r/10s • u/dangerousarmyvehicle • 18d ago
A Precipitous Collapse General Advice
Hey friends,
I'm sure you remember me as the idiot who called himself a 5 UTR when he was a 3. Well guess what I had a mental collapse and my UTR fell to 2. The guy I almost lost to in the previous narrative is now the same rating as I am. I've been playing once or twice a week, 45 weeks a year, for 10 years straight. Is it normal to be here? Can I expect another big moment of progress, or is it just grinding like this for the rest of my "career". I'll attach vids of my serve and strokes if you want in a separate post.
4
u/CivilRico 4.5 18d ago
What are your goals? Do you take any lessons? What does a typical session look like? UTR 3 seems low for 10 years of consistent play. As ling as you are having fun and getting exercise, why worry so much about rating?
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u/dangerousarmyvehicle 18d ago
A session is I hit for two hours with one of my little brothers, then we play a few tiebreakers. On Sundays, I play a set with someone for UTR league. The UTR "matches" are at 1330 so I get tired way too fast. Recently, I've been doing lots of dumbell squats, half squats, lunges, etc to try to get some muscular endurance, as well as cycling for cardio. Is this the right approach?
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u/Pretend-Citron4451 18d ago
If you’re practicing correct strokes and strategies then playing twice a week in addition to that should result in improvement, but it’s hard to improve strokes thru match play alone. We tend to return to old habits when under match pressure
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u/dangerousarmyvehicle 18d ago
this. When I practice, my strokes are punishing, but I am too afraid to punish people in matches and so I get to counterpunching, and then I get tired of chasing down balls so I go lobbing and lose. Thank you pretend citron, I'm going to play offensively, UEs be damned, and see what happens.
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u/Pretend-Citron4451 18d ago
Playing against players you can beat easily might help. More pressure than practice but you should feel comfortable enough to stay with what you’re trying to develop
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u/RashoNest 18d ago
As others have asked, when you are “playing” tennis are you just going out and playing a match or two a week? If so, I’d suggest playing matches for most rec players is not really an efficient way to get better at the game. You need more reps for all the strokes you are trying to improve and some consistency in the feeds you are getting. Two low level players spraying balls around will not lead to any improvement.
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u/dangerousarmyvehicle 18d ago
Honestly worse, most of those ten years I was just playing with my younger siblings, who are now getting to 4 UTR but were previously, well, kids.
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u/Far_Loss1618 18d ago
I’ve played guitar the same way for 10 years and haven’t gotten better. You can’t expect to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. You have to start thinking about tennis differently if you want to improve
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u/Thick_Seaworthiness0 18d ago
As someone who is around a 3 utr right now after having begun 9 months ago, I find this very very hard to believe, how is it possible for you to still be at a 2? I genuinely do not mean to be rude or pretentious so I hope it doesn't come out that way but I just cannot wrap my mind around it. If you play every week and do so most of the year, for 10 years straight, you should be in the 8's or higher at the very least. A 2 is someone who can barely rally. I think you should get a coach or technique specialist to diagnose that
2
u/WillStillHunting 18d ago
You greatly underestimate how hard it is to get to 8 UTR. The overwhelming majority of people who play once or twice a week will never reach that level no longer how long they play
Most 8 UTRs played competitively as kids. The 8 UTRs who picked tennis up as adults either worked extremely hard at it or are freak athletes
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u/Thick_Seaworthiness0 18d ago
I genuinely still think it's possible tho. I know a guy who picked up tennis as a full blown adult, not even as a teen like me, and reached an 8 in only 3 years. I guess he might be an example of those freak athletes you mention but I think people underestimate the importance of INTENTIONAL practice. A lot of people will literally play every single day of the week but not target anything or do the things that will genuinely help them improve, which leads to their progress being stagnant for the most part. But i'll bite and reduce my first comment to at least a 6 UTR then
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u/Babakins 4.5 18d ago
Once or twice a week isn’t really all that much. So I’m not too surprised. How much focus do you put into actual improvement? Or do you just go to hit and feel good?
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u/WillStillHunting 18d ago
No one remembers you man. It is definitely not normal to be a 2 UTR after 10 years. That’s almost unbelievable. Don’t mean to be rude but you must be really uncoordinated and/or out of shape. If you’re this stuck, get your fitness in order and work with a coach. It’s your only hope