How badly have you ever psyched an opponent out?

[Simon_the_furry]

Yesterday I was playing a varsity match. Line #2 singles. I was playing awful, so I had to rely on scrappy tactics and some gamesmanship. Nothing too bad, just the occasional fist pump and "Come on!", with some other little tactics designed to throw the opponent off his game, like a bit of loud grunting, taking maximum time on changeovers even when he didn't need all the time, occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.

I won the first set 6-2. He won the second set 6-4. So, per varsity rules, a 10 point tiebreaker would be played to decide the match.
He was up 5-0 at first, but I turned it around and eventually made it to 8-8. On this point, I lured him into the net and then badly mishit a lob and it went too short. He shanked the overhead off the tip of his racquet. I turn around and hear a loud crack. Yep, he's smashed his Pure Storm. He takes out another racquet from his bag and ends up losing the next point (and with it, the match) on a botched passing shot.

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

 

[pc1]

I tend to think of psyching a player out as purposely doing it or the player is just mentally defeated playing you. This doesn't seem like that. I think he just lost it mentally after you were tough enough to get back into the match.

I did have one player who was totally psyched out against me. He was a tall impressive looking guy at 6'5" tall. I was much shorter than him. He got the idea that he didn't have a chance to beat me unless he went for winners all the time. Naturally he hit just about all of these shots out or in the net. I beat him 6-0 every set except for one set where I felt sorry for him and let him have a number of games. We played hundreds of times.

I wasn't that good to beat him 6-0 every time if he played his normal game and I'm sure he may have beaten me some sets if he wasn't psyche out against me.

I stopped playing with him in singles and doubles (he also used to give up when he fell behind in singles and doubles) when he often didn't show up for matches because he had something else to do. He never contacted me to tell me he wasn't able to make it.

 

[Limpinhitter]

Yesterday I was playing a varsity match. Line #2 singles. I was playing awful, so I had to rely on scrappy tactics and some gamesmanship. Nothing too bad, just the occasional fist pump and "Come on!", with some other little tactics designed to throw the opponent off his game, like a bit of loud grunting, taking maximum time on changeovers even when he didn't need all the time, occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.

I won the first set 6-2. He won the second set 6-4. So, per varsity rules, a 10 point tiebreaker would be played to decide the match.
He was up 5-0 at first, but I turned it around and eventually made it to 8-8. On this point, I lured him into the net and then badly mishit a lob and it went too short. He shanked the overhead off the tip of his racquet. I turn around and hear a loud crack. Yep, he's smashed his Pure Storm. He takes out another racquet from his bag and ends up losing the next point (and with it, the match) on a botched passing shot.

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

How do you know whether you have psyched out an opponent, or just out played them? Is there a difference?

 

[Mongolmike]

Yesterday I was playing a varsity match. Line #2 singles. I was playing awful, so I had to rely on scrappy tactics and some gamesmanship. Nothing too bad, just the occasional fist pump and "Come on!", with some other little tactics designed to throw the opponent off his game, like a bit of loud grunting, taking maximum time on changeovers even when he didn't need all the time, occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.

I won the first set 6-2. He won the second set 6-4. So, per varsity rules, a 10 point tiebreaker would be played to decide the match.
He was up 5-0 at first, but I turned it around and eventually made it to 8-8. On this point, I lured him into the net and then badly mishit a lob and it went too short. He shanked the overhead off the tip of his racquet. I turn around and hear a loud crack. Yep, he's smashed his Pure Storm. He takes out another racquet from his bag and ends up losing the next point (and with it, the match) on a botched passing shot.

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

Nothing personal, but I can't give you a "like" for this post, but I do give you props for posting what you did.

Taking max time, fist pumps, etc. doesn't bother me, but hitting the ball away from me and stuff like that, it would p iss me off and I would try harder. Probably wouldn't want to play you in social settings.

Also, and I'm not saying you did this, but for me...just for me...if you were doing the gamesmanship thing, I would also suspect you of hooking some calls too. Again, am no way saying you would do that, but close calls you called out coupled with the other "unsportsmanlike things" you've already done would make me suspicious of your integrity on calls to. Again, that is how I would think in that situation.

