Tightness

Tightness is the King of the horde of gremlins that pop out of our subconscious to worry and trouble our tennis performance. It creeps up on us when we are unlucky, unfocused, or unable to avoid egregious errors. It whispers in our mind's ear words of discouragement and depression. It even attacks us when we are playing our very best tennis, reminding us of all the times that we let a lead slip away, and that for such as us, all glory is elusive.

The title "Tightness" refers to both to a physical muscular and a psychological lack of compliance. The physical tightness ties up our feet; stiffens our spines; and reduces our most fluid strokes to choppy, truncated, bludgeons. The mental tightness, aka Ego Collapse, narrows our options and hides our opportunities from us. The physical effects are very apparent and help make the diagnosis, but the psychological ones are more occult. If one finds oneself hitting the net repeatedly, it is often because the mental tightness gremlin, aka the Ego, has convinced us that the only option we have to prevent our opponent from humiliating us is to keep our shots skimming impossibly close to the net strap. The same can be said of overhitting, repeatedly hitting into the alley, missing first serves, etc. The good news on mental tightness is that it is usually due to one thought process which, if properly confronted, can be dispelled along with its ill effects. The bad news is there are a plethora of reasons to get tight, and since they arise from the subconscious, they do not readily show themselves. The following is a list of possible reasons for tightness to develop and pull you out of the Zone and plop you into the Pit of Despair. You should personalize this list and be constantly appending to it.

Sources of Tightness
• Error terror
  • irrational fear of errors
    • Rx1: "Embrace error as inevitable!"
    • Rx2: "A close miss is an unlucky great shot! A great shot is a lucky near miss!"
• Expectationism
  • Pathological need to please a partner, witnesses, opponent
    • Rx1: enlightened selfishness
    • Rx2: "Please them with politeness, not play!"
• Rating your opponent
  • Fear of losing to a lesser player
    • Rx1: "Go after the double bagel!"
    • Rx2: Never rate your foe. Another word for "retriever" is "champion"!
• Overestimating your opponents
  • Imagining them incapable of error
    • Rx1: "Patience - errors, like winners, come in spurts!"
    • Rx2: "Sometimes we miss on purpose!!"