OK, you’re out there in a tournament or league match, and for whatever reason, your normal plan A just ain’t working.
Maybe it’s your opponent who is playing great, the conditions of the court or weather don’t favor your plan A, or maybe, just maybe, you’re making unforced errors and can’t execute your normal plan A.
What do you do? Go straight to another style of play, modify your normal plan A, etc.?
Do you even believe enough in what might be a plan B for you to go to it during the middle of a match?
I got world class tennis writer Joel Drucker on the phone this morning to discuss this topic.
Maybe my questions were a bit self serving as I really needed a plan B during my quarterfinal match at the World 60s recently in Perth Australia and I just flat out didn’t compose myself enough to be able to trust that a plan B or even a modified plan A would help.
So, the bottom line is this. You gotta be able to sit down and identify those specific match situations where things aren’t going your way and evaluate them in a way that you can bring out s slightly, if not totally different, strategy.
The key is to commit lots of time to practice whatever plan B or modified plan A you feel will work best for you.
If there’s a specific stroke or strategy that you can be honest with yourself about and identify as something that would enhance your ability to develop a true plan B or modified plan A, then get yourself over to my list of lessons and let’s get started today with tinkering here and there to plug up any holes in your game.
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Hi Brent,Some things you said.
1.”If I’m going to lose this point”……
2.”I don’t want to lose it because….”
3.”I’d rather lose the point by getting past then…”
My comment on that is that by “talking” to yourself this way is setting yourself up for failure. Your priming your unconscious mind to lose. As you probably know your unconscious mind cannot process the NOT. So,in my opinion,it would be better to feed it with positive ideas instead of negatives. And of course to stay focused. And both need practice as much as groundstrokes,volleys etc.
Nico
Hi Nico and thanks for your comment.
There’s a different way to look at “losing” the point.
First of all, let’s be real, we are never ever going to win 48 straight points to win a match 0 and 0.
If we do, we’re clearly playing way way way below our skill level.
But to me, if I do lose a point, I want to still make a statement to my opponent.
Such as, if I come up to net and force them to pass me, when they do I want them to think that they’ll have to continue to hit great shots throughout the entire match. That’s a great residual benefit for future points for me.
And the thinking, “find a different way to lose”, come on, it’s pretty much tongue in cheek. But the point is this, if you don’t change a losing plan, you’re for sure going down. So the thinking is to find another way to play the match, and if you do end up losing the match, at least there’s a real positive because you did at least have the guts to try to change a losing game.
This is not a loser mindset, but in fact a winner’s mindset for taking the risk to try something different. Putting pressure on myself to have to find a winning strategy could also be considered a failure if I don’t.
Brent – http://www.WebTennis.net/Tennis-Lessons.htm
Great discussion. It lets me know, that for me, the all-court method is best.
Thanks a lot for this Brent, you’re always trying to find new ways to help us out. As a matter of fact i’m pretty sure lots of people (including myself) often falls into that black hole and don’t know what to do, except maybe blame the racquet or hit your own head calling you stupid, and sometimes all it takes is to give it a thought and make some minor changes, but as you said, sometimes the ego is just to big, and you can’t give credit to the idea that tou’re losing even when you’re pllaing with your best shot.
Thanks again Brent.
All of those responses you mentioned to a losing game is just an excuse you can use if in fact you end up losing the match.
You’re right, we can so easily slip into that kind of thinking rather than saying to ourselves to at least try something different win or lose.
Brent – http://www.WebTennis.net/Tennis-Lessons.htm
Brent,
Great topic. I sent an email but not sure it went through – so here I go again.
It is difficult to get club players to try a Plan B- they are often afraid of trying an untested style of play for fear their friends will think they cannot play. Even when you can get them to acknowledge the need for growing their game by practicing in the game they play weekly for the past 10 years with the same people they fear letting their partner down.
As a player, it is difficult to think logically in the heat of battle. From the stands, I seldom make mistakes and can judge what to do. On the court the thoughts fly through the mind very quickly and have little sticking time to be evaluated.
Making notes on paper during the change over is probably the best chance to see the match as a coach or spectator from the stands.
