The mental element

The mental game is the entire game. The physical is only an extension of what you're capable of doing mentally... mental toughness and the power of your mind is just really unbelievable.

- Phil Davis, mixed martial arts

~ o ~ x ~ o ~

I was 2-5 0-30 down on my serve.

My arm was fatigued from the rigours of the previous sets and my legs felt sluggish.

Usually reliable, my serve had deserted me while my opponent was sailing through his games.

The sun, gradually becoming more intense, added to the perspiration and exhaustion that I was experiencing.

I was ready to throw in the towel, dab rackets at the net and end my misery.

In my mind, the set was lost. I told myself, "Just go for shots. At this point, cannot play defensively. There's always next time. Learn from this!"

I angled a wide serve in the deuce court to his forehand which, thankfully, went in. He just about got to it and looped a high return back down the line. Recalling the sagely advice that I had just given myself, I stepped into the court, took the ball on the full (meaning that I didn't let it bounce) and hit a hard driving two-handed backhand. If I was to go down, I would go down swinging!

I am no Nadal; he is just my favourite player by a mile! 😄 The photo is purely to show how a driving two-handed lefty backhand might look!

Here's the deal - my natural stroke is a single-handed backhand and I truly cannot recall the last time I attempted a driving two-handed backhand. In that split second, I instinctively put my left hand on the racket to give the stroke more power and, hopefully, more control.

The stroke was pure and whizzed past my flummoxed opponent. I was equally shocked that it went in.

2-5 15-30. Still quite a bleak score line.

I continued to aggressively go for my shots off both flanks and, lo and behold, won the next 3 points.

3-5.

My opponent looked a bit rattled. He still had the advantage but would now have to serve for the set.

On the other hand, the way I was able to fight back in the previous game gave me a new lease of life. I was still physically tired but mentally more engaged. I fought for each point and broke his serve to make it 4-5.

"Okay. Back in it. Get the ball in and play carefully. Tone it down. You've done the hard work to get back on serve."

100% terrible advice. The complete opposite of what had got me from 2-5 0-30 to 4-5 in the first place.

I promptly lost the first point when I hit a short tentative forehand up the middle of the court that my opponent absolutely murdered cross-court. Upset with myself, a double fault followed.

4-5 0-30. Back to where I was 2 games ago - 2 points from losing the set.

"You fool! Stop playing tentatively! Swing through the ball! What's the worst that can happen? The score and points don't matter. Get that into your head!"

A lengthy rally followed in which neither of us gave the other an inch. Eventually, my opponent gained the upper hand with a well-placed forehand down the line that I had to scamper just to reach. Again, I was faced with having to make a split-second decision. With hardly any backswing, I brushed an angled cross-court backhand that caught the line and bounced out of his reach.

4-5 15-30.

"You saw what happened the last time you tried defensive tactics, right? Forget the score. Just keep going for your shots."

After a struggle that involved saving a set point as well, the score was 5-5.

About 10 minutes later, the set was in my pocket 7-5.

While being physically beat, I was acutely aware of how the set had ebbed and flowed and the singular role that the mental element had played in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I knew I wanted to write about it and that's how this post was born!

~ o ~ x ~ o ~

I am going to shift tracks here...

On reaching the courts, I complete a stretch routine that my former coaches have hardwired into me. Thereafter, my friend and I rally for about 10 minutes before starting a set. (I just realised how the same person was a 'friend' in the previous sentence when rallying while an 'opponent' in the segment above when playing a set! 😄)

During those rallies, I freely go for shots. I use the time to experiment with different strokes and grips - the results of which are comical at times with the ball either crashing into the net or sailing miles away from where my mind had visualised it going! 😅

Recently, there was a day when we rallied for 90 minutes straight (with a couple of water breaks thrown in) without playing a set and both of us found that to be rather tiring! We were hitting the ball hard and clean and had worked ourselves into a fine rhythm. It was liberating to not have a ticking score at the back of my mind and my goal is to eventually be able to get into this zone of confidence and play with such abandon during matches too.

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Clearly, the effect that playing a set and keeping score has on my game is palpable. Frankly, I wish it didn't have this effect! After all, these matches carry zero stakes and the outcomes don't matter. Unfortunately, I have this propensity towards a defensive style of play, towards playing not to lose rather than to win when there's a scoreboard - something which I'm slowly trying to overcome through the mental berating sessions I have with myself on court! 😂

This goes straight back to Phil Davis' quote - it truly is all in the mind. If I don't train my mind to focus on the actual physical act of playing each ball on its merit and to block out the mental pressure contributed by the scoreboard, my game will be a muddled mess. With age comes maturity and self-awareness; now, I keenly observe these nuances about my game that escaped my eye when I played during my school and college days.

~ o ~ x ~ o ~

The mental part is the hardest part, and I think that’s the part that separates the good players from the great players.

- Michael Jordan, basketball

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Tailpiece: After a 10-year hiatus, I set foot on the court earlier this January. I had played some badminton and a ton of table tennis during this time which, I was sure, had ruined my tennis strokes! 😂 Nestled in my hand, the weight of the racquet and the cushioned grip felt simultaneously familiar and alien. The guts striking the fuzzy ball, the sound accompanying that impact and the pulsating vibration up my arm... I didn't realise how much I had missed all this! Hitting that first shot felt like reconnecting with an old friend - exciting, strange, surreal and a bit dissonant all rolled into one! 🎾 Muscle memory is wonderful! My body simply "remembered" what to do - how to move my feet and arms in conjunction to strike a forehand, how to toss the ball and arch my back to hit a serve, how to make changes in the grip when switching between forehand and backhand, how to hit a delicate drop volley... Within 2-3 weeks of playing, I was able to shake off most of the rust! I was convinced that I needed to keep tennis a consistent part of my life for as long as possible. The game has taught (and continues to teach) me a lot and enriches my life in a way that other personal and professional pursuits do not. 😀