Improving at tennis and competitive success is about learning to perform at a high level consistently regardless of your practice partner or opponent. It’s easy to play down to the level of a “weaker” opponent or get intimidated when playing a “stronger” one.  I can’t think of a player who understands better the proper mentality than Raphael Nadal. Whenever I have seen him interviewed before a match he always has the same three themes.

#1 “I will have to play my best to win”: That’s probably not true for every match (and he probably knows that at some level) but Nadal knows he can’t allow himself the luxury of thinking otherwise. The one match he lets his guard down may be the one match the other guy has a great day. 

#2 “This guy is a very good player”: I always love when he says this because it’s usually right after the interviewer mentions that Raphael has beaten this guy 10 straight times. He pushes himself to play his best regardless of past results. To Nadal, every player is a “good” player deserving of his best effort in every match. 

#3 “I will try my hardest”: Anyone who has ever watched Nadal knows that this, more than anything, defines him. Determination and effort are what he is about from the first point to the last in every match. I have watched Nadal play when he is winning, losing, injured, against lower-ranked players, and against the best in the world and I have never seen him give anything less than his best effort. I would be willing to bet that Nadal brings this same approach to the practice court. 

Keep in mind that he is not trying to be humble or give a standard answer designed to sound good. He genuinely believes that this approach gives him the best chance of success. It’s hard to argue otherwise based on his results.

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     When I think back on the worst matches I ever played, it regularly came down to what tennis players refer to as playing “tight.”  Usually, this happened when I had already beaten this person a few months earlier or I felt I was entitled to win based on my ranking.  Whenever I had this mentality, my opponent seemed to have the reverse.  They were going to play their heart out with no sense of entitlement. I could bore you with every example throughout junior tennis and college, but a couple stand out in my mind that made the biggest impact on how I compete today.

              The year is 2000 and I have finally gotten my ranking up after a lot of hard work.  I am playing in the NC Junior State Closed.  The year before, I had a “Cinderella run” where I came in as a 15-year-old and finished third.  So, the next year I came into the tournament seeded third.  As I sat on my high horse I looked at the draw and saw I played a kid first round whom I had never heard about.  But, being young and overconfident, I figured he was terrible and I would have an easy match.  I felt that since my name was in red I was going to win and he was going to have to battle it out in the back draw.  My sense of entitlement and my expectation that he would just give me the match turned out to be a good learning experience.  The kid was good, but I seemed to be playing “not to lose” rather than to win.  On the other side of the court, my opponent was hitting out on the ball, moving me side to side and playing to win.  I was capable of winning that match, but my mentality of “I’m the #3 seed, I should be given this match,” didn’t quite pay off and I was off the court in about an hour. 

            The year is 2003 and I had just come off winning the 4A singles title for Myers Park High School.  I had the best tournament of my life and beaten guys that were better than me (ranking wise) almost the entire tournament.  I had never played so care free and smart in my entire life.  After all, I was not supposed to win that tournament.  But, a week later I had to play two of the same guys I had beaten in the quarter and semi-finals in the team playoffs.  I came into each match arrogant and thought my title of “State Champ” would get me through the match alone.  Needless to say I lost both of those matches and didn’t play close to the level I had played a week earlier. 

            A sense of entitlement is one of the many struggles tennis players go through and one of the major reasons they lose matches they shouldn’t.  You have to bring your best every match no matter who you are playing and leave what you have accomplished in the past because most of the time, that stuff doesn’t matter.  But, lucky for me, I had some of my best wins against guys who thought the same as me.  If they had played their best, I was toast.  This is also true in real life to.  No one is entitled to anything; you have to bring your best to the table every time you perform on the court or interview for a job.  So, next time you play Joe Schmo, make sure you erase your ego and perform like you know how to.

