Andy Roddick

Andy’s match was a sports psych’s dream.  Andy played a deliberate style early in the match but the 20 year old opponent is very smooth and athletic with a dream backhand.  It appeared early on that Andy was not serving his best.  He had been well around the 70% mark and lots of free points coming into the match.  His arm today seemed a little dead.

Sure enough, he called for the trainer who did some deep tissue work to loosen it up.  The players are limited as to how many times they can be treated for the  same injury, so at some point, Andy had to decide if he could continue or retire.  Questions to consider include: can I finish the match, will I further damage my shoulder, how will it affect me in my next tournament in San Jose – the SAP Open? Much to his credit, he changed tactics and stayed in the set.

As we have all experienced when playing an injured player, it can affect our game as well. We mentally start wondering if he can finish or attempt to change our game to see if we can take advantage of the injury.  That will usually affect the non-injured player more than the injured player – and it did.  When we quit worrying how we are playing and just hit – we do well and that is what Andy begin to do – hit the ball flatter and put the opponent on his heels.

Andy worked his way through the 3rd and 4th set. The pain killers he had been given seemed to numb the pain and he began to serve stronger as he went along. Whey – it’s 2 sets each now and the next change is about to occur.  At 2 all in sets now, Andy takes a deep sigh of relieve and goes back to his old style of play, more spin and less aggressive.  Cilic realizes it is now or never and  begins to come out of his shell.  Andy has 40-love on his opponents serve in the first game of the 5th set and lets is get away.  Now Cilic breathes a sigh of relief.  Andy is upset, letting it get away like that but does not go on the attack again.  He reverts to the way he played the 1st and 2nd set and Cilic is too fast and has too good of hands.  He handles Andy’s spinner shots and puts him on the run again.

I am on the couch pulling for Andy – but at 4-2 with Cilic serving, it is not up to Andy.  He has let himself get behind and it is up to the Croatian to win or lose at this point.  He serves big and pulls off the upset – his first ever major semi-final.

What can we get from the match? It is easy from the couch to see what to do and listen to the advice of the announcers.  On the court, we have all felt and done what Andy did tonight.  But his determination not to give up when others have been retiring in this event this year points to how much of a fighter Andy is – just like his Wimbledon match with Roger last summer.  14-16 in the 5th set.

Andy did a great job playing with what he had to play with.  He adjusted his game, moved in to take second serves inside the baseline and just go for shots.  It is easy when you are down – you are losing anyhow.  When we get even and realize we can now win, there is a tendency to back off and hope the other player will lose. The difference is slight, hardly noticeable to some spectators, only those of you who put yourself on the line and play league play would know the feeling.

What Andy and we experience is an article I wrote about on my blog site called the “hour glass“ effect.  Just like and hour glass, the person on top has only a few thoughts crossing their mind.  The person on the bottom of the hour glass has all the thoughts coming down on them – too fast, bad equipment, shouldn’t lose to this player and etc.  Finally with time is about to run out on them, the person on the bottom decides to – just go for it, don’t miss, go in, it doesn’t really matter – they just begin to have one thought only.  The fear is gone.  The player on top now has switched to the bottom of the hour glass and all these thoughts begin to creep in – I could win this set, game or match, never defeated this player before, my next opponent is …  it doesn’t matter, this player now has all the monsters in his mind.  The momentum has switched and the hour glass was turned over several times in this match.

Good on you to Andy.  We hope he did not injure his shoulder to badly.  He is 9 and 1 in 2010 and off to a good start.

Photo Credits: burntfilm

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Doubles Situations

1. The receiving team must lob the return of serve and try to take the net at least twice in each game. This is especially effective when the serving team is serving into the sun.
2. The serving team must play out of the “I” formation or Australian formation.  Get use to using the formations so you will have confidence to use them in a match as well as experiencing how to return against the formations.
3. The receiving team starts with both players back. This takes the pressure off the receiver to make a great return to avoid getting their partner killed by the poaching player of fast charging net player
4. The serving team starts both players on the baseline. This formation helps when the receiver is killing the net player because they cannot volley or the serves are too weak.

Singles Situations

1. Players must serve, return and rally 6 balls cross court before the point can begin.  Serve to the deuce court and rally deuce court then serve to the ad court and rally ad court cross court.  Keep score like in a regular match.
2. Player serves and rally out the point.  If the ball lands inside the service line the striker loses the point.  You can also play that the short ball requires the receiver of the short ball to go to the net to play out the point.
3. “3 to win a major” – (with 3 players) one player will serve 3 points.  If the server or receiver wins all 3 points they win a “major point”.  If they win 2 of the 3 points they stay on the court and a third player comes on to replace the person who lost the 1 point and a new game is played. If they win 1 of the 3 they are the one replaced by the third player who will now play 3 points against the player who stayed on the court.  This stresses the difficulty in winning 3 points in a row.  (*when the score is 30-love there is an 80% chance the person with the lead will lose the next point and 65% chance they will lose the 4^th point as well).
4. “3 to win a major” – (with 2 players) one player serves and tries to win 3 points in a row to win a game.  If the receiver wins the point, they become the server and have 1 point while the former server loses all their points and starts at zero again.  Players keep games won and play out a set.

Situational scoring and match play can help to focus on specific skills necessary to improve ones tactical and mental approach to the game.  They also make great coaching opportunities. The shortened scoring and sets make great challenge match format that can be completed in a short period of time.

This form of altered play helps to make practice exciting and more challenging so players stay focused and do not experience “mindless” practice.  They get use to specific situations and proper responses to the score or situation so they play with a “been there before” confidence in actual match play.

Photo Credits: 1

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