Mental Barriere

[vita]

Hi, I am touring ITF Player. I played an ITF, got to the quarters. Then went back to practice for a week, after that went to another ITF. Right away when I arrived, I felt, like a weakness, I can't describe it.
I was practicing there for two days, and I couldn't feel any of my strokes.
I couldn't toss the ball, the way I was tossing the way before.
The night before my first round match, I was doing what I was doing before every match, thinking of my game plan and preparing mentally...
The next morning I still couldn't feel anything. I played a decent guy, tried my best lost 6-3, 6-4, he got to the semis...
I was really pissed because I shouldn't have lost if I would've played good.

If anybody knows what happend, please help me!!!
Thanks

[bottle]

Nobody Knows

But my first question would be, "Exactly how well, and for how many hours did you sleep the night before?"

Professor James Maas of Cornell, who has been revolutionizing the daily schedules of certain boarding schools, says about sports that if you've
just been working on a specific area, say service returns, it only can get
into your system during the SEVENTH and EIGHTH hours of sleep.

[sejsel]

Hi, I am touring ITF Player. I played an ITF, got to the quarters. Then went back to practice for a week, after that went to another ITF. Right away when I arrived, I felt, like a weakness, I can't describe it.
I was practicing there for two days, and I couldn't feel any of my strokes.
I couldn't toss the ball, the way I was tossing the way before.
The night before my first round match, I was doing what I was doing before every match, thinking of my game plan and preparing mentally...
The next morning I still couldn't feel anything. I played a decent guy, tried my best lost 6-3, 6-4, he got to the semis...
I was really pissed because I shouldn't have lost if I would've played good.

If anybody knows what happend, please help me!!!
Thanks

Hello; I will have to ask a few questions - to begin with:
Have you discussed this with your coach to begin with? (I assume here that you are still coached by someone).

I have put some suspect parts (where you might try to look for some clues) in the bold, it can be symptomatic that this started after a practice week.

I have my clues and guesses about this - but it would be good that you describe what have you done during the practice week, and how your whole regime looks like, on and off tournament.

Previous post by bottle is really important; never disregard sleeping habits, it can wreak havoc with reaction times and fine motor skills.

[vita]

But my first question would be, "Exactly how well, and for how many hours did you sleep the night before?"

Professor James Maas of Cornell, who has been revolutionizing the daily schedules of certain boarding schools, says about sports that if you've
just been working on a specific area, say service returns, it only can get
into your system during the SEVENTH and EIGHTH hours of sleep.

I slept like I usually do before Tournaments, about 10 hours.

Hello; I will have to ask a few questions - to begin with:
Have you discussed this with your coach to begin with? (I assume here that you are still coached by someone).

I have put some suspect parts (where you might try to look for some clues) in the bold, it can be symptomatic that this started after a practice week.

I have my clues and guesses about this - but it would be good that you describe what have you done during the practice week, and how your whole regime looks like, on and off tournament.

Previous post by bottle is really important; never disregard sleeping habits, it can wreak havoc with reaction times and fine motor skills.

I don't have a real coach, I am mostly on my own. I am a lot on Tennisplayer.

The week before this Tournament, I was practicing 3 hours in the morning (we warmed everything up, then we played a lot of "pass the service line" games). In the afternoon we played more open points, like feed to the BH play it out... and couple matches and Tie-Breakers. And I had Fitness during the day for 90 minutes... I did this for 5 days.
Then I arrived at the Tournament, didn't play the first day, 2nd day I hit against the wall, and played a set against a guy. There already I didn't feel my strokes. I have never had problems with my serve before, now I couldn't toss the ball the right way. My arms felt "new" to Tennis, like I didn't play it for a month...

And sometimes when I play for 5 days, then take a day off, I don't feel safe in my strokes either...

[nabrug]

But my first question would be, "Exactly how well, and for how many hours did you sleep the night before?"

Professor James Maas of Cornell, who has been revolutionizing the daily schedules of certain boarding schools, says about sports that if you've
just been working on a specific area, say service returns, it only can get
into your system during the SEVENTH and EIGHTH hours of sleep.

Sleep and the Time Course of Motor Skill Learning

http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/10/4/275.full

Evidence that you can be so much more productive towards a pupil if you be aware of when and how many times you review new learned skills.

Nico Mol

[uspta990770809]

What's the takeaway?