Those presumptions on my part are unfair to you, and you might actually be a friendly person socially, but people who employ "mind games" have different degrees of how far they will go to mess with an opponent. Hook a few times, p iss someone off and cause them to just say F it and quit...it's a match win for you and affirmation that your mind games were successful in breaking down an opponent.

 

[pc1]

How do you know whether you have psyched out an opponent, or just out played them? Is there a difference?

Sometimes an opponent can by psyched out because the player is so good. I think some have mentioned that Borg, in his Wimbledon years often played badly in the early rounds in getting adjusted to the grass after winning the French for example on red clay. Borg won, according to some because they were intimidated by the fact they were playing Borg. I'm sure that happened with Laver, Newcombe, Federer, Sampras and other greats because of their strength.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

Nothing personal, but I can't give you a "like" for this post, but I do give you props for posting what you did.

Taking max time, fist pumps, etc. doesn't bother me, but hitting the ball away from me and stuff like that, it would p iss me off and I would try harder. Probably wouldn't want to play you in social settings.

Also, and I'm not saying you did this, but for me...just for me...if you were doing the gamesmanship thing, I would also suspect you of hooking some calls too. Again, am no way saying you would do that, but close calls you called out coupled with the other "unsportsmanlike things" you've already done would make me suspicious of your integrity on calls to. Again, that is how I would think in that situation.

Those presumptions on my part are unfair to you, and you might actually be a friendly person socially, but people who employ "mind games" have different degrees of how far they will go to mess with an opponent. Hook a few times, p iss someone off and cause them to just say F it and quit...it's a match win for you and affirmation that your mind games were successful in breaking down an opponent.

That's fair. I don't do that stuff in social matches.
Honestly, I felt a little bad doing it, but a win is a win.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

How do you know whether you have psyched out an opponent, or just out played them? Is there a difference?

I wasn't playing well, so I'm sure I won the match with mental warfare.

 

[Limpinhitter]

I wasn't playing well, so I'm sure I won the match with mental warfare.

Or, maybe your subpar play is better than his play that day.

 

[pc1]

Or, maybe your subpar play is better than his play that day.

Maybe he's so much better that his poor play is superior to his opponent's normal play.

 

[tennis tom]

... hitting the ball away from me and stuff like that, it would p iss me off

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

If he was playing on the up and up, and didn't start the antics, he was right. You can play with-in the rules, taking your full time on the change-overs, tieing your shoes, taking a potty break between sets, an injury time out for a little adductor massage by the trainer--but you lost me by deliberately hitting the ball away from him--that's overt hostility .

I would contact him to apologize and say you were having a bad day. I commend you for having the guts to post about it though , usually the perps don't come here--there's hope for you yet. As punishment, you have to go to the corner and read "THE CODE", and write on the black/white board one hundred times, "I will not use gamesmanship too win--unless they start it first."

 

[norcal]

Marat Safin distracts his opponents without cheating.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

If he was playing on the up and up, and didn't start the antics, he was right. You can play with-in the rules, taking your full time on the change-overs, tieing your shoes, taking a potty break between sets, an injury time out for a little adductor massage by the trainer--but you lost me by deliberately hitting the ball away from him--that's overt hostility .

I would contact him to apologize and say you were having a bad day. I commend you for having the guts to post about it though , usually the perps don't come here--there's hope for you yet. As punishment, you have to go to the corner and read "THE CODE", and write on the black/white board one hundred times, "I will not use gamesmanship too win--unless they start it first."

He is the one who smashed his racquet though....

 

[Turbo-87]

I consider most of what the OP (herein known as you) did attributable to being kind of a jerk, especially hitting the ball away from him when you could have, you know, passed off the balls like a reasonably affable person would do. I can see why he wouldn't have wanted to shake your hand. You crossed the jerk line by taking a bounding leap.

We all deal with things in different ways. Your opponent took his frustration out on his equipment. Unfortunate for him but you didn't psych anyone out. You just displayed the qualities of a jerk and someone became angry and it affected their game. There is a difference. I just hope you never "psych out" the wrong person because there are a lot of people wired differently upstairs and the unfortunate outcome might not be in your favor if you know what I mean.

