magicsushi
08-25-2004, 07:14 AM
I have a couple of questions for you seasoned players and thought I'd be better off putting them both in the same thread ;)
Firstly I'll explain the situation. I only normally play about twice a week and on one of these occassions each week I play the same guy (a friend of mine). My questions/queries are:
1. I think this is a psychological thing but I seem to always have an extra hurdle to overcome when I play this guy. I very often tend (say nine times out of ten) to lose the first few points of the game. I regularly find myself 6 or 7 points down before I've even registered my first point and that means that I'm forever playing catch up. Resulting in me losing games 15-4 and 15-5. bad scores like that. When in reality I'm not a much worse player than him when I get going. Where I'm weaker than him is in unforced errors. I still hit far too many shots just wide or long of the court (an area I'm working on). On the odd occasion where I don't start badly, the worst i seem to lose is about 15-10, 15-11 which is a more accurate reflection of our skill levels IMO. So considering we're quite evenly matched when things get going, I can only see that it's down to one of two things. Either:
a) I'm naturally a slow starter. Is there such a thing? I think this can't be the case as surely I would be able to start the second game on a level setting. Not be slow AGAIN. or
b) It's a psyhcological hurdle and something prevents me from scoring first (I know this sounds weird, but I'm struggling for explanations here, heh)
I guess really I'm just interested on other peoples thoughts and any advice/tips you may be able to give me
On an unrelated note, I overdid it a little at the weekend and am still a little sore (particulalrly hamstrings and glutes) coming into today, with the match tonight. Is there anything I can do to try and make myself as supple as possible besides normal stretching and warmup prior to the match?
thanks for your help :)
Firstly I'll explain the situation. I only normally play about twice a week and on one of these occassions each week I play the same guy (a friend of mine). My questions/queries are:
1. I think this is a psychological thing but I seem to always have an extra hurdle to overcome when I play this guy. I very often tend (say nine times out of ten) to lose the first few points of the game. I regularly find myself 6 or 7 points down before I've even registered my first point and that means that I'm forever playing catch up. Resulting in me losing games 15-4 and 15-5. bad scores like that. When in reality I'm not a much worse player than him when I get going. Where I'm weaker than him is in unforced errors. I still hit far too many shots just wide or long of the court (an area I'm working on). On the odd occasion where I don't start badly, the worst i seem to lose is about 15-10, 15-11 which is a more accurate reflection of our skill levels IMO. So considering we're quite evenly matched when things get going, I can only see that it's down to one of two things. Either:
a) I'm naturally a slow starter. Is there such a thing? I think this can't be the case as surely I would be able to start the second game on a level setting. Not be slow AGAIN. or
b) It's a psyhcological hurdle and something prevents me from scoring first (I know this sounds weird, but I'm struggling for explanations here, heh)
I guess really I'm just interested on other peoples thoughts and any advice/tips you may be able to give me
On an unrelated note, I overdid it a little at the weekend and am still a little sore (particulalrly hamstrings and glutes) coming into today, with the match tonight. Is there anything I can do to try and make myself as supple as possible besides normal stretching and warmup prior to the match?
thanks for your help :)