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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!

I have received a question through YouTube with a video attached. I find it a great idea so I put Q&A on my website for everyone to see.

Maybe tennis video instruction is the future of tennis websites so I invite you to check tennis serving tips.

I would appreciate if you tell me whether you are interested in video tennis instruction on TennisMindGame.com or not. The survey is at the bottom of the tennis serving tips.

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1. What's new?
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I have discovered a certain "law" regarding tennis players. Everyone has a number...

What is your number?

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2. Q&A
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Q:(part I)
My major problem is double faulting in general and under pressure especially. How do I deal with this? Is there a magic bullet to considerably increase the consistency of ones serve? (especially under pressure)

I know most players have trouble with this but in my case it is really extreme. 3 double faults per service game are no exception and I even had the horrible experience of “4 in a row” twice this season.

A:(part I)
There are so many reasons why you may miss your serve so I will just give you some and then you can check them one by one:

1. You may be trying to hit better serve than you are capable of - and I mean only technique and your feel. Maybe you haven't developed enough feel yet or you have some technical errors that prevent you from hitting with higher speed and still be consistent.

You could tape yourself, upload a video to YouTube and I could see what is going on...

2. Maybe you are capable of hitting the serve quite consistently but the pressure situation makes you tense (choking).

Here we have a few options too:

- first of all - you already think that your serve is bad and that affects your serving even before you toss the ball. This is a tough nut to crack...

- you are afraid to miss - maybe you think, that if you miss a serve that it is ALWAYS your fault. It is not. No one can serve the ball in every time (with quality - speed and precision). The problem begins when you miss the first one and you DON'T ACCEPT that as a part of the game.

Did Michael Jordan always hit the basket? No, he even missed 26 shots where his team lost because of that. If he hit in, the team would have won. Did Michael stop trying? No, never. Missing is a part of the sport, not always our fault.

- you think too much while you are serving (or before) that you will miss - this affects your concentration and you don't focus on the ball or ball flight.

Ok these are some of the reasons that I can come up with without seeing you serve and seeing you serve in the match.

Tell me which of these might be your reason too and then we can move on.

Q&A(part II)

Hi Tomaz,

Thank you very much for your quick and extensive response. I will reply in your text.

1. You may be trying to hit better serve than you are capable of - and I mean only technique and your feel. Maybe you haven't developed enough feel yet or you have some technical errors that prevent you from hitting with higher speed and still be consistent.

This used to be the case. In fact my serve used to be quite good an had plenty of pace. But because of the low percentage of serves in, everyone advised me to develop a safer and slower serve with top spin. I have spent tons of money on private lessons and hours and hours of time but it has become worse and less reliable eversince....

The one word the bothers me there is "slower". Yes, top spin serve is slower but it shouldn't be slow. I'm afraid that by thinking "slow" your arm moves too slow. You lose a lot of speed anyway when you hit the ball with topspin, so the actual speed of movement is almost the same as with flat serve except that you brush on the ball.

I had a lesson today where I expained the player something similar - you cannot control tennis. You need to trust the serve and let go. Just do the motion of serve - relaxed and fluid and notice the results. You will miss at first.

But then continue serving like that and "want" the ball to go in. If you serve too long, "want" the ball to go shorter.

Similar to driving the car - you just "want" to go left, and then your right arm goes up and your left arm goes down (on the driving wheel) - you don't do that consciously. Tennis strokes are the same.

You could tape yourself, upload a video to YouTube and I could see what is going on...

2. Maybe you are capable of hitting the serve quite consistently but the pressure situation makes you tense (choking).

Here we have a few options too:

- first of all - you already think that your serve is bad and that affects your serving even before you toss the ball. This is a tough nut to crack...

Yep, that's me...

First you need to accept that. Don't fight it. Yes, I have a bad serve now. But it doesn't have to stay like that. Feed it with positive energy and encourage yourself when you make a mistake. (were you criticized a lot in your childhood? We develop a pattern which is the same as we experienced from our parents. You did something "wrong", they scolded you.

Now they are not around, so you do it for them. If you make a mistake, you MUST be criticized.

This doesn't work for me. I don't get good results with that approach. I let it go. I now help myself when I make a mistake.

- you are afraid to miss - maybe you think, that if you miss a serve that it is ALWAYS your fault. It is not. No one can serve the ball in every time (with quality - speed and precision). The problem begins when you miss the first one and you DON'T ACCEPT that as a part of the game.

I have come to the point where I can accept one double fault per service game. Two or more destroys my game since it will cost me the game and in the long run (if it happens over and over again) the match.

OK. Accepting means that when you make a double fault, you don't change anything with your next serve and you also don't think about missing again.

Did Michael Jordan always hit the basket? No, he even missed 26 shots where his team lost because of that. If he hit in, the team would have won. Did Michael stop trying? No, never. Missing is a part of the sport, not always our fault.

- you think too much while you are serving (or before) that you will miss - this affects your concentration and you don't focus on the ball or ball flight.

Yep, that's me again :-)

Stop. Imagine the ball flight. (Ball going in) Serve.

Thank you Tomaz!

This helps. I will need time to practice...

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One more thing - I came across a very informative tennis site called Tennis Buzz.

You might want to check it out but only if you speak French... :)

Best,

Tomaz

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Zivjo!

