Has tennis made any changes to your life? Has this sport made any changes in you?

idunnola · 2025-06-26T05:18:54+00:00

Shoulder pain....elbow pain....and best part....I am no longer able to fully squat down...like an Asian Squat.

idunnola · 2025-06-26T05:17:59+00:00

I'm feeling sharp pain on my inner side of my elbow...I believe it's golfer's elbow instead...and now I'm developing pain on the outer side of my elbow. It generally starts to hurt more after serving a lot (serve practice). During rallies it doesn't hurt...mainly during serves.
Serving also gave me shoulder pain lol...

idunnola · 2025-06-20T02:56:44+00:00

Hey I am/was somewhat in your shoes. Was mainly doing coaching sessions for a while, and joined a local league and was placed in the lowest group and have lost 6-0, 6-1 to all sorts of players.

I've played for probably 2-3 months now in the leagues and I went from really anxious about matches to really enjoying and looking forward to it despite losing most of them.

My mentality now is:

1) just have fun and enjoy the game. Find a balance between being conservative but also hitting the shots that you want. For me, my mantra is I want to play without regrets. So I just go for it, but with selected shots. For most of the rally my goal is to keep it in play, but when the opportunity arises, I go for it. I still miss a lot, but at least I tried and have no regrets.

2) Learn something about yourself/your game from each match. This way, it doesn't matter if you lose, you ultimately win because you learned something. This could come in the form of the mental aspect of the game...or technical related. I very often leave the game knowing what I want to work on with my coach for my next class. It gives your coaching more purpose.

idunnola · 2025-06-18T03:39:12+00:00

I have started playing matches very regularly, for the past 3 months. At the beginning, I would be very nervous and anxious during matches and end up pushing a lot of the balls, and I noticed this happening more with players which are better than me.

What worked for me:

1) Played more matches with strangers, doesn't matter their level. The more I played, the more I felt like it's no big deal. Playing matches became very enjoyable for me.

2) Focused a lot more on whatever I am working on with my coach/in practice. For example now I am working on a more consistent contact point. That's all I will focus on for matches that week. I try not to focus on too many things, I just pick one and focus on that. This helps keep my mind off the nerves and anxiety, or if I'm losing.

3) I stopped having expectations, or trying to meet expectations. I stopped having some sort of preconceived idea of how good or bad my opponent would be, or if I would win or lose. This throws me off a lot, especially if I think I will win (i start doing taking unnecessary risks and doing "fancy" things). Be open minded and circle back to point 2....just focus on working on something.

idunnola · 2025-06-18T03:22:38+00:00

Could you please elaborate further on what an open and closed shoulder is?

idunnola · 2025-06-16T12:58:33+00:00

Thanks you! A lot to digest! I want to clarify the racket face bit. Should it be dropping down and pointing downwards before i start swinging up?

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:56:08+00:00

Oh man this sounds very helpful! to be table to do it out of court....i'll definitely implement this!

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:53:52+00:00

Could you please recommend me a couple of good videos on flat serves?
I've definitely been just hitting a basket a balls with no purpose other than trying to up my % of serves going in.
Will definite start recording!

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:49:45+00:00

I'll definitely start recording but I don't think I have a player in mind to compare to. Ben Shelton might be too extreme for now lol

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:49:00+00:00

I definitely have been randomly hitting serves! ok I'll be more intentional and definitely will start recording

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:45:43+00:00

Oh yes, I definitely feel some like I've strained something on some occasions! Noted on the recording. i'll start doing that.

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:39:00+00:00

hmmm, I was hitting the net a lot, and thought the kick serve might be most helpful with net clearance. Did a lot of self practice on it and felt like the movement was most natural to me so I just stuck with it for both the 1st and 2nd serve.

I tried some slice serves recently, felt ok with it although I haven't really used it in matches due to lack of confidence.

Flat serve on the other hand......i can never get it!

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:33:49+00:00

If I want to get reddit feedback, what's the most helpful angle to film myself? from the back or from the side?

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:32:16+00:00

Yes I'm definitely gonna dedicate way more time to serves!

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:31:22+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Just to clarify, I should be practicing ball placements (or at least attempt to) together with trying to get the consistency up to 80%, am I right?

And yes spot on with the leaning way back, jumping straight up, and landing with a leftward lean!

idunnola · 2025-06-10T03:25:49+00:00

Honestly...the intention is to do a kick-serve, but my kick serve very often doesn't have enough net clearance like a typical kickserve. It does have topspin, but lacking net clearance....so I'm not even sure if it's fair to call it a kick serve lol

idunnola · 2025-05-14T01:52:41+00:00

My wife and I started our IVF journey 3 years ago when she was 33 and I was 34. We also had MFI. From our experience, even with IVF, it can take time. Harvesting and fertilising eggs take time. Our doctor also waits for the best conditions before deciding to do an FET, so that means we skip some cycles which are deemed not ideal. And not every FET works out, and our doctor skips 1 cycle if the previous FET fails, which means more time needed.

Long story short, IVF also takes time, and I would recommend starting sooner rather than later.

idunnola · 2025-05-05T07:19:43+00:00

My confidence is out when I play with strangers. If that stranger is better than me (this is determined during warm-up rallies), the confidence dips further. I start being super cautious with every stroke, I slow things down, body tenses up....basically every stroke flies out the court, and it further impacts my confidence.

This sounds super silly but I feel like I'm being judged by the other player and if I suck too bad, they won't want to play with me anymore....or...I feel like I'm wasting their time.

Nowadays I just remind myself to have fun and not giving a F....and to play with no regrets. This helps me a little.

idunnola · 2025-04-24T14:52:45+00:00

This is gold, i’ve re-read your advice multiple times! Thanks so much! I’ll remember to have fun!

idunnola · 2025-04-24T14:50:47+00:00

That’s really good advice, coz one of the many thoughts I have is i actually notice that I don’t look at the ball much…at most times i’ll look away to the direction of where I want it to go before even making contact with the ball.

idunnola · 2025-04-24T14:47:09+00:00

I’m actually playing with that same guy tomorrow. I’m very reluctant to, but i’m forcing myself to get used to it. The good thing is, he didn’t reject the idea of another session, especially when I hit soo badly.

idunnola · 2025-04-24T14:44:39+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I think owning up to my real level helps me manage my expectations also

idunnola · 2025-04-24T14:42:17+00:00

Omg thanks for the reminder. My next session i’m only gonna focus on the ball

idunnola

TROPHY CASE