bound. Basically, I started to use what I was trying to fight against in the first set. Because I was paying so much attention to all these other aspects of the environment, I completely forgot about the first set and it didn't bother me that it was a breadstick.