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This newsletter comes in two languages: English and Slovenian. You'll learn new tennis mental tips, find out solutions to common tennis challenges in the Q&A section and be the first to know what's new on the TennisMindGame.com website.

Ta newsletter bo izhajal v dveh jezikih: anglescini in slovenscini. V njem bodo povezave do novosti na TennisMindGame spletni strani, ker bo vecina v obeh jezikih.

Za slovensko verzijo se pomakni navzdol po emailu!

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Hi!

A warm hello from Thailand where we have good hot weather and excellent practice conditions. Well, for some players it may be too hot.

At least that is what they percieve. Practicing can become painful - physically. But then you have that nagging feeling after the practice that you really didn't give your best.

Read more on this topic in...

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1. What's new?
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Which one do you choose: physical or emotional pain? This dilemma is explained in 100% effort.

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2. Q&A
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Q:
i need advice, i get beaten by this guy i play and he beats me pretty easy, but last night i went into the match thinking holy sh!t how can i get close 2 winning against this guy, please help me with some advice on how to be competitive against him, hes a sort of pusher who hits a lot of angles i really struggle against him and i freeze when i play him

A:
If try to get through this messy :) email we see two questions:

1. How do I beat a pusher (he plays a lot of angles)

2. I freeze when I play against him – I lost to him before

The first question is about tennis strategy – how to play against pushers.

Here’s how:

The first and the biggest trap that you can fall into is thinking that pushers don’t know how to play, because their strokes don’t look nice and their shots seem nothing special. You can immediately see that they lack good technique and that they won’t hurt you with powerful winners.

The second trap you fall into when you underestimate pushers is that you forget about the game. Tennis is challenging even without a tough opponent. You start thinking only about hitting good shots consistently and producing more winners than errors. Unfortunately, you are trying to do this while playing someone who’s nick name is “The Backboard.”

If you underestimate your opponent, you don’t give your best effort. You aren’t fully focused. You don’t put enough effort into movement, and your intensity isn’t high enough.

So first rule, give 100% effort in this match. (check the article…)

So let’s move onto strategies:

1. Pushers, of course, “push” the ball, which means that their ball has no pace. If you have solid volley and overhead skills, then your best tactic is to try to get to the net. There you have the best chance of finishing the points and keeping the pusher under constant pressure.

2. Pushers are emotionally :) attached to the baseline — or, better said, to the area up to two meters behind the baseline. Get them out of there! Get them into their uncomfortable zone — midcourt or even better — make them play at the net.

You can achieve this with drop-shots, drop-volleys, and low and short balls. But always be honest with yourself about whether your skills are good enough to pull off these shots with good percentage.

These are just few strategies on how to beat a pusher. I just opened the ebook Tennis Strategy Encyclopedia and copied these two. There are many more ways to deal with pushers:

- how to take their time of recovery away without hitting harder
- what is the importance of your own rhytm
- how to force them to play short
- how to use their speed to your advantage
- and more…

The part on playing the pusher is just 8 pages of 103 pages of Tennis Strategy Encyclopedia. How much more smart tennis information is in there…

2. I freeze…

We can also say that you are affected by pre-match anxiety and this really affects your tennis performance. You can’t move well; your movements are slowed down, you don’t think creatively and fast enough, …

You need to get out of this state and try to find your ideal state where you play your best tennis. You do this by controlling your arousal / activation level. When you feel anxiety before the match, you need to calm down. Deep slow breathing works best and you don’t have to practice any special technique of breathing. Just breathw slowly and relax your muscles.

The next step when you are starting to warm up on court is to raise your arousal to higher level (intensity). You need to become more aggressive and focused on your goal.

How do you do that?

By making few jumps, breathing faster, encouraging yourself with positive self talk, moving with positive body language – head up, energetic walk, …

Doing this will override your anxiety and freezing and activate you for the efforts ahead.

You will find more ways of controlling your arousal in the Mental Manual for Tennis Winners. You will also learn how to deal with 29 critical situations in a match and some of these will inevitably happen when playing a pusher.

And one of the greatest strengths of pushers is their mental toughness. Can you be smarter and tougher than they are?

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I will soon add some videos in the Tennis Drills section. The first ones will be about warming up in the short court. (mini tennis)

Talk to you on 20th of September, have a good time!

Best,

Tomaz

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Zivjo iz vrocega Bangkoka!

Pred dvema dnevoma sem prvic videl jasno nebo v Aziji. Sicer je vecinoma zelo vroce, toda ves cas je delno ali popolnoma oblacno.

Toliko o vremenskih zanimivostih, gremo na tenis.

Tokrat sem prevedel vprasanje in moj odgovor enemu od igralcev. Ker je tema zelo pogosta in zanimiva za vse, sem se malo bolj razpisal:

V:
Kako naj premagam nekoga, ki samo potiska zoge nazaj, igra kratke diagonale in me spravlja ob zivce? Ze velikokrat sem izgubil z njim in pred tekmo se vedno pocutim cisto trdega in nervoznega.

O:
Odgovor ima dva dela: taktika (kako igrati z "zlatim prinasalcem") in psihologija (kako obvladati predtekmovalno nervozo – tremo).

Taktika: "Pusher" nima mocnih udarcev in zato je ena najboljsih taktik, da greste na mrezo. Pricakujte veliko lobov toda skoraj vedno boste prisli do zoge. Tudi pasing ne bo izjemno tezek, saj bo zoga pocasna.

Igrajte natacno in zanesljivo na mrezi, hitrost voleja ni nujno potrebna. Prej ali slej boste imeli priloznost za zakljucek tocke.

Drug zelo dober nacin je, da spravite "pusherja" na mrezo, kjer se pocuti izgubljenega. Odigrajte skrajsano zogo ali nizek kratek slice.

"Pusher" bo zelo redko zakljucil kratko zogo zato boste imeli veliko priloznosti za pasing. Tu najveckrat ni potrebno tvegati prevec, saj je volej ali smes "pusherja" bolj sibak.

Vec o tem kako igrati s »pusherji« si lahko preberete v Enciklopediji Teniskih Strategij, kjer boste na 103 straneh spoznali ogromno razlicnih taktik, s katerimi boste lahko zmagovali tudi proti najbolj neugodnim tekmecem. (je v anglescini!)

Psihologija: Predtekmovalna trema je z drugimi besedami previsoka aktivacija. To pomeni, da je nivo energije (in custev) previsok za najboljso igro. Zato je najprej potrebno znizati aktivacijo na idealen nivo – torej se pomiriti.

Kako?

Z globokim, pocasnim dihanjem in sprostitvijo misic. Vsak se zna pomiriti ce se hoce. Vrhuski tekmovalci poznajo tudi bolj napredne tehnike vendar za nas nivo niso potrebne.

Naslednji korak je dvig aktivacije v pozitivno energijo in custva – najbolje ob ogrevanju na igriscu. S poskoki, hitrejsim dihanjem, pokoncno drzo telesa in glave boste dvignili energijsko stanje in dosegi pravo razpolozenje v katerem lahko igrate najboljsi tenis.

To je seveda le delcek nasvetov, ki jih najdete v Psiholoskem prirocniku za teniske zmagovalce. Dobili boste tudi kratke in jedrnate nasvete, kako obvladati 29 kriticnih situacij v teniski tekmi.

Vec v Psiholoskem prirocniku…

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Toliko za ta teden, se slisimo okrog 20. septembra.

Uzivajte v tenisu!

Tomaz Mencinger

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