When you defend your contact pt., you will begin to feel as if you can place the ball anywhere, at any pace/spin/ht you want, and you will begin to feel like a tennis god out there on the court!
Who is the most adrenalized player you can think of? Nadal? Who is the smoothest player you can think of? Federer? They have extremely good control over their internal body clocks. Defending your contact point, with a relaxed upper body, tensed lower body, maintaining the same distance no matter what the incoming shot's speed, height, depth, is the surest path to consistency and mastery of your own internal rhythm. . The only thing you are varying, is which part of the ball you are hitting: straight back is for dtl, right side of the ball is for cross court, left side is for inside out shots. Of course, the point depends on groundies or volleys, and the grip.
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We all have internal body clocks. Emotions are the fuel that shape this internal energy. “It’s fight or flight out there.” Every match is made up of many small energy bursts. These bursts power our body clocks during a match. Some of those bursts are lull energy based: medium, no risk, put your opponent to sleep type shots. Some of those bursts are jam based energy: they change the speed of the ball after the ball bounces, which can jam our internal body clock rhythm. Some of those bursts are finish based: they are clean winners.
In each match we are under pressure of all types the entire duration of the match. Some of it is external: such as the shots we are facing up against, the wind, the sun, the heat, the court, the onlookers, our equipment. And some of it is internal: such as diet, digestion, the psych jobs we are facing up against, our emotions and internal match stress! These both react to create the matched energy flow within us at any given millisecond…. Our body clocks. Timing is everything in life and tennis. Uncle Tony once heard Jack Nicklaus say, “First learn to hit it far, then learn to keep it in.”
Some of the things that jam our internal energy are: fear, tightness, frustration, anger, anxiety, over eagerness, physical conditioning, too much emotion, fear based adrenaline, not enough adrenaline, hatred, cramping, nerves, sickness, bad diet, may all combine in part to jam the timing of your internal rhythm. Have your feet ever stopped moving fast, due to the slow speed of the ball, and you ended up too far away from contact point, and framed the slow sitter with a fast swing? Your body clock was jammed and your energy was too eager and too tight! Give you another chance to hit the same sitter without match pressure, and you would no doubt crush it easily for a winner!
Hate your opponent? That can damage internal rhythm. Has a psych job ever worked on you? Has an opponent called a ball out that was 6” in, and you went ape over it? Care too much about the win vs. the loss? Vulnerable to heat cramps? Did you change a stroke before the match? Are you trying a new stick or string or new tension or new pair of sneakers? Knowing your self isn't just knowing which shots you can hit under pressure…. It's knowing what jams you up, and how to prevent it.
What jams you up? And how do you prevent that from happening?
If your diet is not good, or if you are overweight, or out of shape, it won’t matter how good your strokes are. You will not be able to maintain a high quality adrenaline mode during a match….. One thing all top players have in common, is fitness of body and fitness of mind/energy modes. (Recently Mardy Fish just lost 30 lbs and won 16 of 17 matches.) If you've ever seen a match, where one of the players all of a sudden started playing better, you have seen a player regain control over his internal rhythm. You may have also seen a player suddenly start missing due to fearful nerves, and then lose a big lead… His adrenaline caused fear and fear caused tightness and tightness caused his body to become jammed!
What are the most common Body clock Jammers? It’s the psych jobs and their resulting emotions. Emotional attacks on the surface and the hidden psych attacks as well….
What energy are we striving for? The fast running, smooth burn of a fluid, flowing, fearless adrenaline. It’s an extremely relaxed yet very fast energy. Just enough adrenaline to make us faster and smoother than we normally are. This smooth yet quick energy, determines how relaxed we are, how disciplined we are at maintaining our contact point, and determines how freely we swing the stick, determines how accurate and powerful we are under pressure and how fast we move our feet. Good butterflies in the stomach! But it is up to us to realize that truth, and up to us whether or not we make the decision to use that knowledge to perfect our adrenaline flow! Some people call it intensity. We must polish our adrenalized energy just as much as we work on any other part of our game. This energy can even help you beat a superior opponent. The best internal body clock energy runs fast and free, like a torrent of water, during the point, when we are in the fluid/fast energy mode. When the point is over, the energy still is flowing fast! Fast fluid energy wins matches and protects our internal rhythm. This causes our feet and hands to attack the ball quickly and smoothly and confidently, on all types of shots coming in, without a jammed fear of missing. Fear can jam you badly, and jam up your internal body clock rhythm.
