Rediscovering the Right Stuff
Everyone hits a moment in life where things are just not going very well, but when a tennis player loses his confidence in his game or his favorite shot, it can be tough to find the way back “home”… Several current and former top players such as James Blake, Marat Safin, Juan-Carlos Ferrero, etc. are struggling to find their past form at the moment. In some instances, players’s rankings have dropped a lot and therefore they struggle because they end up playing top seeds early in events.
Other times, players are simply not hitting as well and playing as confidently as they did when they were on top of the game. After reaching a career-high ranking of 4 in 2006, James Blake has struggled so far in 2007 and the slide seems to be getting worse not better as spring arrives. Blake has little margin for error in his high-stakes game and, therefore, when he’s misfiring on his “A game,” he doesn’t have a strong plan B. The challenge is to find a way to play “confidently” when the confidence just isn’t there. In order to do that, a player needs to focus on the very basic stuff like watching the ball, moving the feet and not worry about the score or the possibility of losing. Someone like Blake needs to continue to play “to win” rather than playing “not to lose.” Over time, the game and results should return.
|| Comments (0)