You'd definitely be tagged as "that guy" in tennis circles. Just not cool but you are young and have time to learn. Unlike others, I don't give you credit for having guts to post this because I think you truly think what you did was just a cool way to psych someone out without realizing is was just simply a jerk move.

 

[Dartagnan64]

occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him,

You had me until this point. Although the overly loud grunting would be high on my list of annoying unsportsmanlike tactics as well.

Your opponent was right. You do need to work on sportsmanship and etiquette. He needs to work on his temper. Hopefully you both walked away learning something and not feeling good about the match.

 

[Turbo-87]

He is the one who smashed his racquet though....

I think you totally missed his point.

 

[OrangePower]

Yesterday I was playing a varsity match. Line #2 singles. I was playing awful, so I had to rely on scrappy tactics and some gamesmanship. Nothing too bad, just the occasional fist pump and "Come on!", with some other little tactics designed to throw the opponent off his game, like a bit of loud grunting, taking maximum time on changeovers even when he didn't need all the time, occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.

I won the first set 6-2. He won the second set 6-4. So, per varsity rules, a 10 point tiebreaker would be played to decide the match.
He was up 5-0 at first, but I turned it around and eventually made it to 8-8. On this point, I lured him into the net and then badly mishit a lob and it went too short. He shanked the overhead off the tip of his racquet. I turn around and hear a loud crack. Yep, he's smashed his Pure Storm. He takes out another racquet from his bag and ends up losing the next point (and with it, the match) on a botched passing shot.

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

I think there is a difference between scrappy tactics and pumping your self up, versus unsportsmanlike gamesmanship.

Things like taking your full allotted time on changeovers, occasional fist pumping and come ons, and 'normal' grunting are fine in my book. Because they are all things relating to your own game. The fact that they might also have a negative mental impact on your opponent is perhaps a bonus.

On the other hand, deliberate abnormal grunting and hitting the ball away from the opponent instead of passing it have no actual 'tennis' purpose and so they cross the line into lack of sportsmanship.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

You'd definitely be tagged as "that guy" in tennis circles. Just not cool but you are young and have time to learn. Unlike others, I don't give you credit for having guts to post this because I think you truly think what you did was just a cool way to psych someone out without realizing is was just simply a jerk move.

Again, fair. I think what I did was pretty borderline and I can see why some would consider it poor sportsmanship.

 

[Turbo-87]

Again, fair. I think what I did was pretty borderline and I can see why some would consider it poor sportsmanship.

Well, hey, just learn from it. You've got a long way to go in your tennis life. I'm not one to tell people they are wrong, even though I did here. We all handle things differently and it's up to you how you want to present yourself on the court. I'd just warn you that if that's how you want to do it there may be a price to pay when you tangle with the wrong person, right or wrong on their part.

 

[jm1980]

Yesterday I was playing a varsity match. Line #2 singles. I was playing awful, so I had to rely on scrappy tactics and some gamesmanship. Nothing too bad, just the occasional fist pump and "Come on!", with some other little tactics designed to throw the opponent off his game, like a bit of loud grunting, taking maximum time on changeovers even when he didn't need all the time, occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.

I won the first set 6-2. He won the second set 6-4. So, per varsity rules, a 10 point tiebreaker would be played to decide the match.
He was up 5-0 at first, but I turned it around and eventually made it to 8-8. On this point, I lured him into the net and then badly mishit a lob and it went too short. He shanked the overhead off the tip of his racquet. I turn around and hear a loud crack. Yep, he's smashed his Pure Storm. He takes out another racquet from his bag and ends up losing the next point (and with it, the match) on a botched passing shot.

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

 

[Nacho]

There were certainly some parts of what you did to Psych him out, hitting balls away from him is gamesmanship. Since none of us were there, we are only hearing your version....Would love to hear his, purely for the feedback and comparison. I don't think there is any circumstance where you don't shake someones hand, regardless of what you think they did to you. Shaking hands is part of the game that grounds the competition.

