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BGonline.org Forums
Motivation
Posted By: Stick
Date: Wednesday, 20 June 2012, at 6:54 p.m.
Lately I've been playing some pretty sloppy and terrible tennis both in practice and actual matches. I practice with teammates who are also friends and we're all about the same level and nobody really gives a shit. We kind of go out there for a couple hours, smack the yellow thing around, get a tan, get no work out, and improve on nothing. When our matches come around we still play basically like donkey dung because we know we're going to win and are lazy about it. It bothers me to play so poorly win or lose but I have a real hard time finding any motivation that will work.
I didn't put this as *OT* because I have sort of the same issue in backgammon. What can make me want to study and continue to improve when I'm already by my own modest admission pretty fuckin' awesome? Falafel once told me in his Falafel way that I needed to take tournaments more seriously because he'd see me come and stay up and out til all hours of the night, drinking, etc... I told him it's possible I play a bit worse running on no sleep with a blood alcohol level the next day hovering near the legal limit but I still play better than everyone else, so what's the point? This tournament we were at all of my matches were being recorded and I told him nobody would even be in the ballpark of outplaying me whether they were my opponent or not and I was out all weekend. I'd happily take the 'who can play the lowest PR over the entire weekend' bet with anyone in the room.
With tennis I play 5 or so days a week, singles maybe twice a week, doubles the rest, some hard court, some clay (har-tru), and I thought I was working a fair amount. One problem, as already mentioned, is that it isn't deliberate practice. I flop about and really get nothing accomplished. The other issue that woke me up this week came at the end of this month's Tennis magazine. In an interview with 20 year old American Christina McHale she briefly described her 'typical day of training'.
"I start at nine in the morning, and from 9 to 10:45 I'll do fitness. Then I'll do tennis drills from 11 to 1 and take a two hour break until after 3. Ater that, we play sets for two hours and finish with another hour of fitness."
Now that's work, that's dedication, that's why she rocks. That is of course what any professional tennis player does and we aren't professionals like she is at whatever we may be talking about but I like to be the best at what I do. It was a bit of motivation for me to see how hard someone else works so I thought I'd share it in case it kicks anyone else in the ass.
Stick
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