How to Get Back on Track

[aka1809]

Any advice on how to "re-find" your game after some bad matches?

I was playing maybe the best tennis of my life and playing better every week for a couple of months. Now all of sudden, I'm right back where I was. I know this has to be mental, but can't seem to come out of the fog. Now I am taking the court with a lot of self doubt, where before I was going in with a winning attitude. I am struggling against people I was beating easily before and losing to people as well.

I fear this new self-doubt is making things ten times worse and causing me to be way more tentative than I should be. It makes me play to not lose instead of focusing on winning points/games/matches.

Any advice on how to get out of this rut?

I am a 4.0 player if it makes a difference.

 

[LeeD]

In every sport, you progress by leaps and fallbacks. Sometimes leaps, fallbacks, and long middling play.
EVERY sport.
Just suffer through your blahs, play for fun, play lesser players, and your game will come back in a month or quicker.
Taking it too seriously is an excellent formula for failure.

 

[Davis937]

You might be temporarily burned out … take two weeks away from tennis (absolutely no tennis). I'm thinking when you come back you'll be refreshed both physically, and possibly more important, mentally / emotionally. Good luck and don't be so hard on yourself … We all go through these "blah" periods!

 

[NTexas]

when this happens to me i actually play more till i find it. if you are decent at all the shots will come back around.

 

[10sGrinder]

Hmmm, when I am having a "bad" day on the court, as in I'm not playing well (not necessarily just losing - you can play well and still get your butt kicked) I try to remember what it felt like when I played my best - was "in the zone". What I"ve found is that after a minute or two, I actually start playing better.

Your situation sounds a little different, so I don't know if this would work for you, but maybe it's worth a try. I tend to agree with someone up above who said you have your plateaus and fallbacks. It's not a straight line up. Sometimes maybe it's just a self-awareness of a weakness that you hadn't noticed before, probably because you were working on something you thought was more important, and now that that's out of the way.....well, there's always something to work on. Guess that's why we keep playing!

 

[goran_ace]

Focus on the process, not the result. If you have solid fundamentals, you keep working hard, you take care of the little things, eventually the results will come back to you.

 

[GoudX]

Focus on getting your two main weapons back to where they should be. For instance, If I can get my forehand and second serve working I will win all the matches that I should be winning. Focus on hitting your most important shots consistently and accurately at 70% speed, and you will be able to start winning again.

What the two essential shots you need will vary based on your game. It might be your slice serve and volleys if you are a net rusher, your defensive blocks if you are are a counterpuncher, or topspin forehand and kick serve if you are a offensive baseliner. Try to isolate what they are in your game, and don't be drawn into trying to build up more than two shots until they are back to where you want, as you are trying to build up the base of your game. The other shots generally only need to be working to beat someone genuinely better than you.

 

[LuckyR]

Any advice on how to "re-find" your game after some bad matches?

I was playing maybe the best tennis of my life and playing better every week for a couple of months. Now all of sudden, I'm right back where I was. I know this has to be mental, but can't seem to come out of the fog. Now I am taking the court with a lot of self doubt, where before I was going in with a winning attitude. I am struggling against people I was beating easily before and losing to people as well.

I fear this new self-doubt is making things ten times worse and causing me to be way more tentative than I should be. It makes me play to not lose instead of focusing on winning points/games/matches.

Any advice on how to get out of this rut?

I am a 4.0 player if it makes a difference.

Usually playing poorly does NOT mean that your whole game is off, it means that the stuff that happens to be off that day is A) stuff that is important to your game and B) you didn't change to a plan B that doesn't use that stuff so much, like S&Ving if your groundies are off.