Managing Your Errors

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Fact - Tennis matches are usually decided by errors.

Even the world's top players make more mistakes than winners.

The player who makes the most mistakes will invariably lose the match and this is the same from your club match to a Grand Slam final.

The big difference between you (the club player) and the more experienced Pro (although not all the time), is that you tend to make a habit of losing several points as a result of a single mistake.

You become frustrated, you get “tight” and this just leads to more errors. You lose concentration and sometimes even give up on the match!

Can you now see how vital it is that you learn about managing your errors? Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer are the top 2 top players in the world, and for my money the best players at managing their errors. I really think that this is no coincidence.

What Can You Learn From Them?

Think about this - You are playing in a match and miss an easy forehand to win a point.

Does any of this sound familiar?

"You idiot, that was so easy, how could you miss it? You are so rubbish."

This is what we call negative self-talk.

Negative self-talk leads to destructive negative energy and more mistakes, so your chances of winning the match are severely reduced.

DID GRANDMA SAID PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT?

Well she was right, because what you do on the practice court will transfer to the match court.

So, start managing your errors better during practice and you will have a better chance of managing your errors during a match.

THIS IS HOW!

• Realise that everybody makes mistakes and after all, you have only lost one point (matches are NOT won and lost because of one point!).

• Treat mistakes as positive feedback so that when the situation comes up again you will know how to deal with it and execute it much better.

• Get real! You are not going to play a match without making an error. Also sometimes your opponent forces you to make an error through his/her good play.

• If you do make an error, replay the ideal stroke again just to get the feel.

• Take deep breaths to help you relax.

• Take the racket out of your playing hand, which also will be your racket “throwing” arm!!.

• Talk to yourself positively.

• Use all of the above, to form a coping routine.

HOW I PRACTICE!

Here is a great way I have found to practice all of this.

I get two players to play points in a tie-break format.

The total number of points they win is determined thus –

Total number of points = actual points won minus the number of negative outbursts.

I sometimes adapt this to give bonus points to a player when the proper mistake behaviour is shown.

SUMMARY

If you don’t learn to control and manage your errors they will manage and control you!

If you can learn to keep yourself under control, you will always be one step ahead of your opponents.

Even Super Cool Roger Federer had to change his error management to become the player he did - check out this video!

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