what do you do when you go from playing your best tennis to absolute crap?

[randomname]

this weekend I played a tournament and it was literally the best I had ever played, I was hitting the ball harder than I ever had and more consistently, my serve had more spin, and I was putting away volleys left and right. now, flash forward to tuesday and not only can I not keep the ball in, but its nowhere near as heavy a shot that I was hitting earliar, and my serve might as well be a 3.0 woman's. the only thing I'm still doing relatively well is volleying. is there a good way to get out of this slump or am I just gonna have to wait it out? if I dont actively make a change will this permanently hurt my technique?

 

[Lionheart]

Well when I go back to playing absolute crap there are only two reasons: my wrist injury is back (as it is atm) or i´m rusty/rushing things.
For a start don´t be pissed off when you miss a shot, you already know your playing bad so don´t get mentally down as well.
Then, if your in a match, focus on technique, I find myself rushing my serve when I´m playing bad so i say to myself: leave that left arm up there after the ball toss. This usually brings my timing back.
On the other shots make sure you move well! if you don´t move well you are not getting those shots in.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Be thankful that your volleying is still in tact. I played a double match the other day and I couldn't volley worth crap. My serve rocked though and we ended up winning 8-7 in a tiebreak.

 

[spot]

Get back to basics. I have like 4 key phrases I say to myself whenever I hit balls wrong. They vary depending on the problem. For forehands that are just wild they are:

"keep your wrist back"
"get it out in front of you"
"watch the ball bounce"
"hit through the ball"

I literally say them out loud like its a coach talking to me. I have a very auditory memory and it just works well for me.

 

[Cindysphinx]

this weekend I played a tournament and it was literally the best I had ever played, I was hitting the ball harder than I ever had and more consistently, my serve had more spin, and I was putting away volleys left and right. now, flash forward to tuesday and not only can I not keep the ball in, but its nowhere near as heavy a shot that I was hitting earliar, and my serve might as well be a 3.0 woman's. the only thing I'm still doing relatively well is volleying. is there a good way to get out of this slump or am I just gonna have to wait it out? if I dont actively make a change will this permanently hurt my technique?

What do I do?

Think carefully about whether it is a footwork problem.

For me, that's the problem about 99% of the time.