There’s an epidemic plaguing tennis players of all levels, and more than likely you’re affected.
It’s called RDS – “Rating Distortion Syndrome”, and it holds back the improvement of well over 90% of tennis players all around the world.
You probably think I’m being overly dramatic…
…but I promise you it’s real, and in the next few emails I’ll explain the first symptoms of exposure, what causes RDS, and also how to quickly cure yourself!
I started noticing signs of this sinister psychological problem years ago, but didn’t fully understand the width or depth of the ailment until quite recently.
All of a sudden all the little pieces of evidence came together in my head and it made so much sense!
The warning signs fall into three main categories. Read these carefully and be super honest with yourself about whether or not they describe you on or off the court:
- Complaining about “losing to worse players”. This was the very first symptom I started noticing as a young, fledgling teaching pro right out of college. Certain members (quite a few of them) would have a pattern of losing to X player consistently, but somehow still consider them “worse” than they were due to how their strokes looked, or their playing style, or how long they had been playing, etc.
- “Level condescension.” This extremely common symptom of RDS is most prevalent on the internet, especially in the comments below videos of amateur tennis players hitting, drilling, or playing a match. Typically the video title or description will list the rating level of the players participating, and the discussion thread or comments below are slammed with other players strongly suggesting that the listed level is hugely inflated.
- “End of the world loss”. If this hasn’t happened to you then it most certainly has to somebody you know. It’s where one player loses to another that they considered SO far beneath them, that they’re thrown into a deep funk and question everything about themselves as a tennis player: “Am I wasting my time with this sport? Are the lessons I’m taking even working? I’m obviously not getting any better, maybe I should just quit!”.
Can you relate?
Please be honest…because as you’ll learn in the next few messages of this series your improvement completely depends on it.
Maybe you’re too nice of a person to ever admit any of those things out loud, but have you thought them (or something similar) to yourself?
This is your chance to absolve yourself of your sins…
Feel free to “confess” by replying and letting me know where you’ve noticed these symptoms in yourself…
OR if this instantly reminded you of a peer I’d love to hear those stories as well!
Don’t worry, I won’t throw you under the bus 😉
Stay tuned because in my next message I’ll share in detail WHY these thoughts, attitudes and responses by tennis players are so incredibly common.
It turns out Roger Federer is to blame…
Talk soon.
Yours Truly,
-Ian
