Hi Lem
Great to hear from you again. Before I get to your questions I’d like to talk about how you can read the play better. The reason that you have trouble watching the racket is that the game is too fast to make these decisions consciously. Instead of trying to watch the racket, you need to have a broader awareness of the opponent as a whole. If you are only watching the ball or the racket you are missing out on a lot of information coming from the players positioning and body. Also, the aim is for this to happen at the subconscious level.
If you are getting caught out of position, it could be that you are watching without action. You should always be moving. Try preparing for your shot with the ball. Almost as if the ball is pushing your bat back as it is coming towards you before your acceleration forward.
How can you break bad habits? On this question, how about a mindset shift. You don’t break bad habits. You can only build good habits to replace them. Habits can be built at any age. There are many studies showing that your neuroplasticity will stay with you. All be it to a lesser extent than when you were a teenager. Try to make your practice match the scenarios in your games as much as possible. Focus on the process and not the result and prepare yourself to feel uncomfortable for a while.
Should you shelve competing for a while? In my opinion, this depends on how often you are practicing. If your practice to matches ratio is low then perhaps staying away from competition for a while is a good idea. This will give you time to reinforce good habits.
One final piece of advice. If the same problem has persisted for a while. You need to change something in your practice.
I hope this helps. Keep up the good work.
Dan