But, your question is fun in that you are asking how bad we have psyched someone out. I have usually been on the receiving end of psyching out, but I have gotten some players mental without doing much. One guy I was playing was cranking fourhand winners, running around his backhand, just hitting them out of his mind. He was up 5-2 on me, and during the changeover I told him it was the best I had ever seen him hit forehands and asked him what he has changed? His grip? Stance? He fell for the bait and started showing me what he was doing. I won the set 7-5, and won the next set 6-2....he couldn't hit another forehand after that. It was gamesmanship, I knew what I was doing. It was a casual enough match, not serious enough with anything on the line and sort of humorous.

 

[Dartagnan64]

Certainly in social situations with the guys, I've pulled out the "You're playing incredibly well today" tactic. But it's all fun and games to shine each other on from time to time.

In a league match, I'm a stickler for winning fairly and as a sportsman. If I can't beat you with tennis skills alone, I'm not going down the road of trickery and gamesmanship just to get a W. I'll take the loss, try to work on my game so I can beat you next time.

 

[Rattler]

Marat Safin distracts his opponents without cheating.

Umpires too.

So did Stepanik.

 

[jm1980]

Since none of us were there, we are only hearing your version....Would love to hear his, purely for the feedback and comparison.

I imagine it would go like this:

"I played this dick head who used all kinds of gamesmanship to win a tennis match. Over the top grunting, obnoxious celebrations whenever I made a mistake, hitting balls away from me, hooking me on line calls. You name it, he did it. It took a lot of self control to only smash my racquet in instead of his face. Sad to see players resorting to this bush league stuff to win a tennis match that doesn't really mean anything"

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

You had me until this point. Although the overly loud grunting would be high on my list of annoying unsportsmanlike tactics as well.

Your opponent was right. You do need to work on sportsmanship and etiquette. He needs to work on his temper. Hopefully you both walked away learning something and not feeling good about the match.

OP did learn something: "Honestly, I felt a little bad doing it, but a win is a win."

I interpret this to mean winning trumps everything else.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Again, fair. I think what I did was pretty borderline and I can see why some would consider it poor sportsmanship.

You won a meaningless rec match, and in exchange you deliberately blew off the obligation to behave appropriately.

Kinda sad.

Wouldn't it have been more rewarding to win ethically or lose ethically and then just move on?

 

[Moveforwardalways]

In order to psych an opponent out, I usually show up with a Nadal bandana, 5 inch shorts, bull logo shoes, and a sleeveless pink late design Nike shirt.... and then I pull a weighted up RF97 autograph out of my bag. Looking at my opponent in the eye, I see that he is simultaneously shaken and bewildered. Some have even forfeited the match right then. For those who continued, it was not pretty, for few could regain their composure.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

You won a meaningless rec match, and in exchange you deliberately blew off the obligation to behave appropriately.

Kinda sad.

Wouldn't it have been more rewarding to win ethically or lose ethically and then just move on?

It wasn't quite meaningless, it was varsity.

 

[MathGeek]

I try not to push button's intentionally, but if I notice opponent's imploding I will keep the match moving and try and gain more ground before they regroup.

The nature of my game - pushing and junk balling and hustling and leveraging my (few) strengths against their weaknesses tends to frustrate opponents enough. Opponents with solid strokes tend to take an early lead that I often overcome later in a match after my fitness advantage takes over and I'm still chasing balls down and sending them back, but their footwork and mobility are disadvantaged because they are sucking wind. Then they add a mental handicap in their frustration, and I try and put it out of reach before they regroup.

 

[shazbot]

'occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.'

I'm about as fair as they come and never use any gamesmanship to win matches. But if someone did this to me, they would be chasing balls down the street because I would be hitting them over the fence for you to chase down until you got the point.

Congrats on your win though I'm sure your parents are proud.

 

[Turbo-87]

It wasn't quite meaningless, it was varsity.

Also remember that your actions reflect on the tennis team. If that's the culture of your team, that's one thing. If you are the single jerk casting a bad light on the team then you'd definitely get a talking to by a senior varsity player. That's how it worked when I played high school tennis.

 

[Powderwombat]

I mentioned to my opponent that I was Suresh from the TW forums and he forfeited on the spot.

