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WHY DO YOU LOSE?

By Mike Whittington, TennisONE Contributing Editor

Have you ever had a match charted or videotaped? If so I bet you found out a lot about your game. Did you see the mistakes you made far outnumbered the winners your opponent hit? Many players leave the court after a match thinking about all the great shots their opponent made.

Although it may not be what you want to hear, you need to find out where your errors in match play occur. Let me give you an example. In a recent match I charted for a student, she missed 40% of all serves hit to her forehand. Her backhand return was better but still inconsistent. So what did she want to work on in her next lesson? Overheads! Why overheads, you ask? She missed an overhead long by letting the ball get too far behind her at a crucial point in the match. She actually only missed two overheads the entire match and made several. Yet she walked away thinking her overhead had let here down rather than her true weakness--the return of serve.

Finding out why you are losing can be a big step in improving for the competitive player. Without this knowledge, you won't know how to practice: you'll be practicing your strenghts and neglecting your weaknesses.

Of course I'm speaking from an instructor's opinion but I think it is definitely worth it to have match charting lessons. Your instructor can watch you in actual match play and see how you react in those conditions. After the match, you can see statistics and direct your practice accordingly.

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