Hi LooP,
Yes I can understand its difficult when trying to improve there are a lot of things going on in your head and much to think about! So for someone improving as you said the best things to focus on are keeping things simple, consistency and spin. These 3 elements are kind of all linked together, spin gives you more consistency and being consistent you can keep things simple and begin to progress.
Naturally most people treat practice and matches differently which is normal, practice is all about maximizing improvement etc and matches of course you want to win! Something many players tend to do is be a lot more brave and go for shots in practice but then play very safe in matches, to really improve you must start to use and “practice” all your shots in match situations too, even if that sometimes means making more mistakes.
The other tip I can give you when in matches is try not to over analyse technique because as you said thinking too much can be a killer, focus on keeping the shots smooth, relaxed and trying to play in a progressive way i.e playing more topspin attacks first and being positive with your returns.
The best way is to do your thinking in between points and understand why mistakes happened or why the shot was good so you can eliminate errors and repeat effective shots. Then during the points in practice and matches keeping your head more clear so you don’t have too many distractions.
Keep training hard! Tom