V tokratnem emesecniku si preberite vprasanje in moj odgovor zagretemu tenisacu. :)

V&O

No po 10ih urah treninga sem bil preprican, da sedaj bo pa sigurno slo na bolje in dejansko je slo precej bolje, ampak ne proti vsem nasprotnikom. :(

Ravno danes sem igral z mojim najbolj neprijetnim nasprotnikom. Njegov stil igre me popolnoma vrze iz igre. Ostala dva s katerima igram, udarjata bi rekel nekako normalno (oba sta mojih let okoli 25-27) in njune zoge brez nekih vecjih tezav vracam, ce ne naredim taksne ali drugacne torej tehnicne ali takticne neumnosti. Njiju bom z nekaj vaje sigurno premagal, ker 10 ur je pac le samo 10 ur in potrebno bo se kar nekaj vaje, da udarce izpopolnim (do sedaj sem igral po nekajkrat na leto, nekaj let vmes tudi sploh nisem igral, sem pa zacel ze kot otrok, ampak v glavnem stena in televizor).

Ja, koliko bi bil mocnejsi, ce bi sel za 10 ur v fitness? (recimo 2x na teden) No, razmisljaj na enak nacin tudi pri tenisu.

No ce se vrnem na mojega glavnega nasprotnika, je star 45 let, z ze kar zajetnim trebuhom, ampak igra pa vsaj enkrat na teden ze leta in leta in to proti precej dobrim igralcem in sicer vecinoma dvojice.

Njegov stil igre me frustrira, ceprav sem se danes maksimalno drzal nazaj, da je bila glava custveno stabilna (kolikor toliko) tudi igral sem bolj umirjeno, da nisem bil pretirano zadihan, bolje sem se postavljal, bolje serviral, bolj takticno sem vracal, a se vedno sem izgubil 1:6 (igrala sva samo eno uro).

Dobiti 1 gem proti dobrim nasprotnikom je zelo tezko, sploh ce igrajo zares. Tocka gor ali dol ni tak problem, ampak dobiti 4 tocke prej kot tvoj nasprotnik je pa druga zgodba. Ok, gremo dalje...

No vsaj eno igro sem dobil, prej sem dvakrat izgubil 0:6 in imel sem ze nekaj priloznosti, za ze drugo igro, a se ni izslo. Moj problem z njim je, da zna hudicevo dobro in hitro servirati, za povrhu na desni strani na moj bekend na levi pa tudi dostikrat. To je prvi problem torej returni na hitre udarce (bekend in forhend), ampak to je problem ko on servira, ...

Return - poskusi si kupiti nekaj casa s tem da gres bolj nazaj - kaksne 2 metra za osnovno linijo. Pomembno pa je, da se vedno gibas naprej ko returniras, tudi ce gre zoga 200.

Skrajsaj zamah in ne razmisljaj, kako bos zogo nazaj nabil, ampak kontrolirano vrnil v sredino igrisca vsaj cez servisno polje. Moj cilj je raje zadnja cetrtina, tudi ce kdaj zgresim.

Druga varianta je da ne gres nazaj ampak return bolj blokiras kot udaris. Cilj je spet dolga po sredini ali diagonala.

Glej zogico! Potrudi se in se cim veckrat spomni, da bos sledil zogici do tocke udarca. Tako jo bos zadel bolj v sredino loparja in imel boljso kontrolo.

se vecji problem pa je da skoraj vse zoge ali spina ali slicea, te so ponavadi tudi zelo hitre in zato zelo nizke ali pa se cudno odbijejo (trenutno igrava v dvorani na nekem tepihu z gumicami gor - fit top v Mengsu) in zelo rad kaksno skrajsa in seveda mocno poslicea pri tem. Res, da mu jaz dajem verjeto preenostavne zoge, da se lahko tako igra z mano, ampak vseeno on vse zarotira, tudi ce jo komaj ujame, zato me zanima kako (tehnika) in kam (taktika) take zoge vracati?

Torej hitre, rotirane in nizke, dolge in kratke? Ce mi pade pocasi na bekend znam tudi jaz zelo ucinkovito sliceat in mu jo posljem na njegovo desno crto ali pa celo v desen kot in tako ponavadi dobim tocko, ampak vse ostalo mi je pa velik problem. Forhand recimo slabo sliceam. Ok zdaj sem ze mal prevec napisal, ampak res rabim pomoc, ker ne vem kako naj naslednjic igram proti njemu?!

Kako zogo zarotirati ni problem. Problem ali izziv je kako jo rotirai na razlicne nacine in pri tem le malo zgresiti. Bliznjice ni.

Igraj ure in ure in treniraj. Vanja ti lahko demonstrira rotacije, po emailu bova zgubljala cas...

Za vracanje takih zog se jih moras navaditi. Med igro ni casa za razmisljanje, na kaksen nacin se bos lotil te zoge. Poskusi najprej bolj pocasi in s kontrolo vrniti zogo globoko na drugo stran. Ce tega ne mores pri majhnih hitrostih, je tudi pri velikih hitrostih to le loterija.

Poskusi opazovati tudi nasprotnika in iz njegovega giba razbrati, katero vrsto udarca je izbral. Dobro glej zogo in poskusi biti bolj sproscen, ko udarjas. Zelo verjetno se prevec napnes (zategnes misice) in roka se more koordinirati glede na zogo ker je zacementirana. :)

Igralci, ki radi igrajo slice, imajo zelo radi nizke hitre zoge. Torej, si ze poskusil pocasne in visoke? Ko bodo vrnili bolj slaboten slice, jih napadi.

Tezko ti povem kaj vec, ker ne vem vec o njem ali tebi. Poskusi biti cimbolj natancen, ko mi opisujes njegovo in tvojo igro.

Kupil sem tudi tvoj DVD in knjigico Psiholoski prirocnik in sta oba super in ju skupaj z encikopedijo na veliko gledam in berem.

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Toliko zaenkrat, lep pozdrav iz Tajske!

Uzivajte v tenisu!

Tomaz Mencinger

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