Excuses: Just Say No

What a crippling habit making excuses can be, essentially what they are is a "get out of jail free" card for not performing in such a way that we know is possible if we just put our minds to it. I'd like to take a few minutes to outline some of the most common excuses that I hear on the tennis court. Along the way I will hopefully also encourage you to start using less of them and empower you to increase the level of your game at the same time.

Around two years ago I actually started keeping track of all the excuses that I hear on and off the tennis court that people give regarding a match, stroke, or ability to execute something tennis specific. I had an idea to create a funny/satirical gift book with cartoon drawings illustrating each tennis excuse taking place with the player giving their cop-out of choice. Once I started listening for them specifically it really amazed me how often excuses were used during the course of just an hour of play and my list quickly grew. I put that project on the wayside, however by the time I stopped working on it I had three main categories of excuses and over 80 of them that I had recorded.

Alright, without further adieu here's my top 3 excuses:

1. "The shot was was too easy."

Wow do I hate this excuse and if you've used it before I apologize but come on, really? I understand the premise perfectly well but it's just not legitimate. What this comes down to is focus people, the easier the shot the less excuse there should be to miss it. If you commonly find yourself setting up a long point and finally getting to the pay off where you have the open court and an easy ball only to dump it on a regular basis into the net it's time you start buckling down and really focusing on only two things: the ball and your target. That's it. Do not allow any worries or negative thoughts into your head like "what if I miss this! I'll look like an idiot!". Conversely don't take this easy shot too lightly either and lose concentration by saying "Yes, I've got them!" only to look away from the ball and shank it off your frame.

2. "You jinxed me!"

In my teaching I hear this one constantly and it drives me crazy as well. The scenario typically goes somewhere along these lines: Player hits great shot or is participating in a good rally. Pro or other player compliments said player on their accomplishment. Player misses badly on the very next shot and proclaims "Thanks a lot! You jinxed me!". Once again this comes down to concentration and focus. Perhaps it's human nature to hear a compliment and immediately think "Wow I'm really doing it, don't screw up now!" but you have to start building up your tolerance for outside distractions and mental weakness. Next time somebody compliments you on a great shot or rally instead of expecting the worse say to yourself "Darn right! I'm going to keep it up!" and focus on continuing your excellence as long as possible rather than assuming something bad is around the corner. Basically whatever we dwell on is going to have a strong possibility of actually occurring, what do you allow your mind to dwell on?

3. "I didn't think it was coming over" or "I didn't think it was going in".

Again low focus and concentration. Make a commitment to yourself every time that you step onto the practice or competitive court that you will hustle 100% for every ball. Did I say hustle after every ball that you "think" will be going in play? No, I didn't. Hustle after every single ball no matter what the circumstance. One of my coaches during my competitive career used to always say "There are no subjective decisions" when it came to going for a tennis ball. When one of my teammates or myself would stand and watch a ball travel out by 6 inches without having moved for it he would become livid. Seem a little harsh? After all, the ball was actually out, we had won the point! But what if we were wrong?

I know that just like myself you've literally stood there and watched as a ball landed on the line that you had assumed was going out or was going to hit the net, often times these are balls that we could have easily reached had we not been mentally and physically lazy. So don't make any subjective decisions on the tennis court, there's only one response when the tennis ball is hit by your opponent: you WILL move towards the ball. Don't hesitate or think it over, just move every single time. Not only will you start building better habits but more than likely your reaction time and physical speed will increase as well.

In Conclusion

What do all three of these excuses have in common? They're mental errors that were made and the player using them has refused to take personal responsibility for them. As long as you continue to let yourself off the hook with these excuses and others like them your game won't advance as far as it possibly could. Start taking responsibility for your actions and mistakes, your game and mental toughness will be better for it!