One of my first few posts on this blog back in 2015 was titled Why I Play Tennis. The essence of that post highlighted the importance of remaining resilient on the court in a match, and that yes, you can come back even if your down by a significant margin. My post talked about mental fortitude and the power of persistence in the game of tennis. That was my opinion of the sport 1.5 years ago. Yesterday, I participated in my first USTA Girl’s 16’s match and I can certainly re-enforce the impacts of positive thinking, but I think my view of the game has changed recently.
Yesterday, after I hit that last high backhand shot out wide onto the right sideline, this odd feeling came to me: I felt like a tennis player. It’s weird that I’m saying this because I am and have always been a “tennis” player. I say this because in the past, I’ve always been very defensive on the court due to nervousness. I don’t play many tournaments like other competitive players do, so when I finally find the opportunity to sign up and play, my nerves hit me and I end up losing to myself. I find my arm tightening up and as a result, my form for each stroke changes. My shots lack a follow through so I frequently end up hitting high and loopy moon balls, which leaves a perfect opportunity for my opponents to attack me. The biggest part of my nervousness came through being afraid to hit like I normally hit in practice and make a mistake. I remember countless matches where I’d be in the car thinking to myself, why am I so much better in practice? The consistent answer to that question is because I was afraid to play my A game since I didn’t want to make a mistake. Instead, I opted for a more defensive, more consistent but less aggressive strategy that left me prone to being attacked by the person across the net. Nonetheless, even through all my losses, I possessed the resilient mentality I discovered through tennis that I wrote about in my previous post about tennis. Yesterday, I discovered that wasn’t enough.
My dad has been trying to teach me this for as long as I remember. During tournaments, I play too defensively and my nervousness leads me to make more mistakes. Dad said that it doesn’t matter if the ball goes out or not if I hit my hardest and give each shot my everything, because it’s better than having my opponent win the point through their control, rather than me making a mistake. My dad was telling me that I can’t be afraid to make a mistake, in fact, it doesn’t matter if I make a mistake as long I am playing my A game. He also said that he would rather see me lose putting forth my best game than win by hitting unnecessarily defensive moon balls.
At my tournament yesterday afternoon, I played believing that it was okay to make mistakes and I lost but I had to give my opponent my A game. I hit each shot as well as I could and tried to place each shot in a tactical a position as possible. And my shots were no longer loopy moon balls…they were aggressive, shaped shots with a generous amount of spin. Not only did I play more like I play in practice, but I played more aggressively by going up to the net a couple times and by using my backhand slice, even though both these shots weren’t always successful. And even though I lost, I lost satisfied with my playing and feeling like a tennis player, since I’d put forth the skills I’d accrued through practices.
And here’s the epiphany I had that was enforced through yesterday’s tournament: I’m not always going to be successful. I believe sports in general teach players this idea, but tennis in particular emphasizes this understanding because [in singles at least], we are almost always in charge of how we hit the ball and mistakes are usually our responsibility to a certain degree since tennis can be a very individual sport. When something goes wrong, it is very easy to blame ourselves. But I’m learning, not only in tennis but through tennis, that I’m not always going to be successful. I have to prepare for failure in all aspects of life. And that’s okay, because as long as I give it my all, I’ll be losing satisfactorily.
So here's why I play tennis: it helps develop mental fortitude but also because it's teaching me that I'm not always going to be successful. Yet once again I come back to this idea, nothing worth having comes without struggle.
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