Summary: <img width="580" height="354" src="https://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/jeff-salzenstein.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="float: left; margin: 0 15px 15px 0;"><p><a href="http://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/jeff-salzenstein.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-10699"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10699" src="http://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/jeff-salzenstein.jpg" alt="jeff-salzenstein" width="700" height="350"></a></p> <div class="smart-track-player-container stp-color-2d7bbf-EEEEEE"></div> <h2>Show Notes</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the State Finals in Pueblo last week, I got a text message from one of the players that I was watching, that happened to lose his State Final match, and his singles position. Of course, he was upset about the loss, coming in 2</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">nd</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> place, he wanted to be a state champion, right? He’s a competitor. But I was interested to hear that after the match, he said in his text:</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I was so nervous, Jeff. I didn’t know what to do.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">…and that brings up a couple of things that I want to talk about today.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Number 1, you have to accept. You have to have acceptance around the fact that you are going to be nervous, especially in a big match. Oftentimes, the bigger the match, the more nervous you’re going to be. So, acceptance is huge, not shying away from it, not being upset that you’re nervous, and also not treating nervousness as a bad thing. Embrace the nervousness. Know that that nervousness is getting your adrenaline flowing, getting you ready to play, getting you in position to actually play your best tennis, if you look at nervousness as a positive instead of a negative.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, knowing that you’re going to be nervous, you have to have a plan, and too often, players are surprised when they get nervous, and then they panic, and this is what happened in this particular case, and I don’t want it to happen to you going forward.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, you have to have a plan. So, what do I mean by that? Well, I like to have a strategic plan, and I like to have a technical plan on the technical side. For example, if I didn’t know that I’m going to be nervous, there’s a good chance I could pull off the ball or I could hit the ball short. So, for me, when I’m nervous, I commit to catching the racket on my forehand side, and to finishing high over my shoulder, so that way, I know I’m going to have a stable finish, and I’m going to hit the ball deeper when I finish higher, instead of finishing across my body. That’s something that works for me.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, I know before the match starts that that’s going to be a focal point in my game from a technical standpoint. A very simple tip: just finish high, catch the racket on the forehand. Now, if you don’t plan ahead, and then you notice you’re hitting the ball short on your forehand, then you can actually, hopefully, remember to do that during the match.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, strategically, you want to find out what your opponent’s weaker side is: forehand or backhand? It’s very simple. By the time you play 15, 20, 30 minutes, you should know, even if you’ve never seen this player before, which side is weaker.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this particular match, the opponent’s forehand was weaker, but yet, I saw my </span></p>
