In the second part of the tennis gloss "Anders hing'looks" by Heinz Schwarz , author of the book "Are you still playing real tennis or are you already winning something?" it's about mistakes. Yes, we all know them more than well, right? After all, tennis is and remains a game of mistakes. But why do we waste points that we thought were safe, why do we leave a 100% chance in the net or on the fence? The explanation is quickly found to be a technical error: too little spin, not closing the racket enough, and whatever other crazy things we can think of. The fact that all the mistakes that happen to you have something to do with technology - Heinz clears that up in his gloss entitled " Not everything that goes wrong in tennis is also a technical mistake ".
Find out why errors in distance and errors in motivation are common sources of error, especially in hobbies and leisure activities, and how you can combat them. As always, very entertainingly written - enjoy reading!
“If you only have a hammer at your disposal, you will primarily look for nails!” is a saying from the craft industry that describes what could be described as “system-immanent and system-preserving thinking”.
Our hammer in the tennis world is the “technical correction”. If something goes wrong, i.e. if you hit a ball that was so beautifully lying out or into the net, then the technical mistakes you made will be discussed or at least explained.
When I was still young and cynical, I always exposed the errors in this thinking by comparing it to me, saying that it seemed to me like driving your car into a ditch while drunk and causing it to be totaled and then realizing that the oil check -Lamp is broken. “Yes, it’s definitely broken, but it’s not at the center of the problem!”
Today, when I am older and a little less cynical, I limit myself to thinking about my students' tennis and I still believe that the "technical error in the real sense" is overestimated and that this overestimation of the "oil light" as Explanation of the consequences of the accident is not an appropriate mental approach.
Why do people in tennis always like to think in these “after-the-fact analyses”? From a mental point of view, it would be better if you push away things that are “already around the corner” and look forward. Of course, you think in this category of accident consequences because you want to prevent the next accidents.
And that's exactly where the problem is: even if you leave aside the oil control lamp, which I introduced as extremely polemical, comparable accidents in tennis are usually thought about in the same way as the accident that occurred primarily due to drunkenness and excessive speed could have been prevented if the ultimately unsuccessful driving maneuver had been carried out with a level of quality that a sober Formula 1 driver would have achieved on a good day.
If you really want to use the technical “after-the-fact analysis” to avoid future accidents, it would be a good idea to think about your level of alcoholism and the question of what speed you can safely control, drunk or sober. It is also undisputed that improving driving skills could help prevent one or two accidents, but it is also undisputed that this addresses the accident prevention model that is the most difficult to achieve because it would require much more effort than just a few smart ones Analyzes.
But to get specifically to the technical errors in tennis:
In my opinion, there are 3 different types of technical errors , which differ significantly in their basic structure and whose analysis is primarily aimed at different objectives.
There is the “ technical error in the true sense” ; i.e. the error that is used as a “general explanation for everything” and whose analysis is often touted as an “all-purpose cure” in tennis lessons. A “technical error in the true sense” would be one in which you want the right thing, are in the right starting position for this desire, are fundamentally able to do what you want, and yet only achieve something sub-optimally in a specific situation
However, the most common technical error in recreational tennis, especially in the “solid middle class”, is different; I would like to call it “the technical error in the distance area ”. You have a certain desired idea of how a shot should be executed and you definitely want to carry it out; But this would only be possible if you were in the comfort zone of this shot when it came to the point of impact, which you didn't do, otherwise you wouldn't have made a mistake. Most technical errors are, in their actual substance, distance errors and the “technical errors in the true sense” described are then just collateral damage from this distance error.
I would like to call the most common technical error in the “upper middle class”, in which the first two categories of technical errors (in the actual sense and distance errors) are usually rare, the “ over-motivation error ”. Once you reach a certain level of skill, you tend to shift the balance between risk and security in the direction of risk and then technical errors arise again, which are collateral damage of an “unbalanced motivation”, which if you are honest and think systematically, ultimately Mistakes are ones that you consciously accept (and don't really want to prevent) on your development path to even better tennis.
Even if the popular suggestion in tennis teaching that the analysis of the “technical error in the true sense” is, so to speak, the “jack-of-all-trades” of the development and optimization of your tennis is tempting, it is unfortunately wrong or at least too superficial. to work through it emotionally and constantly feel guilty about it.
The technical error in the real sense just happens (although it would be nicer if it didn't happen too often) and I can tell you that as I get older and become more experienced as a fairly successful player, I fend it off with the mantra: "Who do you think you are? Roger Federer?"
The “distance error” also happens, but it can be combated better in two directions:
If it passes, you are not facing the ball correctly. In order to play a really good ball, you have to play the right shot (i.e. a less demanding shot that still works even in this suboptimal distance situation) and not try to execute the wrong shot as correctly as possible ; The mistake that people tend to make here is not a technical mistake, but a strategic one, or to put it in new German so that we German speakers really understand it: the mistake lies in the shot selection
To put it simply - and this brings us back to the meaning of technical improvements - with increasing technical quality, the distance errors become less because you get better at calculating the distance and because the comfort zone for really good shots increases with increasing technical quality (like You can see it very impressively with Rafa, for example, who, with his lasso swing above his head, still achieves a forehand topspin far outside of a normal comfort zone, which I can't even achieve if the ball is millimeter-precise in the absolute comfort zone of my forehand)
The “ motivational error ” occupies a special position in terms of its classification because it usually does not happen at all, but is intentional and viewed as good.
Which it partly is, at least in the sense that you undoubtedly need and have to live out the practice element of exaggerating and exploiting risk factors if you want to achieve something great.
This phase of a tennis life can be described very well with a car comparison: “While it is better to practice driving a car with a Fiat 500 for a long time and not rush off with a Ferrari, in this phase in which you could also master the Ferrari, you tend to do so “Driving around in the Ferrari on a forest path and being annoyed that the shitty box that cost half a million is constantly sitting down!”
Or to put it another way, even if something is very good, it is not good for everything!
The author Heinz Schwarz actually has a doctorate in law, but discovered his love and passion for being a tennis teacher during his studies, which has never let go of him to this day. Coaching stations included the Niki Pilic Academy, which he headed as managing director and where none other than the young Novak Djokovic trained at the time.
Today Heinz runs a tennis school in Dachau, Bavaria, and is a very active and successful senior tournament player. He is also a fellow expert and brand ambassador at Zischka Tennis Reisen . You can also experience Heinz live there on certain dates.
Part three of Heinz Schwarz Glosse "Right hing`look" will be published in March and is entitled " Coach me like Djokovic ". That sounds very promising. Especially since you know that Heinz actually trained the young record Grandslam winner during his time at the Niki Pilic Academy. Heinz manages to transfer world-class mechanisms to the normal range. How and where exactly this is possible - you can look forward to that in part 3 of the gloss!
If you would like to read more from Heinz Schwarz, we highly recommend the book “Are you still playing real tennis or are you already winning something?” Of course, we have already reviewed the book, so you can get the best information in advance.
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