Playing Well In Practice But Bad In Matches

In tennis, players believe that it is possible to play a perfect match. There is absolutely no way. Everyone misses. There are four main causes of errors in tennis. The first one is technique, the second one is footwork or, in other words, positioning, the third one is shot selection, and the fourth one is your overall mental game.

When it comes to the question of why you play worse in a match versus a practice session, it's the mental game that's responsible for that. The interesting thing is that your mental game affects the first three causes of errors. It affects your technique, footwork, as well as your positioning.

You might be wondering why your mental game affects these causes of errors in a very bad way. Therefore, in this article, we will tell you what you can do at the recreational level to get rid of this and start playing more like the pros.

Mental Blocks

Players at the recreational level have more of a problem with this transition from practice to a match compared to high-level players and especially elite level players. There's a reason for this which I will get into later on in the article, so make sure you stay tuned all the way to the end.

See what happens to your technique when your mental game is affected by the difference between just practice and a match situation is that you get tight. 

When you get tight, when you get stiff, when you get nervous, when you get anxious, all this stuff is caused by the difference between a practice session and a match session. Naturally, when you experience this, your technique is going to get affected.

So most likely, you are not going to swing out on your strokes. Your strokes are going to become shorter because you're tense, because you're tight, and you're going to be careful with your shots. This is something that's very common at the recreational level.

The solution is going to be in your mind. You have to get rid of the tension, get rid of this anxiety, and then naturally your technique is going to change back to the normal way, and you are going to be able to finish your shots the normal way. So how do you do that? How do you get rid of the tension?

Snapping The Tension

Well, there are going to be three things that you can do. Number one, you have to move more because one common trait of players who are anxious, who are tight, is that they don't move.

This is a biological thing that happens to animals when they're scared, they don't want to be heard or seen by the predator, and they stand still. We have some of this as well.

You have to start bouncing around in between the points. But that's not enough; you also have to make an effort to move more inside the point as well. Another thing that you can do to get rid of anxiety and tension is to start taking more time between the points.

One common trait of players who are tight is that they start rushing through points. They start speeding everything up. And the reason why they do that is they want things to be over with quickly.

They have a general discomfort with being on the court, so they don't want this to take forever; they want to get it over with quickly.

Take Your Time & Breathe!

You have to bypass this natural instinct that everybody has, and you have to start taking your time. Not only between the points, but also between the first serve and the second serve.

At the recreational level and at the junior level, a common mistake is when players miss their first serve and they rush and do a second serve right away, and a double fault very often is a result of it.

Another thing that you can do to get rid of the tension is to start breathing. Naturally, when we're anxious and we're tight, we're going to start breathing faster. Another thing that happens that's more specific to tennis is that we're going to hold our breath when we hit the shots. This stems from an angst, from an anxiety to miss the ball.

It's very important that not only do you breathe between your points, you take deep breaths, you take your time, you make a concerted effort to take deep, long breaths while you're taking your time, but also on your shots inside the point. Don't be afraid to breathe out when you hit your shots.

Grunting?

I don't want anyone holding their breath. Now, if a sound happens to come out when you exhale during your shot, in other words, you end up grunting, I don't have any problem with that, and you shouldn't either.

A lot of players at the recreational level, especially the ladies, they're embarrassed when they start making sounds when they play, and that's another reason why they hold their breath and end up making their strokes very stiff. So I want everybody to be okay with grunting. You should not care what other people say.

Bad Footwork

There is something that I want you to understand. It doesn't matter how good your technique is; if your positioning is bad, if you're in the wrong place on the court, you're going to be forced to improvise, and your technique goes out the window.

Once again, what you've got to do is force yourself to move more. You've just got to get those feet to move. Don't allow yourself to be flat-footed with your heels touching the ground. This is something that I see super frequently at the recreational level.

This is sometimes a sign of laziness and low intensity. I'm not going to lie to you; there are some players who are just lazy, or maybe there are some players who just can't move, who have physical limitations. I've got no problems with that. But also, what this can be is a sign of nerves.

The Floor Is Lava

Players are on their heels and they're not moving simply because they're tense. So the simple thing that you've got to do is make yourself move. Not only inside the point but also in between the points.

You remember Sharapova; she used to bounce around before every serve. I know Novak Djokovic made fun of her for this, but I actually liked this. And a lot of players, you'll see them bounce around before their returns. This is something that you can copy. You can start moving a lot more outside the rallies as well.

Bad Choices, More Consequences

Shot selection is something that's a problem across all levels of the game, even at the high level or the elite level. You see bad shot selection at times, and it's not always a mental problem.

In other words, the fact that you're anxious, tight, and nervous might not necessarily affect your shot selection. You might just generally have bad shot selection. There are players like that. But it is a fact that being tense, being nervous, being tight can influence your shot selection in a very negative way.

It stems from the following thing: a lot of players want the point to be over quickly. They are so uncomfortable that they don't want to be in long rallies. For that reason, what you will often see when players are tight is that they will attempt super low percentage shots.

Maybe they will overhit their second serve. They will go down the line when the situation doesn't present itself to do that. Maybe they are too far behind the baseline and go for these crazy winners. Maybe they are hitting a lot of drop shots. This is a very common thing that I see, especially at the junior level when players want to tap out of the point; they will attempt a drop shot.

Stay Patient

You have to bypass this by staying in the point longer, even though it's going to feel uncomfortable to do so. Aim for the middle of the court, get that ball higher over the net, and get into a 10-ball, a 20-ball rally.

Something fascinating will happen. Not only will this help to warm you up properly, you're going to get out of breath; it's going to move you around more naturally when you're in longer rallies. Also, the fact that you're making shots will increase the confidence in your shots.

Confidence Is Key

I talk about confidence in tennis being the following thing: confidence is your perceived probability of success, which is based on a successful history. Hence, if your history is missing a lot of shots, you're not going to have confidence in your shots. The only way to regain confidence in your shots is to make a ton of them.

The best way to do that is to extend the rally as long as possible. What you will see is that not only will the tension disappear, but naturally, your shot selection will change. Because I'm not saying that you should always play 20-ball rallies; this may not be your game style. Maybe you're an aggressive player.

But you will lose this horrible anxiety and uncomfortable feeling. You're going to start playing your game, and your shot selection will improve tremendously as a result of it.

Final Thoughts

Remember that this is a super complex topic. Don't feel bad; everybody is going through this. This is a thing that happens to every tennis player, even the elite players that you watch on TV. They played in juniors and they experienced exactly the same things you're experiencing. They got super tight, and their game went away.

The things that I talked about in this video, these are things that you can apply right away. Understand that this process will take time, and I don't want you to look for a quick solution. You have to get these experiences under your belt to be able to perform the same way you do in practice compared to a match.