Warming Up Again and Getting Ready for Competition
I was practicing for a couple of days, getting ready for competition again this year. In the beginning, it took some time for me to get back into the swing of things. I felt a little tired, and I even missed a lot of serves in a row because I hadn't practiced during the winter months. Normally, I like practicing during the winter, but the indoor courts were just too expensive for us to afford, so I had to wait for a long time before I could hit balls again.
But the good thing is that while I was in the house during winter, I still kept reading tennis books, especially my favorite one by Oscar Wegner. Reading the books helped me to remind myself that I can find simple solutions to common problems in tennis. Tennis is really a sport where you often go more by feel than by analysis. Many times, a problem that seems complex in tennis has a simple, straightforward solution.
In my case, I found that because I hadn't served in a while, I wasn't hitting up enough on the serve to get the ball over the net. Once I started imagining I was trying to hit something over a fence, that made a big difference, and my serve began to come back with more power and consistency.
It was a little rattling at first to miss serves, because I've sometimes wondered if I have technical problems with my serve. But over time, I've learned how to solve the most challenging issues, and I started doing really well the next day, even though it was windy out there!
The tennis life lesson I learned is that it can take time to warm up again when you've been away from something for a while, but there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean you won't get those skills and great results again. It just means you need time to warm up. I reminded myself that even the pros can be a little rusty when they haven't played tennis in a long while. They need time to warm up, too, which is why there's always a warm up before the tennis match starts!
I think this was a great life lesson to learn, and I'll take it with me in other areas of my life, too! If I'm feeling kind of rusty or I make mistakes in something else, I know it's because I just need time to warm up and get into a nice flow again. It's nothing to panic about. Before I know it, I'll be back on track!
