3 Reasons You Will Never Be as Good at Tennis as You Want to Be
I have been a tennis player for 25 years and in my mind, I still kinda suck. I practice when I can, I play as many matches as I can, and yet I still find myself constantly expecting to perform at a level I have never achieved. Pondering the same question for years I have now come to terms with my averageness, and I attribute it to 3 simple reasons.
1. You have a job, a life, and other interests.
Let’s face it, you have shit to do. Personally, I would trade any errand, day at work, or a good deal of social gatherings for some court time. When you get out to the courts at night after a long day at work, can you really perform at your best? Even on the weekends, it can be a challenge.
Many of us have families that require a whole lot of our time and energy. Any given Saturday I have to sandwich in some tennis in between taking the kids to gymnastics class and grocery shopping. I’m always watching the time and as much as I would like to live solely in the moment while I’m on the court, I have other things on my mind.
It sure would be nice to have an unlimited supply of time and energy to tap into when it comes to playing and practicing. Let’s see how well Federer performs after putting in a 9-hour shift and then taking care of the kids all afternoon, making them dinner, putting them in their rooms then running out the door to make it to the court by 7:30….Still godlike I’m sure, and that brings me to my next reason you’ll never be as good at tennis as you want to be.
2. You have unreasonable expectations
Ever watch videos of the pros and think “I do it just like that, but my ball doesn’t do what theirs does”! Of course, it doesn’t, because you don’t spend your entire existence dedicated to the goal of being as good as humanly possible at tennis.
Stop comparing yourself to others when it comes to your abilities. Not only is it pointless, but it can be detrimental to your success. Every player has a different style and particular strengths. If you try and emulate someone that has an entirely different play style as you, you may pick up habits that make your strokes less effective, or worse, you could pick up a habit that leads to injury.
When it comes to professional athletes, there's something those at the top have that you don’t have. It’s a natural ability to play like tennis gods. I’m not saying they don’t work their ass off to be that good, but there’s a combination of hard work and frustratingly superhuman-like talent that most of us couldn’t achieve no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears are shed.
Frustrating yes, but there’s good news because…
3. You are actually really good at tennis, you just forgot
That’s right, you are a darn good tennis player. Want to know how I know you are a darn good tennis player? Well, it’s because you would totally wipe the floor with the previous you, and that version of you would do the same to the one before that.
Turns out it’s a perception problem. No matter how good we get, we will never be as good as we want to be because there is no limit, no cap to our desire to be better tennis players. As long as there is an opponent across that net that can beat us, we will strive for victory (even though it’s just a friendly match right)?….
Let’s all just agree that it’s hard to improve. It takes time, energy, money, focus, dedication, and supreme natural abilities that not many of us have. The key is to have fun, and if you’ve stopped doing that, do what I’m doing and take a break.
I found myself frustrated, stagnant, and stalled in my pursuit of city court amateur greatness. It became upsetting to not play well, and when I didn’t perform to the best of my abilities, I forgot all about reason number 1. So I’m taking some time, and when the tennis withdrawals start kicking in and I start fiending for that perfect cross-court winner, I’ll make a few calls and jump back in.
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