“Oh, he always shoots his powder!” Many club players are geniuses at using up all their fitness and concentration reserves in the first six service games. This happens strikingly often against stronger opponents.
What’s so funny? Many players don’t even notice this. When you enter the course for a points game you are busy with all kinds of locations. You want to get into a good beat rhythm, you struggle with your nervousness and your opponent you also want to chase down strengths and weaknesses.
All these scenes you already notice from the moment you record. When the match starts, you give it all. I don’t want your opponent to even think he has a chance against you. You feel pressure that makes you play every point with full concentration.
When it is 4:4 in the first set, you run mentally and physically on reserve. Then a contested rally is enough, in which you have to run four times right and left to use up your last reserves of strength. Your opponent then finishes such points with a successful stop or a placed forehand, briefly played cross. This will also cause your ship to sink mentally.
You missed giving yourself concentration to concentrate on the important moments. How you can better allocate your budget and when it is worth investing all your energy and concentration, let’s take a look together now.
In tennis one speaks of the so-called “momentum”. Then one player has the balls in his hand and is superior. This player acts more on the court than he reacts. He lets the opponent run, stands closer to the baseline and plays flatter over the net without making many mistakes. Body language also clearly shows who currently has momentum on their side. The player who has Momentum on his side does not know a hesitant forehand.
Such a momentum shifts from one side of the net to the other during a match. It is a high art to recognize when one has the possibility to recapture such a momentum. These are the situations where you need the highest level of concentration. It’s not always the effort that is rewarded with victory in the end. But the targeted use of one’s own concentration.
Because a tennis match is dynamic, there is no reliable schedule when you need to be focused. However, there are situations in the game that are worth playing with more concentration, as you can get an important momentum in these situations. These game situations are:
If you lead 2:1 in the first set, you may give your concentration, your mind and your body a breather. Because with a possible 3:3 or 4:3 you will be challenged in a completely different way.
Even if you are trapped in battle with yourself and your opponent during the service game, you should not lose sight of the big picture, the match. If you serve at 3:2 and the first four points were fiercely contested, consider reserving your strength for a later time.
If you’ve been playing medals and tournaments for several years, you’ll have developed a feeling for game situations. Then you can feel if you can win a match, if it will be tight or if you may appear as a loser at the handshake at the net.
This developed feeling helps you to make the right decisions, when you really have to give everything in the match and when you can go more relaxed at certain points.
It is not always a wise idea to run after every ball and want to win every point by hook or by crook. It is cleverer that you use your intuition and your knowledge of the decisive game situations to divide up your concentration in the best possible way.