How do I avoid self-cluttering?

This happens occasionally when I get to the ball and freeze because my footwork stops.

After that I play a short ball which my opponent can easily attack.

Let’s try and figure out why you freeze. The most obvious reason at least in my experience is lack of decision.

You see a ball and then you start consciously thinking all the things you need to do “correctly” like:

• prepare early,
• get into the right distance,
• try and use the closed stance,
• keep your eyes on the ball and head still,
• etc.

But what you haven’t decided yet is what you want to do with ball.

So once you get there your body stops because it doesn’t know what to do with the ball.

Hit low flat down the line shot or short cross court top spin shot?

The programs in the brain to achieve these two shots are different.

You don’t play tennis well by doing everything correctly. Unfortunately you have been probably misled by hundreds of instructional articles online and in magazines.

They analyze the technique to the minutest detail complicating things too much and making the information useless to the player.

Yes, the analysis may be correct (and it actually is in my opinion), but the information about the angle between hips and shoulders is completely useless to you.

Can you measure it while you play? How many people will video tape themselves and check the angles in a sophisticated and expensive bio-mechanics software?

What you need to do is to learn to PLAY tennis.

It’s a game.

How do you win points?

By not making mistakes and making the game difficult for your opponent.

How do you make the game difficult for the opponent?

2 most common ways (tactics) are making the opponent move to the ball and give opponent less time to hit.

Which means you try playing left / right and fast.

Now try to do that and your technique will improve. Your technique is the CONSEQUENCE of your PLAYING (tactical) intentions.

I am not saying forget about technique and never look up an article about tennis serve technique. But understand that the technique (how to hit the ball correctly) originates from tactics.

You get points in tennis for playing better, not for having a correct follow-through.

So to get back to your original question – why do you freeze?

You don’t know what to play and the most likely reason for that is thinking too much about how to move your body.

Start thinking how to outplay your opponent and your body will move automatically in the same way as when you drive a car and want to turn left and your arms automatically move one up and one down to turn the wheel.

You don’t consciously command your arms, they move as a consequence of your intention.

Play tennis and your technique will follow. And just in cases when you feel uncomfortable with a certain movement, take a look at the instructional articles to possibly adjust your technique

Related posts:


• Do You Need To Think About Tennis Technique In A Match?
• Do Women Worry More Than Men About Future Tennis Matches?
• How To Master The Approach Shot
• How To Deal With Negative Opinions About Us
• Hitting In Practice But Missing In A Tennis Match

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 11:47 pm and is filed under Tennis Instruction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.