Progress

Today, hit with Dana, a recent grad from Bryant and it was an hour and a half of revelations. We talked about many elements of my game. I made this list of things to remember:

1. Work at improving my game. 

2. Don't try to beat someone playing anyone else's game but my own. 

3. Be more opportunistic with short balls and an opponent who is on defense. 

I'd like to elaborate on these.

1. Work at improving my game. 

This first one should probably be recognize and then work at improving my game. What does this mean? What it means is recognizing my strengths and working on them.

What are my strengths?

I have three:

a. serve
b. volley/net game
c. forehand

What are my weaknesses?

a. Topspin backhand

What do I do fine?

b. Backhand slice.

Now, until today, I think I was under the impression that what I need to do is work on my weaknesses, my backhand and, in particular, my topspin backhand.

But Dana was of the realism school: recognize what you are good at and do it again and again and again. Do everything you can to play to your strengths and not weaknesses.

What does this mean in practice:

a. control the point from the baseline as often as possible with my forehand

b. serve and volley occasionally

c. look for short balls and opponents on the run for attacking opportunities

d. go big on serve and hope for free points

e. do everything I can to hold my serve quickly to force opponent to have to defend his serve frequently and under pressure/duress (think of what it feels like when you lose an opponent's service game quickly and find yourself serving again--like you never really had a break)

What I learned today is that it's okay to be the player I am. I do not need to be a different kind of player. I need to be the kind of player that I am and I need to try to play to my strengths and execute. If I lose while doing this, I'll have nothing to feel bad about. I'll have just been out-played.

2. Don't try to beat someone playing anyone else's game but my own. 

There is no doubt that I've been confused about this. I have been under the impression that I should have a different game, a game other than my own. I've been under the impression that my aggressive style of play is somehow wrong--that I'm too impatient and that if I could just learn to be more patient and to keep more balls in play, I would be a better player, a real singles player.

That way of thinking, I learned today, is straight-out wrong.

I need to accept my strengths and accept the kind of player that I naturally am. It's that simple and on a very fundamental and deep level, that's what this is about: accepting myself and my style of play as right for me. This was one of the most profound realizations today. Acceptance.

In the past I would sometimes tell myself, when playing against a particular kind of opponent, a grinder or counter-puncher, that I really should be able to grind or counter-punch, that I'd be a better player somehow if I could do this. I saw these styles of play as somehow "better" than the style that I play. I would, when playing a grinder or counter-puncher, try to adapt to that style of play and to prove that I could be just as consistent.

Consistency. A lot of what I'm talking and writing about here has to do with consistency.

But I think I've had a mistaken belief about consistency. I believed that I should work on consistently trying to keep the ball in play. What I now think is that I need to work on consistently implementing my style of play, imposing my style of play on the points. Relentlessly imposing my game on my opponent. If I am to be consistent about anything, it is playing to my strengths. That is an important take-away from today's play.

3. Be more opportunistic with short balls and an opponent who is on defense. 

Dana wants to see me serving and volleying more often, at least once a game, he said. But also, he was very helpful in pointing out missed opportunities to go on the attack. Short balls and moments when my opponent is on the move/run. Also, moments when I crack a big serve. Identify the moments when my opponent is unlikely to hurt me and, in fact, likely to hit a weak, short ball. Anticipate those moments and be prepared to go on the attack.

This is a key point and something I've sort of known before. I sometimes create opportunities and then fail to close them. Sometimes I make an error, but more often, I fail to close. I need to be more relentless about identifying moments for aggressive play and exploiting those. I am trying to close out points rather quickly, not get into long rallies with the hope that I can outlast my opponent. Trying to outlast my opponent will allow him to hit me lots of backhands. When I am hitting lots of backhands, I am on defense and am likely to either a) make a mistake, or b) hit a short ball that will allow my opponent to hit a winner. Stay away from defensive situations where I am engaged in long rallies to my backhand.

Also, an important lesson that I was learning from Kristelle, the cross-court backhand rally is not my strength and really is something I want to avoid at all costs. When I go to the backhand against a player like Kristelle or Dana, it should be to put the ball away. My strength is my forehand and the court is longer on the diagonal, so I should be hitting a lot of forehands cross-court, into the forehand court. That's a good situation for me. I can hit forehands cross-court all day long and maybe force my opponent into trying to go down the line, a riskier shot for him. If I'm going to go to the backhand side, it better be on the attack, to close out a point.

What an aggressive player like me wants is to close down points fairly quickly, to move my opponent, to create opportunities and exploit them.

What a counter-puncher or pusher wants is to keep me on the court all day and to make me hit as many backhands as humanly possible.

My job is to assert my game and to force my opponent to have to change his.

 "You are a doubles player."

Dana kept saying this over and over and he pointed out that I serve and volley EVERY point when I play doubles, but rarely do it in singles. If I do it every point in doubles, I must feel confident with it, so why don't I do it at all when I play singles?

Damn good question. Because serving and volleying has faded from professional play? Does that mean it should fade from my game, too?

Obviously, not. It's something I'm good at. I should do more of it.

I should also look on a serve and volley as an opportunity, like a good hard first serve, to score a quick free point. I have two good ways to score quick free points on my serve. Currently, I only really exploit one of them. I need to exploit both.

Basically, what all of this boils down to is recognizing what you are good at and what you are not good at and ACCEPTING this (why have I not been able to accept it before?). Then, it is a matter of practicing the kind of play that you are good at and not the kind of play that you're not good at (how many lessons and years would it take before I get to the point where I feel as confident hitting over my backhand as I do hitting a forehand???).

Understand my "A" game. Implement my "A" game. Practice my "A" game.

Sounds easy.

It was an evening of profound realization--things that have dogged me my whole life. Maybe now I'll learn how to play within myself and not keep hoping I'll become, at this stage of my life, a player who I am not. I am a doubles player with a big serve and forehand. That's how I should try to win.

Imagine what it would be like to walk back to the baseline knowing that you lost a point only as a result of poor execution, not as a result of a poor strategy (or non-existent strategy). That would take a lot of the pressure and stress out of tennis.

Today felt like and feels like an enormous step forward in my growth as a tennis player.