What Do You Do When Your Tennis Just Isn’t There?
A few weeks ago, I came home after several weeks of travelling.
I hadn’t played any tennis while I was away, and a few days after getting back I had a match.
It didn’t go well.
I lost 6–2, 6–0.
Looking back, I probably should have known what kind of afternoon it was going to be from the very first point.
I lost the toss and my opponent chose to receive, so I had to serve first.
I stepped up to the line.
Double fault.
Not exactly the start I was hoping for.
Unfortunately, it set the tone for the rest of the match.
When Your Normal Game Disappears
After weeks without playing, everything felt slightly wrong.
My fitness wasn’t there. My feet weren’t moving properly. My timing was off. Shots that normally felt comfortable didn’t feel comfortable at all.
But the most difficult part wasn’t any of those things.
I couldn’t figure out how to get myself back into the match.
And this, I think, is one of the most difficult parts of the mental game of tennis.
It’s relatively easy to have a match plan when your game is working. It’s much harder to know what to do when it isn’t.
I kept trying to find something that would work.
Play more aggressively.
That didn’t work.
Play safer.
That didn’t work either.
Move my feet more.
Relax.
Try something different.
The more I searched for my game, the further away from it I seemed to get.
And before I knew it, the match was gone.
I Was Trying to Find the Wrong Thing
I’ve thought about that match quite a bit since.
Maybe my mistake was believing that I had to somehow find my normal game that day.
Because my normal game wasn’t there.
I’d barely picked up a racket in weeks. I wasn’t match fit. My timing was off. I wasn’t going to suddenly rediscover my best tennis halfway through the second set simply because I wanted to.
Perhaps what I needed wasn’t to find my best tennis.
I needed to find a way to compete with the tennis I had that day.
That’s a very different goal.
Instead of trying to fix my serve, footwork, timing, fitness and confidence all at once, I could have simplified the match.
Get the ball in.
Give myself more margin over the net.
Make my opponent play another shot.
Stay in points for longer.
Choose bigger targets.
Accept that it might feel ugly for a while.
And stop trying to solve everything at once.
Your Match Plan Has to Work on Bad Days Too
We often think about tennis match preparation in terms of how we want to play.
Where do I want to serve?
What patterns do I want to use?
What is my opponent’s weakness?
How can I use my strengths?
Those are important questions. Having a clear tennis match plan can help us step onto court with purpose rather than simply reacting to whatever happens.
But perhaps a good match plan needs something else too:
What will I do if my game isn’t there today?
Because there will be days when it isn’t.
Your forehand might feel terrible. Your serve might disappear. You might be nervous, tired or slow around the court. You might lose the first few games and feel as though nothing is working.
That’s when the mental side of tennis becomes particularly important.
The goal may need to change from playing well to simply competing well.
Simplify When Things Are Going Wrong
One of the lessons I took from this match is that when things start going badly, adding more instructions isn’t necessarily the answer.
Sometimes we need fewer.
Rather than thinking:
Move your feet. Relax. Hit through the ball. Be aggressive. Don’t miss. Watch the ball. Change something.
Pick one or two things you can actually control.
For example:
More margin. One more ball.
That might be enough.
It gives you something simple to return to between points and can stop you from constantly searching for a technical solution in the middle of a match.
It may not suddenly make you play brilliant tennis.
But it might help you compete.
And sometimes that’s enough to give yourself a chance.
You Don’t Have to Play Well to Compete Well
That match reminded me of something I probably already knew but didn’t manage to put into practice that day:
Playing well and competing well are not the same thing.
You can play well and lose.
You can also play badly and compete incredibly well.
On the days when your timing is perfect and everything feels easy, tennis doesn’t ask quite as much of you mentally.
The real test often comes on the other days.
When your forehand isn’t working.
When you’re frustrated.
When you’re losing.
When the match isn’t going according to plan.
When you don’t feel like yourself on court.
Can you accept the tennis you have that day and still find a way to compete?
I certainly didn’t manage it in this match.
But next time my game disappears, I want to remember one thing:
I don’t need to find my best tennis. I need to find a way to compete with the tennis I have today.
And I’m still working on that one.
Reflect on Your Own Matches
At Rafiki Tennis, we believe that improving your tennis isn’t just about what happens while you’re playing. Taking a few minutes to reflect afterwards can help you understand what worked, what didn’t, and what you might do differently next time.
Our Five Questions After Every Match is a simple match reflection designed to help players learn from their matches, build confidence and improve their mental game.
Get the free Match Reflection Guide and turn your next match into something you can learn from.