Sleep and the Time Course of Motor Skill Learning

http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/10/4/275.full

Evidence that you can be so much more productive towards a pupil if you be aware of when and how many times you review new learned skills.

Nico Mol

Wow. That is fascinating stuff. So better to have a lesson on new material late in the day and no point in coming back immediately the next day. But what about working on different skills the next day and giving time for the new stuff to sink in? If you are running a weekend or short term tennis camp, introduce as much as you possibly can on the first evening?!

Certainly points to the fact that there is no point in craming too much into too little time and you better get plenty of sleep, not just for growth and physical recovery, but for deep assimilation as well.

Also, this young player needs to find a coach who can help him learn to taper his workouts going into a tournament and give him ways to find his "center" and "feel" when he needs them. If you have sound fundamentals, your strokes will not desert your when you are forced to deal with limited court availability, bad weather, etc. at tournaments. Once you are afraid of losing your "feel", you have already lost the battle. It is a battle of confidence that you have to win to have any chance at all in an environment like Satellite/Futures competition.

Good luck with it,
don brosseau

[nabrug]

So better to have a lesson on new material late in the day and no point in coming back immediately the next day. But what about working on different skills the next day and giving time for the new stuff to sink in? If you are running a weekend or short term tennis camp, introduce as much as you possibly can on the first evening?!

Certainly points to the fact that there is no point in craming too much into too little time and you better get plenty of sleep, not just for growth and physical recovery, but for deep assimilation as well.

I hope they continue researching. Like your questions I am very interested if there is an optimum after the initial learning. An optimum where in reviewing is most effective. Like the "supercompensation"-fase in building muscles.

[bottle]

Sleep

I'm far from a sleep physiologist, but when I checked out an article on Dr. Maas
I was amazed at all the new research there seems to be. Intuitively, I ask,
is ten hours TOO MUCH? One of the many things he said, just in a short article
which touched on academic performance and sense of humor as well as sports
efficiency, is when someone boasts about how "they went out like a light," it's
all wrong and unhealthy. A normal person is supposed to fret or daydream or
review or plan or something at least for a while before they doze off. Most interesting to me is a central contention that the brain is MUCH more active
during sleep than during the day, and that we'd all do better if we went to bed at 3 a.m. and got up at 11 a.m. The article was "Professor James Maas: 'Get
More Sleep'" by Henry McNulty, Hotchkiss Magazine, Spring 2009. I've since heard that Professor Maas is a writer of best-sellers and plan to look into it.

[nabrug]

123

[oliensis]

Ik ben ook geen slaap psycholoog. Maar als je zo'n stukje schrijft val ik wel in slaap. Schrijven om het schrijven. Daarom schrijf ik even in het Nederlands dan begrijpt mr. Bottle er ook even niets van. Waar gaat het hier over? Hoe je iemand kwijt kunt raken in een paar zinnen.

8-)
Well, that clears up that mystery! Now I understand the difference between FH1A and BH2B!!!!!

8-)

[bottle]

Vita-- What are You going to do with all this Advice?

You've received some great advice here, but that doesn't mean it's not slightly off or you can't ignore it. You decide.

I just asked my niece, Sage Rountree, how many hours she sleeps when she's training hard. She runs the Boston Marathon, just did the ironman at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, just taught a four-hour class for Olympic junior squad in Colorado, is the author of THE ATHLETE'S POCKET GUIDE TO YOGA, top yoga book at Amazon. "About nine hours," she said.

She thought your ten hours could be too much, might indicate overtraining or trying too hard, that your body may be telling you to ease up a little. This seems to me consistent with losing feel on one's toss. Take one evening off and go to a bar?

The problem might or might not be sleep or confidence, but I'm sure you need
either more of something or less, and since this is America, probably less.

Hey, Nabrug, you Nico Mol, stop being naughty about me in Dutch (which I understood perfectly).

[vita]

Hey bottle,
thanks for the advice.
I was thinking that I have just overplayed... I played five tournaments in seven weeks, now I am taking a week off to clear my mind up a little bit.
When I am playing a tournament, should I have 9 hours of sleep everyday or only before the match day?

Wow. That is fascinating stuff. So better to have a lesson on new material late in the day and no point in coming back immediately the next day.

Is this really true?
Thanks really much, you helped me a lot!!!