This is related to the previous article about losing to players you have never played before. The main reason is that you may worry and not believe in yourself when you play an unknown opponent.

I came across an interesting article which may give you even more information about worrying and the difference between men and women.

Why Women Worry So Much explains that women are more likely than men to believe that past experiences accurately forecast the future.

The main reason why our mind wants to predict the future is survival. It has been hardwired for millions of years to learn from dangerous situations and adapt.

What you need to do as a tennis player is to IGNORE the predictions.

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My son was MVP for three years in high school and had the most career wins of anyone in the state.

He was recruited, does great in conditioning and playing the others on the team. He wins against all but number one seed.

Yet when he goes to play other teams/individuals he is losing. It is so sad.

I just keep telling him how proud of him we are, but I know he is hurting. Coaches are great, but it sounds like his confidence is crashing. Help.

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Hi, I was viewing your Tennis For Beginners videos online and had some questions about the serve.

The basics of serving I understand such as the grip. Here are some questions about some things I am not sure about:

1. My first question deals with the transition from the trophy position into the forward swing. In coming out of this stage should the lower part of the body be moving forward while the racquet and hand are going back.

It would kind of feel like you are going in two different directions at once.

Yes, if you analyze it like that, then this is true. But that’s not how you learn to do it.

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Dear Tomaz,

I am very happy with my subscription to your Web Page and I am trying to implement by myself some of the things I learn from it.

I have practiced what you say on the serve in the page on How to Play Tennis Videos and what you say in The Ultimate Topspin Tennis Serve Video Guide.

In the page on top spin you add the leg movement and it is in my timing of the racquet drop and the leg movement that I am having trouble.

I think I am bending my knees too soon at the end of the backswing, so that I lower or drop the racquet immediately after or while I do the backswing and bend my knees. I mean, I am getting into the racquet drop position while my knees are bent and my right shoulder is still down.

In the pictures of professionals I have seen in John Yandell’s page I see that they lower the racquet a bit later, while they are raising their legs and their right shoulder. But I am neither a professional nor a beginner. I have played for several years and I already have some muscle habits.

Is my movement I described a bad one for a good serve? Could I get more power by dropping the racquet while my legs and right shoulder are going up?

If so, I assume I should practice a variation of the last exercise on the serve (serving from the base line) , combining my leg movement with your two parts of the serve, so that in the first part I go from the backswing to the trophy position while I lower my legs, and in then the second part I drop and raise the racquet while I jump or extend my legs.

I’ve tried this new second movement and I find it backward, I seem to rush, not to have enough time to lower and raise the racquet to hit the ball while I am raising my legs, and sometimes I am late hitting the ball, hit it with the rim, etc.

So, my question is: Should I stay with my present movement, (in which I make my full racquet drop immediately after or while I do the back swing, and bend my knees,), or should I try to delay the racquet drop so that it is timed to go with the raising of the legs and right shoulder?

Even if it will be difficult to change my habits I have the will to repeat the above exercise or any one you may suggest to have a better serve.

Thank you for your help.

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The story of how I learned more about the non-competitive approach in tennis started in the summer of 2003, when Brent Zeller, a tennis coach from Marin County and author of www.effortlesstennis.com invited me to come over to USA and learn more about his method of teaching tennis.

I spent one month with Brent watching him teach tennis to juniors and adults in private and group lessons.

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Hello Tomaz,

Have so far had a good flick through the ideas it the Tennis Strategy Encyclopedia and I look forward to really getting into it.

Just a quick question for now based on a game I played earlier against an attacking & competitive aggressive baseliner, which I lost & is still haunting me.

I’d say I’m an all-rounder but his game dictated play throughout & gave me no rhythm, largely as in rallies his deep groundstrokes esp. on forehand were a lot quicker & harder than I’ve been used to & I struggled to cope with putting them back deep & with any control.

So throughout I was experimenting with suitable techniques eg on my forehand shorter swing & tighter grip & others without satisfactory success, I am a strong & athletic player, still learning after just a year, with a very good level for this time.

I feel that I am capable to handle this type of pace esp. on my forehand & also this type of player but just for now I would appreciate if you could advise on the best forehand technique for handling such power & pace on defence ie stance, grip, swing etc?

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I received this interesting question from one of the readers.

And since Pete Sampras and Roger Federer will actually play an exhibition match on 22nd of November in Kuala Lumpur, this may be the right time to ponder such a question.

In my opinion, the end result depends mostly on the surface.

I’ve seen both players play their best tennis and will try to make my best guess at who wins if we were somehow able to have Pete Sampras play Roger Federer when they were at their best.

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Hi Tomaz, I have two questions:

1. Very often easy looking Overhead goes into the net. Any advise?

2. My backhand not stable - very often ends up in the net or in the sky. Any ideas?

Let’s start with the smash where I see two possibilities:

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Hey Tomaz, I would like to thank you for all of the great articles on tennis and the mental toughness that comes along with it.

I’ve been fortunate enough to read and apply this information to my own tennis game and would like to say that slowly but surely it is making an impact on how I play.

I had always been the player to get very angry at matches and would explode with emotion and this was a question that plagued me and I couldn’t figure out why this happened.

Your information on tennis psychology has helped me very much in controlling and applying my best tennis to the game and another fascinating thing, life in general.

But my mind is always wondering and I just wanted to ask you about how our psychology reacts to other people’s negativity.

I mean at times for me I feel like when I hear something negative is said about me or even if I’m around negativity it for some reason bothers me.

I understand we control most of the things that go around in our heads, this is an amazing phenomenon.

But I guess my question is if this is something we can control, or is it on the subconscious level where it affects us no matter what even though we think we beat it.

I would love to hear everything there is to know about this topic and the human psychology on it in general.

May I ask you to leave your input on these questions that yearn for answers in my mind. Thank you very much for your time and your service.

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My son is fourteen years old, and he plays a lot of tournaments. He does o.k.

He does great at practice, but at tournaments he gets angry, or just tries to hit too hard and win all the time.

I have tried to talk to him many times, telling him to play smarter - he does all the hard work at practice and training and cannot play the best he can at tournaments.

Do you have any ideas for me? Thanks

Here’s where we adults get stuck with teenagers:

a) We want to change them - we want them to behave differently.

b) We don’t want them to suffer.

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