Some matches are won before the first ball is struck. They are won in the warm ups. Most of us find out in the warm ups how consistent and how powerful our opponents are in that first five minutes. We make up our minds without realizing it, whether we have a chance to win…. The expert body clock jammers use the warm up to plant the fearful suggestion in the opponents’ mind, that they have no chance, to win the match. The expert psych artist will make great effort to not miss a single ball in the warm up. They will celebrate good shots. They will move fast and suggest they are in better shape than their opponent. They will fast serve you and work to under mine your confidence. They will insult you under the surface. The thin veneer of civilization is thinner in the worst cases.
Every psych has the same objective: to jam your body clock up, and make you play worse than you would if you were loose and relaxed. Whether the opponent admits it to himself or not, whether he does it consciously or not, that is his goal. To jam the flow of your adrenaline by manipulating your emotions and your internal view of your own body…. It’s your emotions that determine the quality of your adrenaline, whether it is a fearful or whether it’s an excited flow…. Emotions can either jam us or super charge us! McEnroe and Djokovic and Nadal all play with a lot of emotion. He’s trying to make your feet move a little slower, to make your arms feel a little more tight, to make your core rotate a little slower, just enough to make you miss the next shot – and lose the next game.
Currently, the best pro psych jammer is Nadal. He’s also the most adrenalized player and one of the most emotional players. For example, he always enters the court second. He makes his opp. Enter the stadiums before he enters. Always. He controls his opp. before a single shot is struck. He always antelopes up to the baseline just after the coin toss. He always vampires out a huge gloat after winning a big point. He vibrates his feet up and down on the change overs super fast. He scrapes the clay baseline clean after each game. He arranges his water bottles in a very particular manner. He makes his opp. wonder, “Is he on something, to be so fresh after 4 hours, when I am so tired?” Nadal is an adrenalinilized psych master! Not only does he use his game to jam your rhythm, he uses his whole emotional persona to free his own rhythm...No one can psych him. They are too busy defending against the Nadal psych…..”First learn to hit it hard, Rafa, then learn to keep it in.”, uncle Tony drilled Nicklaus’ wisdom into Rafa’s head over and over…Nadals body clock is jam proof.. No psych, works on him..The only time a shot can jam him is the flat ball, which is how Soderling, Federer, Murray, Delpotro, have all been able to beat him: by jamming down flat on his high top spin balls on faster surfaces.
Aside from emotion: Psych jobs: Shots designed to cause us to be late or early in our contact point are: The shots that jam most of us: The most common shots that jam our clocks are the ones that change speed radically after the bounce. The American twist serve to our bh return, makes the ball speed up and change direction after the bounce. The heavy top spin shot that kicks in speed and height after the bounce. The heavy slice ball that either speeds up or slows down after the bounce. The flat ball hit hard and deep, that makes the ball skid low and heavy. The short drop shot that makes the ball kick back wards and side ways. The top spin lob that kicks hard and spins to the back fence. The slice serve that slides sideways and out of reach. To prevent these shots from jamming us, we must practice against them before the match ever begins. We must practice the transitions, from lull, to jam, to finish, every time out…Most errors are made in transition, and the contact point has to be error free, in terms of transition from a rally ball, to a jam or finish shot, off your bed.
Defending your contact point, with a relaxed upper body, tensed lower body, maintaining the same distance no matter what the incoming shot's speed, height, depth, is the surest path to consistency and mastery of your own internal rhythm. . The only thing you are varying, is which part of the ball you are hitting: straight back is for dtl, right side of the ball is for cross court, left side is for inside out shots. Of course, the point depends on groundies or volleys, and which grip you are using.
