nightwork

I have a friend who goes into people’s dreams at night (only if he’s invited) and helps them out with their problems. That is his way of serving others. I have enough problems of my own and would likely turn your dream into a nightmare but I do have my own version of nightwork. After I close my eyes and before I go to sleep, I mentally rehearse aspects of my tennis game that need work.

Each week I identify 3-4 things that need improvement and I work on these throughout the week. Currently I am working on three things: 1. swinging the racket with a neutral wrist position – i.e. don’t drop the racket head as I hit the ball and end up with tennis elbow again 2. stepping into the ball and following through 3. coming to a stop and hitting my approach shot before moving forward to the net. It happens a lot, I run into the net to hit an approach shot and all of a sudden the ball is about to hit me in the nose because I’ve overrun it.

Whether I’m trying to make a current stroke more automatic or incorporating something new into my game, nightwork can be very helpful.

What I want to know is, how does Roger Federer win three Grand Slams in one year without a coach?

Practice and Competiton Report: played league tennis today, one set of doubles and one set of singles: 6-4, 4-6
Solutions Analysis: looking for a solution to rushing the approach shot.
Success Analysis:
1. I hit a lot of service winners by serving to my opponent’s backhand.
2. I was down 5-0 but came back to win the next four games before losing 6-4. I was very nervous but I’m getting much better at keeping with my routine despite the nerves.