By Gabriel Matteazzi. Tennis coach
How do we get motivated to improve? If your goal is to improve, it would be important first to find the motivation that will impulse you to implement the changes that will hopefully take you to the next level.
With motivation, not hurdle is too big, but without it, the road will become difficult, if not impossible.
That’s why we have to find a way to trigger our motivation and passion for the game, to find a clear goal that makes us work on the changes that will take our game to the next level.
If we can understand the changes and the evolution of the game, that can motivate us to play and to make changes in our games to adapt it to the current conditions and make it more efficient.
This can make us enjoy more the game, and create a positive cycle that keeps our games evolving, a good synergy that feeds our interest of getting better every day
But if we make the wrong decisions about where to put that effort the exact opposite can happen, and we will get caught in a catabolic cycle that will be hard to escape since the frustration that comes as a side effect will kill any kind of drive and motivation.
One of the reasons that tennis usually gets so controversial about what’s right and what’s wrong to do and to change is that, with the addition of new technical skills, the evolution of the game can turn some solutions that used to be very useful in the past to not work as well in the present, because of the way the game is played these days
At the same time, it makes some technical skills that were not in use become useful again under the new playing circumstances.
All this can get even more confusing when we see modern tennis trough the eyes of people who have played at a very high level in the past, and know very well how the different aspects of the game used to work on their playing time and their playing conditions, but did not experience themselves how these solutions would work the way the game is played these days
The players are now exposed to a totally different scenario than the one they had in their playing times.
So it is very difficult to understand the reasons that move these new contenders to choose technical solutions that are different than the ones applied by players that have played in other tennis eras, and under different circumstances.
And, mainly, I truly believe that every player who was successful, got there by having very good common sense when they made their decisions on picking their technical tools, and that there’s a lot to learn from other people and their solutions to problems, but we don’t have to forget that the fact that something gave successful results to someone in different times and scenarios doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in the new situations and circumstances, because the way the game evolves completely alter the playing conditions.
So before making changes to your own game, or before influencing the decisions that other players could choose, like the parents and coaches do about their kids and students, it would be recommendable to have a deep look at the particular situation the player has to face before starting to work at something that could be more detrimental than positive for their games.
This is what could sometimes make this game so frustrating, mainly because the players will put time and effort on something and expect improvement, and get negative results in return
Observing and analyzing the current conditions and situations of the game is highly recommendable, to make the game rewarding, instead of getting into unsuccessful, and therefore frustrating situations.
The lack of improvement will definitely kill the motivation, and as a consequence, all the fun in the game and the drive to practice and improve.
Djokovic Alcaraz, Serena, Federer, Nadal and many other champions are a clear example of having never-ending motivation as they made good choices and their games evolved with them.
Tennis can be fun, but it can also be torture if we don’t make it rewarding for the effort we put on it
So, let’s observe carefully what works and what doesn’t work these days, implement those changes with the guidance of someone knowledgeable if possible, and always do the small adjustments that will be necessary along the way until we can perfect it to a level that makes us enjoy what we are doing
Let’s get motivated by evolving your game and adjusting it to the challenges and conditions that we have to face these days!
