Tag Archive for 'servizio'

How to manage the momentum according Maria Sharapova e Serena Williams

Some rules to achieve the excellence from two top tennis players.

Maria Sharapova

When you are in a competitive situation and you’re down, what do you do or say to yourself?
“I take my time in between in my service games. I walk to the baseline. I move my strings around. I do a little pep talk, and it’s very automatic. I think it’s more of putting my eyes onto my strings and having this repetition that it doesn’t matter if I won the point or lost the point. I’m on this this river that is going to get to where it’s going no matter what rock is in the way, no matter what storm is on the way. The water is, ultimately, going to go down the river. It’s a safe place for me because in tennis momentum changes so much, just like in life. One second, everything is positive, and you get bad news. You go from a great day to wow. I see those strings, and I see my fingers playing with those strings, and I think of being level headed and being not overly excited, not down. But being in this medium frame of mind.”

Serena Williams

My game is my mental toughness - “Just not only to be able to play, to win, but to be able to come back when I’m down. Both on the court and after tough losses, just to continue to come back and continue to fight, it’s something that takes a lot of tenacity.”

Practice under pressure -  Williams believes tennis is “70 percent mental,”, for this reason she tries to replicate match situations during the sessions. For instance: down 15 to 30 on her second serve. Competitive simulation is a  very efficient coaching method. P

Stay in the moment - many tennis players choke under pressure and tend to unravel when they are behind. It’s important stay there, using our mental strength to win. You reach this goal living the moment: “Even if you’re going through something in life, you can’t rush through it instantly. Take it one moment at a time. It’s the same on a tennis court. You have to take it one point at a time.” Live the here and now.

Forget the mistakes - “Another thing that makes me play poorly is if I’m thinking too much about my last match. I might have won it, but not happy with how I won it,” says Williams. “If you get really upset at mistakes, the best advice I’ve ever been given is to forget about it. You can’t rewind time, you can’t take back that mistake, but you can make it better and not do it in the future.”

 

 

Teach the behaviors that enhance the technique

It seems to me that the sport technique is taught well to young people but coaches doesn’t spend a lot of time in teaching behaviors which are best to be able to use this technique. For example, in tennis once a young  has learned to serve, he must practice it in the best way the most number of times. At this point,  at the young player is no longer devoted as much attention because she has acquired the technical gesture. My opionion is that the tennis player despite having acquired this skill, he is not yet able to reproduce it. In the best case she is scrupulous, some will try to stay focused before performing the gesture and then serve. I believe that in this way the tennis player cannot know if  he’s ready to serve, while most probably do it in a mechanical way. Moreover, in this game neutral situation will never come; because the player will always serve after a game exchange and a pause of a few tens of seconds. As we all know, what you think in those seconds is important in determining how you are preparing for the service. The effectiveness of the service stems as much from the way the tennis player spends the seconds prior to the execution. The question is, how often did you train to positively prepare youryelves  to the service and, only later, to serve? You can have the best technique , but if the mind says No or is distracted , the tennis player will have a problem: he does not know how to solve it because he never practiced in this way.

Assess your serve in tennis

The serve in tennis does not improve during the match, but whatever it’s your level of technical mastery of this act, it’s necessary for the implement to the highest level you’re capable of , regardless of the outcome of that moment. Remember:

When the ball went into the net or goes out, the error is obviously technical. So you say you ‘d have to hit it the ball in another way or the arm rather than your legs did not do the job right … all this is true but do not forget that the body does not move by itself  is ‘THE MIND  THAT LEADS, TELLING WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.

The error is always technical, but you should always ask yourself, ” How important is the mental component in this mistake I made in the serve?” And then you have to know how to reduce the error percentage, certainly the first answer that comes to say is:  ”I need to improve my technique.

To improve the mental approach to the serve you have to be aware of what are the psychological pitfalls that you fall down when you run this fundamental. To this end, I propose to answer a questionnaire in which you are asked how often you make mistakes more related on your mental attitude. No matter about your current technical limitations in the game you have to serve proving the quality of your action as well as now you possess, without being affected by the mental condition of the match- moment. If you use a mental approach also correct your technique will benefit from it and you can play in a more satisfactory way.

 

“How I cope with my serve”

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Instructions: Please read each statement and indicate how often you behave in situations as outlined below with an X marking the number that best indicates what is true for you.

1 means never and 7 forever – All other numbers indicate intermediate levels

How often:

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  1. The quality of my serve during the match and training is the same.

 

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  1. During the match when I serve I feel in a hurry or too slow

 

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  1. I make errors because I am angry or down

 

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  1. When I serve I am not focused?

 

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  1. Before to serve I know that it will be bad

 

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  1. I am too anxious to serve at my best and I don’t try to change this idea

 

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  1. I serve because I want to get out fast from this situation

 

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  1. I tell to myself that my serve is so bad

 

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  1. When I feel to win the set, I start to serve bad

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  1. When I shot the seond ball of the serve I don’t feel confident

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