-Coach Dennis, October 2009

                One of the hardest things in sports is accepting a loss for what it is; you lost.  The first temptation is to find a reason why you lost by blaming someone or something.  Although I was ingrained with the concept of “Excuses are for Losers” at an early age, I will admit that the temptation to this is always there.  It all comes down to this:  your opponent was either smarter than you on the court, more skilled than you, or in better condition than you.  What everyone needs to learn is that no one wants to hear an excuse for why you lost, especially if it is the Mecca of all excuses, ‘Well I was just too tired.’    

                Rafael Nadal easily could have had this excuse if he had lost to Roger Federer in the 2009 Australian Open Final.  Nadal had just come off a brutal five-setter against Fernando Verdasco a couple days before the finals and the media had already made excuses for him before the finals had even started.  He had an easy out if he lost.  But, he came out and beat Federer in five sets.  Now, I know we’re all not Rafael Nadal, but what we can learn from this is that no matter what tennis throws at us, there is always a way to win and avoid making excuses for ourselves.   

                As a coach, whenever I hear the excuse “I was too tired,” the first thought that comes into my mind is that this person didn’t train hard enough before the tournament to be ready for what this sport will throw at them.  One of my favorite sayings is, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  This is so true in tennis because if you are not in shape for a tournament to where you can go six sets in one day, you are planning on losing that second match before the tournament has even started. 

                If you watch any press-conference for the NFL, NBA or MLB you may hear guys state, “No excuses, they were the better team today.”  When the media is yelling, “You didn’t have your best player,” or “Your team was facing a lot of injuries.”  Guys swallow their pride and accept the loss on that day and prepare even harder for the next game. 

                Recognize this: excuses make YOU look bad, not your opponent.  Learn from your losses so that at the next tournament, you will not have the same problems that may have contributed to that loss.  And next time you lose and hear that dreaded question from someone, “How’d you do?” The best answer is always, “I lost, he/she was better today.”

Most Common Excuses:

“I was too tired,” (You need to be in better shape and have a better nutrition plan)

“I haven’t played in two weeks” (You should have found some time to practice)

“I had a test the next day that I was worried about” (You should have planned ahead)

“I couldn’t hit a backhand” (You should have had more repetitions before the tournament)

“It was too hot”  (It wasn’t any cooler for you opponent)

“It was too cold” (It wasn’t any warmer for your opponent)

“I didn’t have any energy” (There are Power Bar gels that give you boosts of energy)

“I was injured” (If you were so injured you probably shouldn’t have played the match in the first place)

Think about it!

Dennis Myers, March 2009

‘Somewhere in the world there is defeat for everyone.  Some are destroyed by defeat and some are made small and mean by victory.  Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.’

- John Steinbeck

     Whenever you step onto the court your goal should be to get better and improve your game.  No matter who is on the other side of the court, your shots are still the same.  There is a serve to be served and a return to be returned; so work on them.

     Setting ‘mini goals’ within a match allows you to stay focused.  As some of you know, in addition to being a tennis instructor I also play competitive racquetball.  The Dowd YMCA has a pick up game system.  In some cases I play someone equal or better than me, but in the next round I might play someone who is a couple of notches below my level of play.  I tend to only have an hour or so to play, so I try to make the most of my practices.  Whenever someone I know I can easily beat steps onto the court the usual tendency is to just toy around and get the ‘W’ and hopefully someone better will come along the next game.  But what I have learned to to set ‘mini goals’ during the match to stay focused and improve my game.  If a particular serve is troubling me, I will only hit that serve the entire game until it is perfect.  Another example of a mini goal that I have is to never let someone below my level get more than 5 points on me during a game to 15.  This is an excellent goal to have in our own games to 11 or 15 at CTA.

     It may sound mean to an opponent you feel you are way better than, but having this mentality will help you focus and improve any weaknesses in your game.  Tennis related ‘mini goals’ for you may be working on your slice out wide on the deuce side, or hitting every ball past the service line.  I guarantee you will find yourself in this situation in clinic at some point in the future, so use these mini goals to make the most of your practice time.

- coach Dennis Myers (February, 2009)