It is easy to suggest that players practice with lower level players to work on an alternative style of play – however they are often afraid of playing poorly against a weaker player and having that player think they can almost beat you.
Great topic – good challenge,
Ken DeHart
For those of you who don’t know Ken DeHart, Ken is one of the USA’s top teaching professionals, having achieved the USPTA’s highest level of certification as a Master Professional.
What I love about teaching and coaching pros who’ve been around for awhile is that they understand what is reality for amateur level players.
So many of us live in this idealistic world as either a player or a coach, and at times it can be tough to hear and face up to what is the truth.
Ken’s last words in his comment are “Great topic – good challenge” and to me the big challenge here is being able to have the guts to carve out the time needed to practice a Plan B.
Look, learning something new always requires a certain amount of pain, not all of the time, but some of the time, and if you can accept the reality that you just might lose to a lesser rated player than yourself as you’re going through the learning curve, then you’ll eventually get to wherever it is you want to go.
If the thought of losing to a lower rated player is something you just can’t stomach (and can’t find a way to justify a potential loss because you’re trying to learn something), then you’ve got zero chance at ever developing a Plan B. Plain and simple. And in fact, you’ve got zero chance at improving any other part of your game if you can’t face up to the reality of the learning curve.
So, I’m hoping this topic of developing a Plan B also takes us to a tightly related topic that Ken mentioned, and that’s how to understand, accept, and not be afraid of our unique learning curve…
Thanks Ken and your comments are of course always welcome.
Brent
- If you haven’t already done so, my lesson on the mental skills required for competitive tennis players spends a lot of time on the “learning curve”. Get your copy of this detailed lesson here so you can learn how to accept the realities of the learning curve in tennis.
excellent presentation. you mention that you will practise more on different styles of play.
I’m about the same age as you but not at the same skill level. how many hours of practise & play would you anticipate doing in a week? or how many would be recommended for some one our age?
Great audio piece, but I’m not sure it’s such a complicated topic for somebody at my level. (I’m 3.0) For you guys up in the 4.0 and above levels, I know the separation from player to player becomes much thinner so this probably is more involved than for a 3.0 player.
For those of us weekend warriors, I agree with Joel’s assessment in general of ‘settling down’ and seeking to play more consistently and playing high % shots. Without this, I’m not sure you can make a more dramatic adjustment because my philosophy is, you need to eliminate the variables you can control before the other things will work. I think this would especially be the case for somebody at my level where lack of consistency is what separates me from a 3.5 and up player. But, I can make my opponent mis-hit, for example, on an off-speed or slice serve. Then I can begin to open up other options once the ball is in play, because my opponent gets tentative or gun-shy from mis-hitting my off-speed serves. That assumes my serve is on, so that’s the first battle!
I think the concept is true, though, of Plan A vs. Plan B. You’ve got to be honest with yourself enough to recognize that your usual style of play is not working. I’m not so sure it’s “ego”, though. For me, somebody who has to work at hitting consistently and against different styles of play, it’s simply stepping back mentally and assessing the situation enough to know adjustments are needed. And then executing well to make those adjustments. I still struggle with the first piece at times but am improving my recogntion that adjustments are needed. As a result, I am becoming more successful in match play and when I lose, not losing with such big point spreads (more deuces and tie breakers than before).
Thanks, always useful material!
Hi Brad and thanks so much for your thoughtful comments.
I’ve got two new separate interviews on this topic that I just did this morning with Ken DeHart and Brian Cheney that I’ll get posted soon.
Brian made a great comment about how the 3.0 level players can make changes to their game in a match. I’ll have both interviews posted later today.
Brent – http://www.WebTennis.net/Tennis-Lessons.htm
Going into a match Plan A is a must but in order to avoid getting too far behind to be able to catch up I try to change whatever component of my Plan A doesn’t work twice or at most three times in a row. Therefore it doesn’t take long before Plan A becomes Plan A1, Plan A2 etc. Unless the opponent is a real “loser”, he/she is going through the same process attempting to take advantage of each others’ strengths and weaknesses which are forever changing because of , mental, physical & environmental conditions, so that by the end of the match each player may be working on their respective Plan Zs. Therefore I think that changing to a Plan B is too simple a decision and too complicated to execute.