Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Training:

After having an off-week, I was eager to change the narrative and have a solid week of practice before heading to South Africa. I knew I had to stay positive and let go of last week even though I was frustrated and disappointed with my week of practice and last tournament. Between writing last week’s blog and talking things through with my sports psychologist, Jeff Greenwald, I really felt at ease by last Sunday night in regards to my off-week. I knew that there was nothing I could do to take back what had transpired, so instead all I could do was challenge myself in a different way. Jeff reiterated to me the importance of “changing expectations for curiosity”, which I found resonated with me a lot. Monday, November 6th rolled around and I was determined to be curious and trust the process this week.

Close Call:

After having a great first day of the week, my coach asked me about my upcoming ITF (International Tennis Federation) Futures schedule in regards to the week of November 20th. I thought I had pulled out of all of the other tournaments I was signed up for as I was planning to go to Stellenbosch, South Africa. However, I forgot to withdraw from Jakarta, Indonesia and actually ended up in the Qualifying of that tournament and got bumped out of the South Africa tournament. Luckily, I was able to contact the tournament director in South Africa and the ITF and I was able to get a wildcard into the Qualifying and take a late penalty to withdraw from Indonesia. Given that I had booked all of my flights and hotel to South Africa, this could have been a massive disaster. Luckily, everything worked out in the end and I am now sitting at the airport awaiting my flight to Cape Town, South Africa!

Practice Matches: 

This past week, my coach and I went down to Flagler University, a Top 15 Division II tennis school, several times to play practice matches. Instead of embracing a results-oriented mindset, I set out with a couple goals for these matches:

·      Work the point and play aggressive and cross-court

·      Mix up my serve and look for the forehand

Every match I stayed disciplined and was amazed that sticking to my cross-court pattern eventually wore down all three players by the middle of the second set. “My coach, Andrew Rifkin, reminded me that this methodical approach (sticking to the pattern) might not get me the immediate results I may want but would be successful around the 10th-12th game. He was exactly right! I felt these three matches represented a major breakthrough for me as I finally started seeing that the more I simplify things on court, the better. Even though I was not too concerned with the outcome of these matches, I ultimately won all three of them by sticking to my game plan and trusting the process.

This was the first time I was back in a college setting as I played all three of these matches during Flagler’s team practice. I enjoyed seeing the camaraderie amongst their team’s college players and got sentimental thinking about my days as a CMS Stag. On my last day of practice with them, I asked their coach if I could join in on their team’s conditioning circuit much to the surprise of the guys on the team. I loved being able to grind and get a workout in with fellow tennis players as the past couple months I have been practicing solo mostly!

Bosworth Tennis & Marcelo Krabs:

Before competing in my last tournament in Miami, my coach introduced me to Marcelo Krabs, a very successful tennis player and pro who teaches out of the St. Andrews Country Club in Florida. After a couple training sessions with him, he suggested I add more weight to my rackets and customize the specs of the racket more. He introduced me to Jay Bosworth, who runs and owns Bosworth Tennis, which specializes in custom tailoring rackets. Jay has worked with various Top 10 ATP tennis players and has immense expertise in racket customization. He helped me add about 30 grams of weight to my racket with lead tape along the outer frame as well as in the handle of my racket. The results so far have been AMAZING! Not only am I feeling the ball a lot better, but also the depth and weight of my ball has increased significantly. I am so lucky that I was able to meet both Marcelo and Jay as I think this racket adjustment will prove to have huge benefits for my game!

What’s Next?

 My Fall Pre-Season is finally over! I cannot believe the day has finally come that I am officially heading overseas to compete in my first professional tournament this year. As I am sitting in the Miami International Airport, a lot of emotions are racing through me. I would be lying to say that I am not anxious about the next 6 weeks in South Africa and Qatar. More than anything, I am so beyond excited to go out and compete in an international setting. I have loved training in Jacksonville and playing tournaments all throughout Florida, but I truly feel “ready for battle”. I have done everything in my control to prepare to the best of my ability and know that no matter what this entire year will be an experience that I will have the rest of my life. I would be kidding myself if I said I did not want to win and get a pro ranking on the ATP Tour, but ultimately I know that the life lessons I am learning both on and off the court will serve me the rest of my life no matter what the result of my matches are.

This is the last blog post I will be writing from the United States until around Christmas, but I am so excited to keep all of my readers updated from overseas. I want to end this blog with something my sports psychologist and I have discussed, which is “being comfortable being uncomfortable”. No matter what, life always has its surprises and will never be a utopia. That said, we will never always be comfortable whether that is competing in a tournament, traveling to a foreign country, moving to a new city, or starting a new job or university. I know that I am definitely a bit uncomfortable as I embark on my journey overseas, but that is completely normal and I cannot wait to see where these next couple months take me.

I encourage my fellow readers to take a few minutes to reflect on times they may have been uncomfortable and their response to that. Were you avoiding feelings of anxiety or did you embrace this experience with open arms?   

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