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says
what
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Well-Known Member
Keeping in high form regularly esp. vs worse players
Hello.
Perhaps my biggest problem right now is consistently playing at a sufficiently high level relative to my own max.
It's not that I keep losing all the time because of my laziness, more so the opposite: I know I can win against the people I play and I take it too easy. Sometimes, a big upset even happens due to it, but the biggest issue is that I'm simply not satisfied with how it feels to play.
Instead of toning down my overall technique to conserve energy, I know I should just produce easier strokes, but all with good form.
Instead I do very strange, absolutely terrible form on most shots when I have this "lazy mode" on and my footwork is really lousy even if my normal "serious" footwork is leaps and bounds better. If my opponent plays any well, I won't get my shot on the table due to the terribly gimped shot.
The only time I start trying and revert to my normal good form is when I really need points, and I've even came back even from 2-8 like this, but I feel it's becoming a habit.
Symptoms:
Lack of small steps in footwork
Not taking off fast enough for wide balls even if I can catch amazingly wide and fast shots normally
Not going in/out fast enough
Not low enough
Very short stroke
Not rotating body
Not paying attention on receive
Serving and receiving without a set gameplan
The biggest problem is my gimped strokes. When I start swinging too short and not with good mechanics, I lose confidence in my technique and thus all of these increase.
This is not in competition, just friendly competitive practice games. I've noticed I do far better with a crowd in "exhibition mode" where it "matters" how I look, as stupid as that sounds. All I know is it's sometimes caused by tiredness, but mostly it's a mental issue.
Should I play every point like I'll die if I don't win it? Will that just make it worse? etc.
Hello.
Perhaps my biggest problem right now is consistently playing at a sufficiently high level relative to my own max.
It's not that I keep losing all the time because of my laziness, more so the opposite: I know I can win against the people I play and I take it too easy. Sometimes, a big upset even happens due to it, but the biggest issue is that I'm simply not satisfied with how it feels to play.
Instead of toning down my overall technique to conserve energy, I know I should just produce easier strokes, but all with good form.
Instead I do very strange, absolutely terrible form on most shots when I have this "lazy mode" on and my footwork is really lousy even if my normal "serious" footwork is leaps and bounds better. If my opponent plays any well, I won't get my shot on the table due to the terribly gimped shot.
The only time I start trying and revert to my normal good form is when I really need points, and I've even came back even from 2-8 like this, but I feel it's becoming a habit.
Symptoms:
Lack of small steps in footwork
Not taking off fast enough for wide balls even if I can catch amazingly wide and fast shots normally
Not going in/out fast enough
Not low enough
Very short stroke
Not rotating body
Not paying attention on receive
Serving and receiving without a set gameplan
The biggest problem is my gimped strokes. When I start swinging too short and not with good mechanics, I lose confidence in my technique and thus all of these increase.
This is not in competition, just friendly competitive practice games. I've noticed I do far better with a crowd in "exhibition mode" where it "matters" how I look, as stupid as that sounds. All I know is it's sometimes caused by tiredness, but mostly it's a mental issue.
Should I play every point like I'll die if I don't win it? Will that just make it worse? etc.
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