Refuse To Lose

You are in a very close match, momentum shifts back and forth, sets are split but truly each of the first two sets could have gone either way.

As the match progresses into the third set it appears that your opponent will not miss. No free points. No wild and errant shots.

Your opponent is dialed in, not hitting winners, but just refusing to lose.

These are absolutely the most difficult opponents.

You can become one of those players. It will take a mindset, commitment and rock solid will power to keep the ball in play.

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, but on those same points it was you who made the errors, now the self assessment if 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 your self.

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. Target can be in the middle in the corner, and a cross court or down the line shot.

• 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.

As you learn to keep the ball in play and master refusing to lose, the secret, and there is a secret here, will be to never repeat never aim the ball any closer to the line than your spray would allow.

Players who refuse to lose know the precise limits of their game.

Everyone else generally beat themselves.