Putting a plan into practice

I played a match today and it started similarly to my match I lost earlier this week. I played short very early on and found myself under pressure when my opponent got to the front and hit a crushing cross court. My serve was also under attack a little bit and I was not confident serving the lob. I made several service errors. Because I managed to scrape out a win in the first game, I did not really change my game much in the second and consequently I lost it. For the third game, I went with my game tactics I wrote last night and started to play deeper drives and higher faster serves. The plan worked. I kept my opponent scrambling in the back court and held my short game until he was thoroughly tired or not anticipating the front court. I played the next two games this way and won easily. As the points came my way, I could feel the confidence surge and my feet and hand eye coordination got sharper. I used drops less frequently at that point but they were more deadly. I just knew the ball would hit its mark. I had a good feeling about it even before I chose the shot.

The important lesson to learn from this match is knowing what I can affect at match time and what I cannot. I can't improve how I hit a shot during a game. I can however chose what shot to hit. If one shot is not working, take a different shot. I cannot try to make myself hit the same shot better hoping it will become a winner on my next try. My mind has been laboring under this falsehood for so long. Improvements in my game will come when I develop more options - shots. When 1, 2 or more shots aren't working and I need to be able to play something completely different.