Off-Week
Training:
In stark contrast to the strong first 5 weeks of my fall preseason, this past week has been very inconsistent. Not only have I felt sluggish and just distracted on court, but I have also felt that my diet and energy have slipped. While I am usually able to come back from a day off feeling energized and ready to go, I have felt the exact opposite this week. Though it is easy, in these moments, to make excuses and shift the blame on external influences, my performance this past week has been entirely in my control and is ultimately something I have to own up to.
Performance:
This past weekend, I had a great opportunity to compete in a Men’s Open in Miami. I came out of the gates with a win on Saturday, but was not pleased with my ability to close out the lead. The vast majority of tournaments in Florida are held on clay, which is a surface I do not train on during the week nor have played on much in my life. Nonetheless, it would be unfair of me to blame my poor performance on the court’s surface, or anything else other than myself. In both the first and second sets of my first match, I jumped out to big leads, 5-0 and 4-0 respectively, yet I let my opponent back into both sets before I was able to close it out.
Interestingly, I have found that once I build a lead and am close to finishing a set or match, I tend to change my game plan or overcomplicate my strategy, instead of just sticking with what worked to get me to that point. Knowing that my competitor is not simply going to hand me the match, I know that is is necessary to play to win and not be passive with my shot selection.
My second match on Saturday was the “cherry on top” of my off-week. I would easily rank this as one of my top three WORST matches of my tennis career to date. Going into the match, I felt my timing and game-plan were off from the match earlier in the day. The first set was a complete blur, as I could not put a ball in the court or hit my serve properly. I felt rushed for the vast majority of the match and was completely in my own head. Though I began to figure things out in the second set, I was still harboring a negative mindset and was unable to carry out an effective game plan. Instead, I continued trying to hit bigger and flatter, which served no purpose except to perpetuate my frustration with myself.
What To Do About It:
Both in tennis and in life, it is not abnormal to find ourselves having an off-day or even an off-week. While these situations can be difficult in and of themselves, it is just as difficult to address them. After having an off week, I had a lot of time to reflect on what went wrong and how I could change it moving forward. The question then becomes: How do we respond in these moments?
My response requires answering two pivotal questions:
1. What did I learn from the experience?
2. How am I going to apply those lessons in the future?
Reflection:
I learned a great deal from this off-week. In order to grasp key takeaways from an experience and apply them in the future, I must embrace the right mindset and attitude.
By embracing the right mindset, I mean letting go of all of the baggage that may have built up from that off-day or week that is wearing on you. This “baggage” is not productive and can only cause more problems. Instead, taking some self-reflection time to help understand what are the things in your control that you can do differently to change the narrative. This off-week has served as another humbling experience for me as I recognize that this is part of the process of growing as a player and competitor on and off the court.
By embracing the right attitude, I mean looking at the off-day or week with the glass half-full instead of empty. Instead of getting more down on myself and reflecting back on everything that went wrong, I think about what things I can change moving forward.
Sometimes things do not go the way I intended. Instead of shutting down in these moments, I have come to realize the necessity of owning up to the problem and working to solve it. In tennis, no one is going to help you work through this type of experience. The more time I spend training and competing away from college, the more I recognize how much self-discipline, determination, and preparation is required on a daily basis.
Reflecting back on this off-week, which culminated in the unsuccessful tournament in Florida, has allowed me to decompress and let go of all the unproductive “baggage” I mentioned earlier. Even though I obviously want to share a lot of my highlights and positive stories from my journey, I feel it is very important to not shy away from being vulnerable by highlighting the moments in which I struggle or am unsuccessful. After writing this week’s blog post, I feel a lot more at ease with myself as I move into the new week. I have learned a lot of valuable lessons from this past week, which I know will serve me well, both during my pre-season training and my time overseas.
I encourage my fellow readers to take a moment to reflect and think about if they have had an “off-day or week” recently and how they responded to it.
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