What is your ‘nature’ as far as risk is concerned? Are you a control freak? Are you a risk taker/gambler? Or are you somewhere in between?
If you are a true risk-taker, competition in general will be easier for you. This is especially true in tennis. It is not that you will never get tight or tentative, but it will usually only occur at crucial junctures and in certain situations, not all the time.
For those of you who are not risk-takers by nature or if risk is something you avoid at all costs, the desire for control will create a tremendous obstacle for you to swing freely and to compete comfortably. For this group competition can be quite traumatic and there will be a wide gulf between how you play in practice as opposed to in competition.
For the vast majority who are somewhere in the middle, the nature of tennis in particular, and competition in general, lends itself to seek control and playing safe, consequently risk will be something difficult and therefore competition could be a challenge at times.
If the fear of losing a match or the desire to win becomes too strong those thoughts will affect the way we play.
If, in our own mind, the enormity of a point is such that winning it becomes essential or losing it is seen as catastrophic, it will be extremely difficult to swing freely or play this point without some tentativeness.
Why is it that when a player has a lead, the tendency is to play safe, which results, too often, in an inferior performance? Many players lament the fact that, too often, they let big leads slip away and feel most nervous and tentative when they are trying to close out a match?
Conversely, why is it that when players are losing and have resigned themselves to that fact, they are often able to play much better tennis?
In my understanding, the reason for all these scenarios is directly related to the willingness to take risk.
When one is winning a match, there is less desire to take risk because there arises an assumption that because I am winning, a win is pretty much guaranteed. Consequently, players will normally not want to take risk when they feel this way. A feeling of protecting what one already has arises and there is a tendency to play safe as a result.
On the other hand, when we are losing, the desire to take risk arises quite naturally because a sense of desperation prevails which naturally throws caution to the wind.
In my understanding, there is a certain amount of risk in every single shot. There is no such thing as a sure thing and there are certainly no gimme’s in tennis (btw, in my opinion, there shouldn’t be any in golf either!). To bring racket to ball (timing) successfully requires, yes, focus, but also a boldness and commitment to one’s swing, even if one cannot be sure of the outcome.
Consequently, my suggestion is to drop this façade of control, we don’t have it in Life and we don’t have it on the tennis court. Instead, let us embrace the risk and uncertainty that is the very fiber of Life and swing away and adopt an attitude of ‘Let’s see what happens’.
Whenever I am able to do this, even if it is for one isolated swing, a feeling of effortlessness and lightness arises. It is impossible to take credit for the outcome because it is almost as if I had nothing to do with this swing, I simply just threw the racket at the ball and everything else just happened!
At least that is my experience. Experiment with this and see what arises for you!