It ain't yer lousy backhand!

To finish with the theme I began earlier this week ...

If you are a keen observer of human group dynamics, you have noticed that people deal with problems by cheating = laying the blame on some scapegoat, the usual suspect. Individually, we tend to do the same thing. So, when a tennis player comes off the court unhappy, he blames it on his backhand.

These are unpleasant emotions, so many try to distance themselves from them, pretending they don't have them. Because it's a sin to want to win, you know.

So, just laugh and say that you just play for fun and go get another lesson to fix your lousy backhand.

Or buy a gadget to fix it. Or view films. Or buy a book. Whatever, but three decades later, you're still blaming everything on your lousy backhand.

Now of course the backhand is just the usual suspect. It could be a player's forehand instead, or serve, or overhead, or volley. But always it's some stroke or aspect of form.

"Poor form" is viewed almost as some sort of sin we are punished for in tennis. That's why it makes the perfect scapegoat.

Yet often that weak stroke we scapegoat for everything isn't half as bad as we think it is.

Often, the main problem is just that we don't practice it enough. For example, many players don't hit overheads and volleys every time they play. Hey, if they hit as few forehands as they do overheads, they'd have lousy forehands too.

Worse, when you scapegoat a stroke for everything, you warp your judgment: you think it's terrible when it isn't. Hence, when the ball comes to your backhand you choke. In other words, your warped judgment becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

So, let's take a step back to where this downward spiral started – where you walk off the court unhappy.

Instead of denying and distancing yourself from your feelings, examine them. Find out exactly how you feel and what is making you feel that way. Doing so will point you in the right direction to find a solution to your problem.

Finding a scapegoat to blame for a problem is never finding a solution to it.

You may discover that the main problem has nothing to do with your strokes or footwork. It may be a little gamesmanship, psychological warfare going on. If you play doubles, you may realize that there is some inappropriate competition going on = competition between you and your partner. To identify such problems is to take the first step in solving them.

Often, you won't be able to put your finger on why you are playing badly and losing matches you feel you should win. The next logical step is to collect information by keeping track of things, like what percentage of first serves you miss, how many volleys you blow, how frequently you hit down-the-line, and so forth.

Doing this almost always solves some of your problems automatically, because if you are paying closer attention to these things during a match, you are more aware of what's going on. As Tim Gallwey says in his Inner Tennis books, awareness, awareness, awareness is everything.

So, be brave: look at your errors. Don't avert your eyes: see how far out that ball was. Don't try to forget that double-fault happened.

What?!?!

Yes. It won't hurt you. So long as you don't view your errors as sins. They are simple matters of fact. Treat them as such and you won't be afraid to face and correct for them.

When you habitually dump all the blame for everything on your lousy backhand, you blind yourself to your real problems. Your main problem could be stupid approach shots. In doubles, it could be that your opponents are playing the Switch Trick on you. It could be that this particular opponent knows just how to spin every third shot so as to suck an error out of you. But you are oblivious to what's really going on, because you have it all always blamed on your lousy backhand.

The game? What game? You aren't into the game. You are stuck on form. You think tennis is about how you swing the racket. To you a match is nothing but an exercise in executing forehands and backhands. You aren't really PLAYING the GAME.

And so what if your backhand is partly to blame? Okay, it's a weakness in your game. A vulnerability. A chink in your armor. What can you do about it?

Just go get another lesson?

Oh, I see. Pay me $60 an hour to make your lousy backhand my problem.

That won't work.

You must attack this problem from two sides. Do first what brings the quickest results.

First find strategic and tactical solutions. You know, like run around your dang backhand! But that's oversimplifying, because there are many things you can do to cover for a weakness in your game. Often you'll find that it's attacked primarily in a certain play situation, one you can avoid if you are paying attention to when and how your backhand is getting attacked.

These strategic and tactical solutions bring immediate results. They can make you win tomorrow the same match you lost today.

Then you can start attacking the problem with the long-term solution of improving your backhand. But you don't do that by just throwing money at it for a gadget or a lesson. You can't make it a pro's problem. A good pro can help you, but she can't practice for you.

Aye, there's the rub. You have to practice what you learn in lessons.

So, don't obsess over form. Play the whole game. Get the most from the game you have with cunning strategy and tactics. That's the fun part, anyway. And be patient with yourself when you're trying to improve a stroke: it takes weeks of practice.

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