I need some help

[pricey_aus]

Okay I really need some help. I am a junior tennis player, playing in Australia. I am a player who up untill a while ago, was a confident person and believed in my ability. About 4 months ago i qualied for a grade 1 ITF Aussie open lead in tournament, competed well against a top 300 former top 100 player, and was overall very happy in how my game was coming along. I was training everyday and I was making little improvments and yeah...I couldn have been happier. Okay heres where it gets tricky, I had nationals about 3 weeks ago. I was playing a player who I had played before, and is regarded as one of the best juniors in Australia. I had played him 2 years prior, and it had been a close contest, but i went down in 2 tight sets. I came out feeling quite good, had a good warm up before the match, came out on court, and he absolutely whipped me. No joke, I felt embarassed out there. It was not that he was doing anything too good, i was making alot of errors and I could not lift my game, and i got beaten 6-1 6-2.

I put it down to the fact that I was nervous playing him, as he was the number 1 seed and it was on a big stage and I just crumbled. Of course I was unhappy with my performance but I got over it and hit the practice courts, and put in a good effort in training, and I had a tournament the next week. I one my first two round comfortably (It was a open tournament) against average players, then came up against my friend in the quarter finals. Once again i thought I had a good chance, and crumbled. The score was 6-4 6-0 and I competed well in the first set but went away in the second. One again I was unhappy with my quality of tennis in the second but wasnt unbelievably upset. I put it down to intensity and thought that I could lift it in the future to be able to compete against good players.

So i trained all of last week, getting ready for a ITF that started today. I was feeling good again about my game, and I ended up being draw once again against a friend who is ranked higher than me, but i beat him regularly in training. I prepared myself well for the match again, and once again, I got killed. I put up a fight in the second but thats only because i started puddling heaps and trying not to miss. I am generally a aggressive player and this game style was just plain ugly. I dont know what to do! I am trying my best to improve and feel like I am in training, but then as soon as I move into tournament play I fall away and play bad tennis. I need to break this and become a better tennis player! Does any one have any advice!

p.s Thank you for reading this also, I know that it is friggen long....

 

[mikeler]

Sounds like it is just nerves to me. Keep playing as many of these bigger tournaments as you can qualify for. There is nothing like match experience to eventually calm you down. The other thing that I used to tell myself is that if I'm going to lose, then there is no way I'm going to lose trying to play a real safe style of play. Go down swinging mate!

 

[LeeD]

I'd continue playing, but focus on results against OTHER guys, instead of this one "friend", who seems to have your number and has you psyched out, somehow making your game crumble just when you need it.
Often times, if you focus on your goal too much, in this case, your friend, you actually put too much pressure on yourself, and you crumble.
You know you are a top junior player. You know you can beat lots of other top Aussie Juniors. Now go out there and focus, play your best against the other guys, beat them, and get over the hump you are trying to climb right now.
I can emphasize. I had this one friend whom I could never beat, not even in practice. So I managed thru the years to beat some of the guys who beat him, bypassed him in some Open tournaments, lost to him in some Nationals, but ended up beating more top local players in the long run, and getting a higher ranking thru the 3 years we played competitively....but always lost to him!
Go around this roadblock, rather than butt your head thru him, and you'll find your tennis ascension just keep growing, on a normal rise, just like you want it to.......

 

[fuzz nation]

I've coached some local high school kids for a few years and the biggest revelation I've seen in terms of developing sluggers like yourself is just how much everyone can benefit from good lessons in psychology. Face it - for any of us who don't know how to manage our heads out on the courts, that's something that needs to be learned and not just by trial and error. This can require some reading, maybe some coaching, or even a quick consultation with a professional.

A really productive thing can be as simple as writing down your expectations as a player, both in general and also for a specific match. Too many players expect that they will find their very best game way too often and this can obviously be a recipe for chronic disappointment. If you can get in touch with the "downs" that will come along with your "ups", you won't be so distracted by your missteps. After all, there's a pretty good chance that all of us are going to miss at least one shot in the future, right?

Remember too that training hard will help you to be more capable in your matches, but it doesn't take the place of match experience. You may want to go into some matches with specific plans drawn up so that if one mode doesn't seem to be working, you can shift to another. This lets you continue executing a plan against your opponent instead of being passive and reacting to whatever they decide to do to you.

It's okay to be selfish out there - by that, I mean find a way to enjoy yourself. Don't sweat the score whether you're winning or losing. Stay in the moment and tear into each point as best you can and when that one's done, scratch it off you to-do list and get to work on the next one.

 

[Jay_The_Nomad]

The best advice i can give is to tell you to focus on your own game and not on your peers'.

People develop their game at differnet rates. A player may be super average at age 14, but suddenly at age 17, they may transform into this scary player that gets everyone talking.

This is because tennis is an amalgamation of different skills. As a junior, your physical coordination & technical abilities are still developing. For some people, everything starts to gel early, while for others, it takes a while.

With that in mind, there's really no point stressing too much about the improvements of your peers, because it isn't necessarily an indication that you are getting left behind and will not reach the final destination.

They may whack you straight sets everytime at the moment, but you might be on a different developmental path. So if you start stressing, you'll affect your own development because stress will affect your ability to translate practice efforts into match results.