FOCUS!

There would be a lot to write about since my last post, like why I went back to inverted rubber on the backhand instead of short pips, how I had some very poor results but also how I won my first tournament in Estonia. Another time maybe, for now I just want to put down some thoughts and feeling from a very good recent session.

Good skills, bad in free play

I’ve observed recently a huge different in the quality of my game in different conditions:

When we do simple drills, say forehand to forehand top-spins, my shot quality is quite good and has regularly improved this year. I’ve also progressed a lot in some of my weaknesses, like backhand topspin, or my smash, which is now much more powerful.

But when it comes to free play such in practice matches, my level drops badly. Of course it’s harder when you don’t know in advance where and how the ball will come. But compared to other players by me the difference is bigger.

If this were to happen only in competitions, I could blame nerves, but it’s also the case in simple practice sets. The problem here isn’t nerves — I’ve actually progressed a lot there in managing stress during tense matches.

My problem is I don’t focus on the point until the end. I play a shot and then I watch what happens, what my opponent does (or even admire my beautiful shot…) instead of getting ready for the next shot. So I’m late, out of position and often loose points that I started well on the first shot.

So I need to focus on the ball more.

When I do, everything works much better right away. I’m earlier on the ball, I think less yet make better choices, and I miss less.

It works for a few points. And then I forget again to focus. Maybe it was a serve that surprised me, or a silly miss, anything can get my mind to think again at something else than the ball. Focusing is not an unconscious habit for me, yet.

Focus!

Therefore I went into last training with only ONE objective: Train myself to focus during each point.

As usual, felt good during warm-up, but as we started practice sets I loose the first 6 or 7 points. Decided not to worry and keep my objective: Just try to focus. Progressively it got better, I lost few more sets (my opponents were in good form also) but it was getting tighter.

And then at some point, I started feeling really great, I didn’t have to think at focusing, I was just doing it. I was faster, made better decision, more offensive. Forehand started to work great, shots were varied, I wasn’t getting tense or nervous even in tighter sets.

3rd balls

Most interestingly was my approach to serves and 3rd balls. While serves are my strength, following them up with a good 3rd ball attack is often horribly poor. This is again due to my lack of focus: I serve and don’t move right away in position for the 3rd ball, both physically and mentally.

This time however that really worked. I had the confidence to make many long serves that would give back long returns I could attack. My win percentage on this shot was fairly good I think, even against guys who know my serves fairly well and are able to attack may of them.

Promising

Now that is a very promising session. But I’ve had times before like this, when I was in the zone, only to not manage to reproduce it next time. So my focus still needs to be on.. focus! That mental state needs to become automatic, like a shot.