Is That The Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

Sets 142-144 (of 365):

Stuart vs. S. at His Apartments. Winner: S. 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

My Mojo: Scattered and Haphazard

First, I'll start with the positive. I am glad that I have been able to play fourteen sets so far this month despite the injury that I had earlier this month. And the majority of those sets have been since I came back after my injury. Though I'm down on my monthly quota, I am still up on a yearly basis, and I thought this month and part of next month would be a total loss. But next week, I think I will be able to play just about every day again. Also, though I was not playing too great during this match, I definitely performed better than I did the last match, which was probably my all-time low in performance since I started this blog. So maybe I am easing out of my slump. Time will tell, but I think I am starting to see the glimmer of the light at the end of the tunnel.

In this match, I hit really well during the warm-up. When the shots were coming pretty much right to me, I hit them back with confidence, power and topspin, and managed to get most of them right inside the baseline where I wanted them to go. This probably reflected the work I had done on the ball machine. When I worked on the ball machine, though, I didn't oscillate it or randomize it to shoot to different places on the court, since I didn't yet have confidence in my leg. I probably should have done some work on running shots with the machine on at least the last day. Of course, I didn't know my leg would hold up as well as it had.

But I am still having some mechanical difficulties that are impeding my accuracy on the run. This match really highlighted that fact, and though I was terribly disappointed in my performance, I saw improvement from before. However, my performance decreased as the match went on. I think the combination of dealing with some muscular shifts and my progressive loss of confidence as the match continued helped dig my grave deeper as the match went on. Also, my opponent's shots were really on today. My anticipation was really bad, and I was hitting almost everything just a little too late, having to lean back to get shots instead of moving forward into them, and hitting too many shots outside the optimal strike zone, which made for a lot of shanks and misdirected shots.

The first set, I though I might have a chance. I was ahead for most of the match, until I got to 4-3, and then he won the next three games. It wasn't that I was hitting that well, I just was getting more back than I did in the last three games, and than I did in the next two sets. In the second set, my game was drooping, and I could not get a decent plan going. From then on, I was just reacting to his game, and he had the upper hand. I was losing track of the score, also, and that is definitely a sign of a scattered mental state.

He asked if I wanted to play a third set, and I felt ready to play physically (at least my endurance was OK), but I didn't think I would play much better. I went ahead and played, mostly for the workout and for the practice, and to try a little bit of variation that I thought had a ghost of a chance of helping my game. In the end, though, my balloon was deflating, and my game was falling apart. Throughout the third set, I was frustrated, cursing myself under my breath, and at one point, I was even throwing my racquet in my mind (fortunately enough, not actually doing it, though). I thought briefly about asking if he wanted to play a fourth set, but I decided not to (I probably would have played a fourth if he had asked). I decided to save further play for when I had a fresh mindset and let the lessons of this match sink in.

So I'm just going to start grinding it again next week (assuming I can find opponents). I may not win for a while, or I may get it back quickly; who knows. I am pretty sure I will eventually come out of this slump no later that in a week or two.