Podcast #159: Raise Your Tennis IQ (Part 3)
Thirdly, you need to understand that every person is at different places with their technique proficiency within different strokes. That's really Important to understand. Everybody is a little bit different when it comes to their development. We are in a little bit different place. If you're just beginning your tennis goals, if you're just beginning your journey through the game of tennis, you may have to be conscious of something on every single stroke. If you're trying to improve and you're just learning the basics and you don't have a lot of athleticism to build on and kind of use to automatically kick start your game. it's very possible that as you begin to learn, you will have to be conscious of something for every shot you hit. That makes it a lot of work and typically, real frustrating during match play.
If you're listening and that sounds like you, please don't be frustrated. Don't be frustrated by the fact that you feel like you're just kind of In a cycle, where you try to learn, you do it well In practice, you go to a match and you're trying to concentrate on it but you can't quite recreate it like you did on the practice court so you don't perform well, even though you thought you felt you knew the information, Which maybe you do. Consciously, maybe you know the information but you haven't done it enough times yet that you're very technically proficient at repeating it. So you go play a match, you underperform, at least on your own… to your own expectations, on your own mind, You under perform. You go back to the practice court again. F inally, getting to feel like it's better. You go back for another match and you just play terribly, and you have this cycle. Please, don't get frustrated if this Is happening to you. Understand that it takes time to develop strokes. It takes time to develop muscle memory. It takes time to develop an entire Tennis game, where everything feels Solid and you're not worried or nervous about Whether or not you're going to do it correctly. Hopefully I am making sense there. And that's clear and you understand. It's very important that you don't give up On this game of tennis cause you feel like it's taking to long To improve and too long to develop. It's really I mean, that's just how it is. It's going to take you some time. Next, I want to Talk about people who may be have Some natural areas of athleticism. Blake was talking this player that He complimented on his forehand, and the player had no Idea what he was even talking about as far as the technique is concern, As far as what he was using, specifically The windshield wiper follow through on his forehand. Some people are what we would described as Natural athletes; quote, unquote. They have kind of… and very often People are referred to as being gifted. They just have good Athleticism, naturally. Well, usually people like That have developed a general Athletic competence, usually from training at a Higher level at some other sport.
I would bet you that This player who seemingly Has automatically developed a windshield wiper follow thru, Probably has had either years and years And years of tennis experience and is something that just Developed naturally because he's just Hit a lot of forehands and over time It's developed into something that he has figured out has worked. It's not that he went to the internet and watched a bunch YouTube videos and then went on and practice it, And said “Oh, this is the way that Rafael [inaudible] follows thru Sometimes, his windshield wiper and So, he does it on purpose.” It's very possible that it's something he Developed naturally from playing years and years and years of tennis and practicing And getting better at it. Or maybe he has trained At a different sport and has gain a lot of natural; Not natural… Correct myself, a lot of learned athleticism. He's trained his body to be a good athletic. To be go at athletic skills.
So, he's picked up Tennis really quickly. By the way, tennis players in general, usually are able To transfer their skills over to other sports Very, very easily. In my experience, that's definitely been the case. Now these people, This types of people that has “natural Athleticism” may be May come into tennis with excellent tennis habit without even knowing it. That sounds like that was the case with this player. That might seem like it's unfair but Trust me, these people have, almost always Paid their dues elsewhere; thru years and years Of training someplace, If not tennis, some other Different sports. So, don't let that bother you To much that it seems that somehow or other they Have just skipped right to the Unconsciously Competent part. Trust me, At some point they have put in the work to trained their body and it's Not a fluke that they are able to pick this up without even necessarily learning what they're doing. Basically Blake, at of the day, there are Not specific things that should Always be conscious.
That you should be thinking about and there are not specific things That should just happen naturally and you Shouldn't have to think about them, they should just come As part of good technique, as you put it. It's totally different from person to person, base on their Individual skills, individual abilities And their individual experience Levels. Different sports or maybe even in tennis Specifically.
So, there is not a list Of technical areas where I am going to tell you. Alright Blake, these are things you need to go out and really think about. These are things that… don't think about at all. It's just going to happen on its own. I wish Everything just happens on its own but depending on Your unique persona as an athlete And your unique experience. That list of things Is going to be completely different from one person to The next. So, it depends. At the end of the day, that's the Answer to your question. It Depends. Just to recap real quickly Number 1 was the four stages of learning Any physical skill Unconsciously Incompetent, Consciously Incompetent Consciously Competent and Unconsciously Competent. Remember that it takes a lot Of repetition before you can finally do something without Thinking about but that should be your goal and then Every person has a different places in their technique. Every person Has different learn abilities as an athlete. Some people seem to be natural athlete But they've put in their time, trust me. At the end of the day, There is no set list of things that you should be Thinking about and things you should not be thinking about. Hope that makes sense. If you have anything further on that, feel free To let me know. My email address is: Ian at Essentialtennis.com.
Thanks very much for being a listener. I appreciate your submitting your question. Blake, good Topic to talk about. [music] [music]
Alright! This is today's episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast Episode number 159. Thank you really appreciate having you as a listener. Starting this week, I am going to go back on track with comments Again. I apologize, I've just been totally Overwhelmed the last couple of weeks And have not been able to continue keeping up with The comments as I did previous weeks But I am going to get right back on track, starting today. So, if you have any specifics thoughts, comments, Questions about anything I've talked about, this episode Of the Podcast. Go to EssentialTennis.com/podcast, click on episode Number 159 and tell me your thoughts and your comments. At the end of next weeks show, Number 160, I am going to read some of those Comments and respond to them. So, we'll have a little back and forth here between myself and those of you Listening, which I always really enjoy doing. So, go leave your comments. I'll read some of them next week. Until then, thank you very much for listening. Take care and good luck with your tennis. [music] [music] very much for joining me on today's show.
