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Hi Reader, Even at 14 years old, she could volley with control and assurance—even against a male pro player hitting aggressively at her. Then, three months later, she started dumping routine approach shots into the net. Shots she'd made hundreds of times before. What had changed? Her technique was identical... I had seen this happen before and I identified the root cause of the her errors quickly. This wasn't a technical problem. It was stress avoidance disguised as poor execution. I see this...
Hi Reader, This weekend, a 14-year-old junior I work with in Bangkok—let's call him "M"—was up 5-2 in a first-set tiebreak against the best player in the country. He'd been in this position dozens of times before. And dozens of times before, he'd lost. The pattern was always the same: the moment he got close to winning, he'd start trying to end points in two shots. Go for too much. Hand his opponent free points. By 5-5, the match was slipping away. By 6-7, it was already over in his head. But...
The Question You're Not Asking Your player chokes in another match. Your brain starts building: Add a pre-serve routine. Work on second serve placement. Schedule a sports psychology. Change string tension. Six months later, they have 14 technical cues for one serve and more anxiety than when they started. The problem isn't what they lack. It's what's in their way. We are overloading our players with information. Western coaching is built that way - addition. But the best players are carrying...