Focus Control
Focus Control
As you design your personal journey through our tennis library, studying
the information on groundstrokes, court positioning, shot selection and
more, there remains the element of tennis which is entirely "mental."
And no matter how well you hit the ball, there always seems to be someone
at the club who plays with indifferent strokes, but who always manages to
beat you.
There is an art to winning. The art of winning is made of self-confidence,
will power, composure, self-control, awareness and adaptability. Previous
columns have focused on the first four factors, and here I would like to
emphasize the need for awareness and adaptability.
In tennis you cannot stall and run out the clock as you can in football.
You still have to win the last point and close out the match. In tennis,
unlike basketball, there is rarely a referee, so you must control your emotions
while controlling the enforcement of the rules. In tennis, the conditions
vary widely, from a serene and wind-protected outer court to a noisy and
distracting center court at the club, from a fast hard court to a slow clay
court. In tennis, unlike golf, your game is directly influenced by
the quality of your opponent's shots. We all know about the players
who compete best against the hard hitters but have great difficulty against
the soft ballers. All these factors, some uncontrollable, demand that the
tennis player be aware and be ready to adapt.
The aware player must quietly count the opponent's errors and tendencies,
must know exactly why he is losing or winning. Then and only then
can the winner continue to impose their game against the opponent, and equally
can the loser determine to change some aspect of his losing game to have
a chance to turn around the match. Winning players learn as they play
their matches. This is not necessarily knowledge that is conscious
or readily expressible in the heat of the match, but it can dramatically
influence the outcome of the match.
Hit Winners or Force Errors?
With this in mind, is it better to play a game that consists of hitting
winners or a game that relies on forcing the opponent into errors? From
this corner, I favor the latter, that is, a game that forces the opponent
to miss. Why? Because, for example, if my opponent takes the net and I go
for a screaming winning passing shot, only one of two things happen. I hit
a winner or I miss. In neither instance do I learn anything about the opponent.
The alternative strategy is when the opponent first takes the net, I attempt
a higher percentage shot, hoping to force an error. The final conclusion
of the point is the same: I either win or lost the point. But in this instance,
because I've forced my opponent to play, I've learned something about his
strengths and weaknesses, knowledge which I can use on all future points.
A good example of how this works was Chris Evert's victory over Hana Mandlikova
in the 1982 US Open. After a long and furious rally, Hana missed on a running
forehand that Chrissie had angled wide and low. On the very next point Chris
crafted the same shot sequence, and again forced an error from Hana. The
next point the same sequence again. And now Hana felt, as we have all felt
at one time or another, that she was having a bad day. And, as she thought
it, it came true. Chrissie learned something crucial with that angled
shot to Hana's forehand, and she used that knowledge to physically and mentally
crush her (Evert won 6-3, 6-1).
So because of the give and take of tennis, the influence of the opponent
on our game, the lack of a clock or referee, the winner must truly
be observant and in control as the game develops. If this makes
sense, then rehearse the following affirmation -"Winners force errors."
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