 

[texasleaguer]

back in my younger 'play ya for money' days, I told opponent I saw his sister working an alley in a crack neighborhood.

 

[Moveforwardalways]

One time after I hit an ace, I told my opponent “ya momma so old, she owes Moses $3”. Completely psychologically destroyed my opponent.

 

[edathompson2]

I walked onto a USTA doubles match and the team we were playing groaned when they saw me and my partner. They gave up before the match started. We won 0,1.

 

[TimeToPlaySets]

Way to play like the best of all time.

#winningUgly

 

[Simon_the_furry]

Way to play like the best of all time.

#winningUgly

I was waiting for your arrival in this thread.

 

[ChaelAZ]

Marat Safin distracts his opponents without cheating.

My one funny story about that is, was playing a USTA match and the guy I was playing singles against had his girlfriend come dressed like the one on the right, and stand and walk next to the court the whole time. Not sure it was supposed to be a distraction, and not saying it was a huge distration, but it sure seemed like it was on purpose and it did cause my team to pay less attention to cheering me on. lol.

Okay, actually it was the guy had brought dress up clothes to for after the match because they had a fancy dinner to go to after, but it makes for good talk.

 

[samiam158]

I once handed my optometrist’s business card to my opponent

 

[Turbo-87]

^^^ Classy

 

[Nostradamus]

Yesterday I was playing a varsity match. Line #2 singles. I was playing awful, so I had to rely on scrappy tactics and some gamesmanship. Nothing too bad, just the occasional fist pump and "Come on!", with some other little tactics designed to throw the opponent off his game, like a bit of loud grunting, taking maximum time on changeovers even when he didn't need all the time, occasionally hitting the ball away from him when passing it to him, et cetera.

I won the first set 6-2. He won the second set 6-4. So, per varsity rules, a 10 point tiebreaker would be played to decide the match.
He was up 5-0 at first, but I turned it around and eventually made it to 8-8. On this point, I lured him into the net and then badly mishit a lob and it went too short. He shanked the overhead off the tip of his racquet. I turn around and hear a loud crack. Yep, he's smashed his Pure Storm. He takes out another racquet from his bag and ends up losing the next point (and with it, the match) on a botched passing shot.

He refused to shake my hand after the match. He told me I needed to work on my sportsmanship....

Yea those are all examples of poor sportsmanship. Fist pump and Cmon's are Fine, most high school and college players do it. and even Federer does it.. in german or swiss though..lol.................... but intentionally hitting the ball away from him when passing the ball to the guy or taking maximum time when you dont' need to,,, all these are BAD and you should stop those. and it will work against you with players that are mentally tough or are better than you........ Why is that ???????? Because you are sending them the message that you feel weak and only way you get an edge is to try these crappy tactics.

That's what I think when I play guys that try these little mental games...... I always think,,, "Hey this guy is afraid of me,,,so he wants desperately trying to get some kind of edge so he is trying these mental tactics"...... So I actually play better when I see guys like this.

 

[Doubles]

To be fair, I'd be pretty psyched out if I knew I was playing a furry.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

To be fair, I'd be pretty psyched out if I knew I was playing a furry.

I wonder what playing tennis in a fursuit would be like.
I'd probably get heatstroke and die though, so I will never attempt to do this.

 

[NLBwell]

One time, during a hard-fought and, up to that point, fairly-played league match I was about to serve for the match, The opponent then did the "Oh, try not to get nervous serving for the match" ploy.
I hit four aces/un-returnable serves, walked over and picked up my bag and said, "you shouldn't have said that," and left.

 

[gmatheis]

I was waiting for your arrival in this thread.

Yeah but since TTPS agreed with you we all now know you were wrong

Like others I don't have much problem with what you described except for the hitting balls away from him. There's a different between a little mental warfare and just being a "D"

 

[Simon_the_furry]

One time, during a hard-fought and, up to that point, fairly-played league match I was about to serve for the match, The opponent then did the "Oh, try not to get nervous serving for the match" ploy.
I hit four aces/un-returnable serves, walked over and picked up my bag and said, "you shouldn't have said that," and left.

Ouch.