Topic: Need to be more aggressive!!!

[tennisgeek]

I find it difficult to go for big forehand winners when given a opportunity during a match, but I know I need to, to improve my game. My conservative side takes over just wants to get the ball over the net and not risk losing the point. Any help (especially mentally!!!) would be appreciated, I have only been playing for two years, but I am getting frustrated why this is happening!!!.

[Tennis4you]

Tennisgeek...   First of all welcome to the boards!  I am glad you stopped by, I hope you do so again.

Second of all, don't feel bad, we all battle those demons.

Tom V. from Tenniswarrior deals with the mental side of tennis.  He has over 70 articles on the Tennis4you Lesson Lounge.  Some deal with what you are talking about.

Here is a link to one of his articles at Tennis4you dealing with the mental battle of going for your shots.  I hope it helps.  Keep us updated!

http://www.tennis4you.com/lesson-lounge/tennis-warrior/article-011.htm

Allow me to add that getting tight on your shots will cause you to miss a decent amount of shots too.  And since you got tight to avoid missing a shot it is almost counter productive!  I assume that you get tighter on the shots in matches against people you are not used to playing or in bigger point situations?  Match experience is where it is at.  It takes time, but after a while those feelings of nerves die down some on the court and you have the freedom to go for more of your shots.  Here is a link to an article I wrote about Match Experience a few years ago.

http://www.tennis4you.com/lesson-lounge/tennis4you/mental/experience.htm

[tennisgeek]

thanks for the articles, they make alot of sense, While reading the second article, I realized I also have a problem keeping my eye on the ball!!!, especially when I go for alley winners!!!. Is there any articles on hand/ eye coordination improvement?. Any help would be appreciated.

[Tennis4you]

Hand-eye coordination?  Not that I know of.  I am sure there are exercises you can do even non-tennis related that could help you some.

Two things you can do off hand.  When I start taking my eye off of the ball to early I say the classic "bounce-hit" in  my head.  What happens is when the ball is comign towards you and bounces you say "bounce".  When you hit the ball say "hit".  You can do it out loud or in your head.  It is a general exercise that forces you to keep your eyes on the ball longer.  I have always liked it.

The other thing you need to know is this.  You have played for two years now.  You know how big the court is.  And I bet you could hit most shots and never look up to see where the ball went and tell me if it landed in or out and even the general area of where it landed.  Knowing that, why take your eye off of the ball early?  We do it because we want to see where the ball is going.  Unfortunetly when we raise our head to see where the ball is going to go the head of our racquet lifts up too.  So if we look up too early we are going to hit a lot of frames and bad shots.  So there is really no need to look up before you hit the ball, you know where it is going as soon as you hit the ball, stick with that!  Looking up too early just causes problems, even though we all do it sometimes.

[10usnut]

I heartily second the bounce-hit focus that Scott mentioned above.  These are great to try especially at the start of match or when your opponent changes tactics.  It helps me get in a much needed-rhythm and helps me focus on the ball and not much else.

chris

[ImaMadGoat]

This sort of has to do with what I experienced last week. When your in a point, and you find your opening.....don't even think about screwin it up. Think to yourself in your head...."I'm gonna blow the felt off this ball and send it screamin past this guy" scream C'MON in your head! Get loose but not sloppy. The worst that can happen is that you'll miss the shot....and if you do, at least you'll know that you went for it and didn't cower away because you were AFRAID of losing! It makes the point easier to get over if you lose it if you know you gave it your all. Obviously you must employ excellent stroke technique but that should be natural when you're settin up to crush a winner.....You just have to know it. You have to know it will work and trust yourself....if you can't, who else will?