Losing a match makes you improve more than winning

[?] Subscribe To This Site

Losing a match makes you improve more than winning

by Felipe Teixeria
(Canada)

Today I had a tennis tournament for my high school team. It was a ROPSSAA event (Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletic Association) and my first real tournament.

I went in the first game shaky. I had a 5-1 lead and lost 8-6 (we play one pro-set up to 8 games) due to nerves. The tournament is formatted in a way that allows you to lose once and still continue to try to win the number 2 qualifier spot for the tournament finals on Oct 23. If you lose twice however, your knocked out.

I realized how my nerves were against me and made a review of my game. The next match I played I won 8-2. My confidence was growing.

The third match I played against an opponent who cheated me out of victory. I called a linesman but it was too late in the match to have much effect and I lost 8-6 (he cheated on all big points- example 6-5 30-30, I hit a perfect drop shot on the line which was confirmed by my coach and some other people watching and he called it out, his call stood). I felt bad that I lost but this loss has helped me more than a win could.

You might ask well gee whiz how could that help you more? Well the way it helps me more is that now I have learned from my mistakes. The reason I lost was cheating and nerves. The cheating element is a way of saying that he is acknowledging he is not good enough to beat me and must use other methods to beat me.

In order to overcome this, I must improve my game to the level where he can't possibly challenge my calls or just out-play him where those calls won't matter. The loss due to nerves helped me more because it showed me that I needed to control my emotions and play my best tennis (which I did)

All in all, losing is a great way to improve in tennis (I would know, I started in August of last year and with lots of practice including beatdowns by my good tennis buddies, I have made great strides in tennis and have beaten players who have played for 10 years!) These beatdowns gave me more motivation to improve and now my matches with my tennis friends are neck-to-neck.

What I'm saying is that losing gives you more out of tennis than winning does (you learn more from a loss than a win).

Comments for
Losing a match makes you improve more than winning

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Oct 12, 2009
Rating

Good story and more about line calls
by: Nick

Thanks for the story, I completely agree with your title.

Cheating is always an element in matches. Especially during lower level tournaments where players have to make their own line calls. Which is what happened in your case: "confirmed by my coach and some other people watching and he called it out, his call stood".

Although cheating does happen, line calls are tough to make. There are times where you see a shot that was just out and you HAVE to stand by your call. No matter if you opponent yells at you or makes fun of you because the ball "was so in". This is especially difficult when playing a much more experienced player, regardless you still have to trust your calls.

Congratz on improving so quickly. Playing against friends, who are better, is a great way to improve.

Oct 23, 2009
Rating

I agree good stuff
by: Anonymous

I played a singles match today, I was beaten two and two. It was a great game for me because I played out of my comfort zone. I have been trying to develop a good double handed back hand. I decided today not to play safe, in a match situation i up until now have used my slice one handed back hand. Today i went all out to use my double handed. I was very happy with the result, I dont like loosing, but you can become a winner by looking at your game dispassionately, and using that information to become strong where you are week.

Oct 24, 2009
Rating

Good story
by: Thi

Thanks for sharing your story and lesson learned. Congratulation on your improvement and journey of learning. As someone had said, you may lose a match but don't forget the lesson that you have learned from it. Currently, I'm on the same quest for learning and improvement.

Oct 26, 2009
Rating

IMPROVING
by: Tunde

You didnt lose by playing a match, your opponent only took the match for the day and could be reverse the next time. You only lose if you refuse playing out of fear or emotions. If you reflect back on your game and visualise your strokes, strategy etc and found that it won some considerable amount of points, then you are a winner in sport. Tennis is life long sport, Federer does not win all matches and he is still learning from the ones he didnt take! He's been playing since he was a kid, and still learning. If you don't make mistake then you are not learning and your improvement will be poor in tennis and life

Oct 27, 2009
Rating

Interesting view
by: Thi

Tunde,

That's an interesting view point, I like that!

I heard someone said that instead of viewing as win/lose, view the result as an outcome and learn from it. It's not just the destination, enjoy the journey along the way.

Thi

Oct 28, 2009
Rating

Lines Call
by: Norman

We played with the unbeatable pair. We took a 7-3 lead when the umpire failed to make a match point call. That thing totally ruined our game. Because we really wanted to win the match since our opponent had not been beaten in the tournament.The game went into tie-break and we lost...

I realized we were to immature. we stil need to develop our emotional stability..

Thanks for the article... It really helps me a lot....God bless...

Oct 29, 2009
Rating

Not necessarily cheating
by: Ronen

It happened to me more than once that I made a bad call. I only knew about it later on when someone told me the ball was actually in when I called it out. Sometimes the your view of the ball touching the court from the side or from the distance creates such an angle that it looks impossible for the ball to be called in, although it really is.

It made me realise that it will probably be easy enough for others to make the same mistakes I make, ie call the ball out when it is in (or vice versa).

What I have learnt from that is that I should play safer when the point is important. Don't go for the line, extend the rally a bit more and allow to score a point with a safe margin from the line.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Tennis Experiences

footer for tennis mind page

Losing a match makes you improve more than winning

Comments for Losing a match makes you improve more than winning

Comments for
Losing a match makes you improve more than winning