Stupid shots in the tennis game
Are they really stupid?

Have you ever said "Oh, what a stupid shot?" If you were referring to your own shot, how did you feel? Not too good, I bet. And how did you play after that "not good" feeling? Not well, right?

When we watch tennis from the sidelines or on TV, it seems deceptively simple. Players move gracefully and hit the ball perfectly without seeming to put much effort into their shots (except some female players who scream while they hit).

We also clearly see where the players "should" have played a certain shot. Of course, we are watching from the comfort of our couch, through a perfectly placed TV camera that gives us an ideal overview of the court.

But in reality tennis is a very demanding sport. There are many reasons why, so let's just touch some of the most important ones:

• Actual game play takes only 10-35% of the game time that you spend on the court. The rest of the time, negative or unimportant thoughts occur that negatively influence coordination, timing and motivation, consequently affecting concentration and energy levels too.

• More than 1000 times per match, you must make a decision in less than a second. No one is perfect, so you make mistakes. How you »handle« these mistakes is crucially important to your game.

• Tennis is an individual sport with no time-outs, no substitutions, and no time limits.

• On a serve, the ball flies up to 240 kilometers per hour, and on a groundstroke, it flies up to 100 kilometers per hour. This means that the ball travels the length of the court in 0.5–to–1.5 seconds. That’s the time you have to perceive where the ball is going, react, and move to intercept it while deciding how to play it on the move with a moving racquet in your hands.

Therefore, before you master all the physical and mental tennis skills needed to play the tennis game at a high level, you will inevitably make mistakes that may seem “stupid” if you (of course) compare your play to that of top professionals.

But a mistake isn’t stupidity, it’s just a mistake. You intended to win the point in one way or another: only after you actually play that shot can you see its results in that particular situation.

And since we are not computers, we sometimes need to miss many times before we realize that a certain approach usually will not work. Before that, we see that the approach isn’t working, but we aren’t sure whether the problem is the approach or just failing to execute it well enough. That’s why we keep trying something even when it may seem stupid to an outside observer.

So now that we know all this and realize that there are no stupid shots, what are these mistakes then?

I simply call them “inexperienced” mistakes.

You haven’t enough experience to decide perfectly every time. Sometimes you experiment. Sometimes you want to do your best, but you don’t know all the strategic and tactical mistakes or the correct ways of playing the game.

This means that you just lack experience.

So, when you make a mistake, instead of labeling it as a “stupid” mistake, view it as an “inexperienced” mistake. How does that feel?

It sure does feel better, doesn’t it?

It relieves you of the guilt feelings and gives you hope for the future. Indeed, seeing mistakes as stupid implies that you are stupid. And, since stupidity is a permanent condition, this view implies that you are doomed to make stupid mistakes forever.

The choice is yours; how will you view your mistakes from now on?

As stupid or as inexperienced?

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