April 1, 2010
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Refusing to Lose Jim McLennan Consider the following, and I believe at one point or another we have all had this experience. You are in a very close match, momentum shifting back and forth, sets are split, but truly each of the first two sets could have gone either way. And as the match progresses into the third set you get the impression your opponent will simply not miss. No free points. No wild, errant shots. Your opponent is dialed in, not hitting winners, but simply refusing to lose. At this point you can still win this match, but only with a combination of error-free tennis and equally judiciously chosen and accurately struck winners when the situation presents itself. These are absolutely the most difficult opponents, who by attitude and shot selection have shown you they refuse to lose. You can become one of those players. It will take a mindset, commitment, and rock-solid will power to keep the ball in play. Why is it that these things are so darn obvious, but so hard to achieve? Points are decided by winners and errors, and nothing more. And certainly, unless your initials are RF, your errors will always, repeat always, outnumber your winners. If asked, “How did you play today?” The answer generally relates to the number of errors made, and the situations when those errors were made. If the opponent gives many free points and a sampling of errors, generally players think they played well against such an opponent. But if that opponent played the big points well, simply meaning they made few if any errors when the match was on the line, and on those same points it was you who made the errors, now the self assessments are reversed, resulting in, “Actually, I played poorly today.” But the cause is always on the other side of the net. When the opponent refuses to lose, you gain every opportunity to lose yourself.
Whitney Reed was ranked #1 in the United States in 1961. I had the opportunity to play him a number of times in singles and doubles in the 1970’s, and lost all those matches to him as did nearly everyone else. One day he casually remarked that he had never beaten anyone in our local tournaments. Incredulous, someone asked what he meant. And though a partial put on, Whitney both said and meant the following – that he had never beaten anyone because in each case his opponents had simply beaten himself. Fearing Whitney’s ability and reputation, most players self-destructed with an array of errors from trying shots they could not truly control. Spray or Margin for Error So how can you measure your own accuracy, and identify the range of your shots, "your spray," and then truly understand which shots to try and which shots to avoid? Set up a ball machine, or feeding partner, and a specific target on court. The target can be in the middle, in the corner, a crosscourt shot, or a down the line. After warming up, hit 10 shots to that target, and mark the location of each shot. Some shots may be close to the target and others way off the mark. Total the number of feet each shot missed the mark, maybe this would be 63 feet, divide by 10, and your spray, your margin or error, or your span of control is precisely 6 feet. Repeat this process for forehands and backhands. After a number of measures you will truly know how accurate you are. Now revisit the Whitney Reed example, where his opponents beat themselves trying shots they could not control. As you learn to keep the ball in play and master "refuse to lose," the secret, and there is a secret here, is to never, repeat never aim the ball any closer to the line than your spray will allow. A simple concept but, players who refuse to lose know the precise limits of their games. The rest of the players generally beat themselves. As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.
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