Losing to Worse Opponents, Part II: Traps and Solutions
Coaches always say we should “play our game” and avoid playing the opponent’s game, and that we lose to worse players when we get stuck doing the latter. Not only is this advice vague, but our game could be a losing style if our best attributes are not be enough or not feasible. In reality, losses to “bad” players are often due to tactical traps that most of us are unaware of or unprepared to deal with because of superficial fundamentals. Here are a few examples.
The Bad Shot Trap is the assumption that an opponent’s slower, uglier, loopier shots are easy to deal with. For most players, this is not true at all. Shots that come in off-speed, unpredictably, or with some kind of junk spin may be harder to deal with than the shots we see against better players. They challenge our fundamentals and weed out flaws in our game by forcing us to watch the ball longer, swing faster to generate pace, and fight with our feet to stay in rhythm.
The One Good Shot Trap is the assumption that one good shot is enough to win a point against a lesser opponent. Consider that winning opportunities usually happen after we’ve made a series of good decisions. If we relax after one good decision, our momentary pause in focus may put us out of position or unprepared for the next shot. What isn’t obvious about this trap is that expecting to win (which we do more against worse players) is the most harmful thing we could do to our competitive mentality. In neuropsychology, this is called a dopamine reward prediction error. When we expect reward, our dopamine levels rise slightly above average to enhance the pleasure of the outcome. If the reward doesn’t come as predicted, our dopamine levels crash below baseline, creating an uphill battle against negative feelings.
The All or Nothing Trap is the tendency to be too aggressive at the first suggestion of an offensive opportunity or too reckless at the first suggestion of a defensive position. Weak players come in different forms; some draw us forward with weak shots and some pin us back with moon-balls. In key moments of the rally, we may feel like we have a binary choice between a winner or a preemptive error, in which we miss a makable shot to prevent losing on the next shot. For example, baseliners with poor net skills often miss approach shots because there is extra pressure for them to win before hitting a volley. Similarly, players with low shot tolerance often take huge risks at the first ball that forces them out of position because they’re not certain of how to reestablish themselves in long rallies.
Solutions
Although these particular problems are not very complex, they don’t have fast, pragmatic solutions. They do, however, share a common suggestion: focus on fundamentals. These are the skills and abilities necessary to repeatedly perform simple actions well and understand simple concepts deeply.
There are immeasurable benefits in simplicity and potentially great pitfalls from overthinking. Ultimately, an abundance of knowledge is meaningless with a groundwork of superficial fundamentals. The telltale signs of superficiality are low shot tolerance (the inability to stay in long rallies when factoring in variables like pace, spin, and placement), major gaps in our skill set (great at one set of skills, incompetent at others), and difficulty finishing points. These faults are clearly evident in the aforementioned traps, and we can attribute them to two main themes: bad practice habits and poor self-awareness.
Address Practice Habits, Focus on Simplicity
Many tennis players don’t practice, and some players only practice. Finding the right balance between competition and practice is a good first step to solve problems against less skilled opponents. However, players that practice frequently could still have bad habits (or bad coaches) that are preventing fundamental improvement.
The best way to improve in tennis is through high quality repetitions and drills that replicate the genuine experiences and movements that we see in live points. We can practice simplicity and improve our fundamentals in three steps:
Skip Gimmicks - Try to avoid drills that appear to have value but are rather inauthentic or impractical for one reason or another. A bad drill may be too strenuous, too long, too complicated, too technical, involve low margin shots, or some kind props for multitasking.
Reduce dead-ball drills - Although coach-fed practice balls have value for players of all levels, we should seek out viable rally-based alternatives whenever possible. Players should spend a majority of practice working in controlled rallies that allow high quality repetition and an element of uncomfortable problem solving.
Minimize refinement - Having a bad day with a single shot is not always a reason to revisit the drawing board. We should try to avoid “over-engineering” our shots. Everyone has some need to improve technique, but some natural habits are hard to engineer away. Instead, look to refine your shots through small, barely perceptible changes and focus on repetition to implement those adjustments.
Improve Self-Awareness, Renounce Gratification
The most common failure of self-awareness in tennis is the belief that progress is linear, that we are better on the court today than we were yesterday. Even if we know this isn’t true, we still have an inexplicable need to feel good about our level of play. This persistent need to feel good is why most of us - no matter how we try - fail to change our mindset from one match to another. This is why our most typical reaction is overreaction when a match turns against us. The mental cycle of an unmindful tennis player is to expect reward, fail, feel bad, make bad decisions, play worse.
We have to face facts: we are not going to play our best most of the time. We need to stop trying to feel good about our tennis and renounce gratification. Hopefully, this will allow us to focus on playing at a level that we can sustain and a shot selection and strategy that’s realistic at that level. After all, facts and probability are way more empowering than blind optimism and the need to feel good. So what are the facts and probabilities? Over the extended length of a match, our game usually defaults to its average level. If we start a match poorly, we can expect to gradually improve as the match goes on. If we start playing well, we will work harder to stay at that level knowing that it may not last. With this in mind, we are less likely to overreact to bad and good circumstances.
Conclusions
Bad players don’t beat us because they know more. They beat us because they have a better organizing principle for the things that they do know, and they are more self-aware. As players with abundant knowledge, we assume the issues we face demand some higher concept and strategy to fix. This is rarely true, even at the upper echelons of tennis. What is true is that the complex mechanisms of strategy are always underpinned by a superior foundation of fundamentals. Moreover, a player that performs simple actions consistently well will always be favored to win.
