You are down 3 serving 4 and it's your second serve & thoughts of double faulting creep into your mind. You hurry your second serve and it goes into the net. I knew that was going to happen you say as your racket slams against the pavement. Another player in the same situation slows down his serve giving the ball a push not wanting to DF, but watches as his serve goes two feet beyond the service line, I barely touched the ball the player says. The third outcome could be that the player manages to get the serve in just to see it go by him for a winner. No matter what the situation it as clear that all of the above are not going to win you matches, so lets learn how to correct, or at least better our chances of avoiding the choking disease.
When you feel that you are about to DF the first thing to do is slow down, and I don't mean your serve. You should never start your service motion with out being in the correct frame of mind. The first thing you need to do is replace those negative thoughts with positive ones. Think of one of your best serves and how the serve felt physically and mentally. Now you are positive knowing that you have served the tennis ball great thousands of times and this will be no different then before.
Now go to the service line and setup as you normally do bouncing the ball a few times. It's now time to get back to the basics of the serve. Anytime you feel pressure always use a checklist to review. I need to throw the ball out in front of me, and my racket needs to reach the ball at its highest point while keeping my head up watching the ball, so that there is no way that it can fall short. I must accelerate through the swing, but add extra spin so that it falls well into service box, and makes my opponent hit a neutral shot back. The extra spin will not allow my ball to go long. Once you have went through the checklist take a deep breath, and perform as a champion.
Play to win and forget about losing!!!!
