Problems in the local league matches
darion888 asked 3 years ago
Hello,
I’ve been recently struggling extremely with local league single matches. During warm-up or matches I normally play very well, agressive, technically correct with a lot of rotation and good spin. I’m even able to beat much more experienced opponents. But the problem lies when I attempt to play league matches. My body becomes tensed, sometimes I make technically weird shots and lastly I lost a match to a player who was weaker. During the matches I feel some pressure from coaches that have expectations and I have fear of failure, etc. thoughts. Seems like it’s taking over too often and leads to failure. I also have a question how to play against kids. Being too passive and waiting for them to make a mistake seem not to work always. Since they normally play very brave and agressive.
Tom Academy Coach answered 3 years ago
Hey! Yes this is a very common problem with players with getting tense and not being able to reach heir maximum ability in matches. I have to say there is no easy fix for this and a lot of it comes with experience and playing more matches. But some things you can do are really havia game plan to follow or a certain tactic to get in your strengths or avoid an oppositions strengths. This gives you some to focus on and target during a game rather than just thinking about winning or losing.
Try to think about having a good performance rather than just winning, the results will come long term if you can do the right things and play the right shots during games. Of course this will take time but it will come with practice.
Against kids often it’s trying to get in first to stop them being aggressive or if you can’t then at least keeping the serve and return game tight and trying to keep our of the open game too much.
Let us know how you get on!
