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How a 5-0 lead in the 3rd set can
slip away in a heartbeat...
I had a first in my tournament career
last weekend.
I was playing a mixed doubles
semi-finals with Mai at the Marin Seniors (a Tier 2 national event) in
Mill Valley out here in northern California.
The MXD event at Mill Valley, year in
and year out, always has plenty of strong teams and this year was no
exception.
We played a very solid team, and
after Mai and I played about as well as we can to win the first set
6-0, we then lost a very close 2nd set 6-4 as we cooled off a bit and
our opponents played better.
Mai and I then regrouped and again
played about as well as we can as we quickly jumped out to a 5-0 lead
in the 3rd set.
I remember saying to Mai as we
changed sides of the net after we had just held my serve to take that
5-0 lead that we needed to make sure we kept up the pressure and to
not allow our opponents to give us the rest of the match, that we had
to make sure to keep playing as if the score was close.
So the guy serves at 0-5 and holds
easily and I knew
right then that our 5-1 lead was not safe.
It's always a dog fight to hold the
gal's serve in MXD, and sure enough, we played a very long game trying
to hold Mai's serve to close out the match only to eventually get
broken.
OK, now the gal opponent's serve is
next, and the same thing happens, a long game with lots of deuces but
no break points unfortunately, and eventually they hold and now it's
my serve again at 5-3.
And the "perceived" pressure is on...
We play another incredibly long game
and I swear Mai and I save a good 10 break points before we finally
get an ad to get to match point for us.
And I make the biggest mistake we all
go through from time to time and do something that I know better not
to do.
I get pumped and give it the old out
loud "come on" when we win that deuce point to go to our ad.
I give Mai a high five and said "come
on, right now, let's do this..."
And the hidden meaning there is that
this utterly ridiculous that we're this close after a 5-0 lead, and
come on, let's get out of here before we blow this thing.
So...
I crank in a big first serve to the
gal who barely gets her return cross court to me as she falls
backwards away from the baseline, and as I swoop in all jacked up from
winning that previous deuce point, rather than playing the smart soft
1st volley that I know will either become a winner or a weak pop up, I
crunch my backhand volley about an inch long.
We end up getting broken and
eventually lose the match in the tie-breaker.
Fortunately the ride home was
bearable because I've got my Mai with me and we're both trying to take
the blame, but the reality is that I had no business getting all
pumped up when we won that deuce point to get to match point at 5-3 in
the 3rd set.
What I should have done and what I've
done a million times in the past when I'm about to close out a close
singles or doubles match is to take my time, take a couple of deep
breaths, and focus on how I want to start this next point.
I should have gone to Mai and said,
"OK, let's take our time here. I'm going to kick the first serve
up to her backhand. Be looking for that little lob she likes to
play there, and if she does lob, take your time, and play it where you
want to."
I should have at least given us a
focus of how we were going to start the point and get us out of any
craziness created by our opponents coming back during that 3rd set.
Instead I got emotional and didn't
give my partner or myself a focus of how we were going to start match
point.
So, did we do the old proverbial
choke job?
Yes and no...
No because our opponents played well
when they were down 0-5 and they should have.
At 0-5 you've got zero pressure and
you tend to loosen up and invariably hit the ball cleaner and make
better decisions without any perceived pressure.
But yes because I rushed the finish
line, I wanted to get it over right now, and bottom line, I didn't
mentally prepare to experience that match point the same exact way I
had for all of the other points in the match.
The lesson here is to not force time,
not to rush the moment, and to just "take your bloody time", not only
between points but also with your shot making during the point.
It's one thing to create space away
from the path of your opponent's incoming shot, but it's an entirely
different element to "wait" for that moment when it's the right time
to pull the trigger on your swing.
But I digress, we're not focused on
shot making, we're focused on taking your time between points, getting
back into the same routine that got you to match point, and to not
force the outcome with emotion.
And the end result for me and Mai is
that we've been able to discuss this situation at length without
feeling sorry for ourselves, where we can improve, and because we
coughed up a 5-0 3rd set lead and learned from it, I know we're now
better players because we went through that experience.
All of us can learn from our
perceived mistakes, our perceived pressures, and realize that we need
to experience them to come out the other end a better tennis player.
OK, now that I've go that off my
chest, here's your video tip for this week...!
Check it out below.
Brent |
