After no competition in July I was keen to get back in action in August.
Now on the 31st of the month the review is rather sobering.
Belief is really tested when you come into a competition with a reasonable expectation of a win or two. Then end up with seven straight losses across the month.
The scores only tell part of the story, so here as some brief pen pictures.
Cardiff
2-6, 6-2, 12 –14 An error strewn first set. Settled in the 2nd set to be more consistent. Lost out in the tie break after 2 match point opportunities to me and opponent won it on his 3rd match point. Enjoyable match. Good mindset.
1-6, 2-6 Horrendous. Despatched to the hardcourts for the consolation. Mistimed nearly everything. Good mindset.
Wimbledon
2-6, 2-6 Played pretty well, beaten on the day by the better player. No answer to his heavy lefty topspin down the line. Raynes Park is the Wimbledon Community Facility, is not quite Wimbledon but it is still a treat.
County Championships
3-6, 3-6 Competed pretty well, but always behind, never really looked like I would turn it around. Too many errors.
5-7, 2-6 Down on energy, tried to extract something from the match after clawing back to 5-5 in the first set. Moved from fast indoors to clay for the second set. Fell behind and stayed behind.
0-6, 3-6 Probably the fastest 5 first games ever to go 0-5. Possibly winning a couple of points at best and spraying the ball everywhere on the other points. Hot day and the ball was very lively off the racket and I was slow to everything. Slight rally from 1-5 in the second set.
4-6, 1-6 Recovered from 1-4 to 4-4 in the first, then fell away. Never in the second set. 8am start on a perfect sunny summer morning.
Why? is always a good question. I have been trying to change two things in my game. The serve and the backhand.
The serve is generally coming along nicely. A better reach up is allowing the potential for better all round serving. Even starting to be able to hit the flat serve down the middle, but not yet doing it consistently and giving away too many double faults.
The other change is the backhand. As a standalone shot in practice it is taking shape reasonably well. Still a tendency to jab at the ball and try to hit a fast ball back even faster. Meanwhile my sliced backhand has gone awol. As for the forehand it seems to have deserted me completely and become a very flat low control shot.
Why? is still a good question. The heart of the matter seems to be the slow transfer of grip from backhand to forehand. This has been leaving the forehand in a continental grip, hence the lack of spin and the ball sailing long.
Been drilling to make the change of grip quicker, but it is a work in progress.
Positively the mindset has been very good. Never conceding defeat until each match was done.
As we enter September, with three tournaments remaining of the season, I remain optimistic that an elusive win is just around the corner.
Resting now after a busy last week of the month in which I lost 4 straight matches. Restoring my energy and doing some light gym work, with plenty of mobility included.
It would be nice to sign off this post with a nice zippy, upbeat few words, though I am not sure what they would be. So I am just going to go and try my best and see what happens.
