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Not Focusing On The Win vs. Expecting Not To Win

Last weekend I was scheduled to play in our club's mini tournament. I woke up Saturday morning with slight fever, still had to do some house work and had to head out to play first round as I had promised the tournament director that I would play. I wasn't in any condition to play frankly, but any day I get to play tennis, beats most other ordinary days, so off I went.

My first opponent was a nice gentleman who played very irregularly and was coming off a 3-month break from tennis, his level was at 3.0 level. We were to play 8-game proset due to time constraints. We started and quickly it was 4-0 in my favor, but my energy was draining very rapidly. I really wasn't try to win, wasn't exploiting his apparent weaknesses, I just wanted to play while I lasted and hopefully pack my bags and get back to a hot shower and bed at home. I thought probably the quickest way to get home was to win the match and forfeit the next one, so I set out to finish set as rapidly as possible by focusing on each point. As quickly as we got to 4-0, we were now at 4-4. Eventually I relaxed and won the match 8-5, but I wasn't happy with the way it turned.

Tournament director came to court and asked me if I could play my next match right afterwards, so they can get on with their normal schedule, with all of adrenalin pumping I said "sure." This time my opponent was a high level 4.0 with really heavy topspin shots, athletic and with the accuracy that tempted me to run across the whole court. I knew his reputation as being a good player, so I started the match without the objective of winning; actually I am sure I convinced myself I would not win. Eventually I lost 8-3; however, I was surprised with the way I played in some ways; I had great serves, was able to adapt my shots and tactics. At the end I had too many unforced errors, I could not run to balls and my timing was completely off, I suspect it is a natural outcome of being sick.

However, these two matches I think demonstrate how much our attitude, thinking and general mental state shifts during matches and how much of an impact this has on the outcomes. When I wanted to win and I tried to win, I was losing; when I convinced myself that I could not win, the fate of the match was already sealed, I just wasted energy until the last moments of the 2nd match when I started winning point after point, because I was focused on enjoying the points. 

I am not saying anything new here of course, sport psychology explains this quite well and there are experts in this field that can articulate this phenomenon better than I can. The purpose of this post is to explain how I am experiencing what has already been explained by field professionals. I think it is important to recognize the situations, because when I have to recall situations in the future to ensure I achieve the results I want, I now have reference points, and I hope this also helps the reader.

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