3.5 to 5.0 in 3 Years - Winning Singles Strategy

Gin reveals her singles strategy that helped her climb from 3.5 to 5.0 in three years with an impressive 72-4 USTA singles record! 

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Transcript

Carolyn 0:06

Hi, this is Carolyn and I'm here with Erin and we have Gin back on the podcast. Gin got bumped from 3.5 to 5.0 in three years. This wasn't going to be an episode, but we started discussing after the other episodes we recorded with Gin how she was able

Why Gin Keeps Winning Singles

Carolyn 0:23

to win so many singles matches. And we thought others may want to hear it. So here it is. Gin, since you have played 3-5, 4-0, 4-5, and 5-0 singles, can you tell us your single strategy?

Gin 0:37

Yeah, I think that, you know, a lot of rec players have the wrong mindset, is kind of my point of view. And I bet you a lot of pros out there are going to disagree with me. But, you know, I have just, you know, shown that I can win at singles and in, you know, women's recreational tennis. And I have done it through consistency. And, you know, I I learned from y'all's podcast that even at the professional level, most points are lost by an error, not won by a winner. Even, you know, if so, if, you know, Djokovic can't win a match, you know, on more, more on winners, I'm not going to be able to. So I've I've taken the um, you know, the strategy of, you know, I do not ever aim for a line. Um, I'm aiming three feet inside the line. I am really trying to just get a lot of balls back. And I have found that at 3-5, 4-0, 4-5, and you know, even a couple of 5-0 doubles, uh, singles matches, this is all singles um that I've been in, you know, they you you will win more than you will lose. And they will get they will hit some winners. Um, but you kind of just say, yeah, good shot, and and I'm gonna go back to the next point being consistent, and and I have found a lot of success that way. Um yeah. So I think that people really should come into a match more with the mentality of of getting, you know, finding a ball, you know. I want you to find, as a singles player out there, I want you to find a ball that you can hit 90% of the time in and safe, you know, that's a good, you know, still be working toward a good deep, you know, ball, but don't let it be within a foot of the line. Do not think of it as like, I'm gonna put this ball away, they're not gonna get to it. Don't even worry about that. If you can hit a ball in consistently, you know, deep-ish, um a lot of times, uh, you know, you will win a lot of matches.

Erin 2:21

So what I was saying before we started recording this was that what what I learned, and now I'm upset about it. What I learned was when you have a short ball or an attackable ball, right? Then you come in and you do something with it. So you so I learned

The Short Ball Mindset Reset

Erin 2:38

basically like do patterns, set up, set up your point. But then when there is a short ball, like let's say inside the service box, you have to do something with it. You've got to finish the point. And that was what my pro's mentality was for years. And Carolyn had the same, the same pro. And what Gin is saying is still be consistent with that ball. Don't think of it as this ball I have to like. I think of it as I have to kill this ball. And usually what happens to me is I kill the ball to the back fence or three feet over, you know, three feet out or whatever. Um, so I lose I I actually played a woman who's super consistent that that you guys both know. And I won the first three games. And I was like, I am rolling now. And I did not win another game after that because she hit just consistently, you know, back in the court. Every ball came back in the court, no matter if it was short or deep or whatever, but every single ball. And I kept thinking, I've got to put it away, I've got to put it away. And I did not win a single game after that.

Gin 3:33

So when I come forward and I get a short ball, you know, I'm going to try to now. If you've got a phenomenal approach shot that you can hit consistently, by all means hit that. But I haven't found many ladies, you know, in any of these levels I've played at who can do that super consistently. Um,

Slice Approaches And Smart Targets

Gin 3:49

so for most people, uh, you know, what I do is I come in, I I have a uh I'm much more, um, I can count on my slice forehand much better in that situation. The pros don't like it when I do it, but I I know I can hit that in 90% of the time. Whereas my um top spin approach shot, I do not feel as confident with. So I hit that. Um, or and I hit it with that that same mentality of like, yeah, I'm gonna try to challenge the person. You know, I don't want to hit like an easy ball to the middle, but I'm I'm not gonna hit a ball that I'm not pretty sure I, you know, very sure I can hit in. Um, you know, I want to hit a ball that I know. And if that, and if all you know you can hit in, if you're at a level, you know, if you're a 2-5 or a 3-0 and you only know that you can hit in a pop-up ball, I would encourage you to hit that pop-up ball. Know in your head what your opponent's weaker shot is. You know, let's say that they have a weaker backhand, hit them a pop-up ball to their back end. You're still in a better position. You know, you're you're still the mentality, you're getting balls back. And so that, I mean, you know, that's kind of what I've done. You know, so be smart about it. You know, notice what your opponent's weaknesses are. You know, if there's someone who just hates to come forward and every time you hit them a short ball, hit a short ball. Don't make it a ball that is barely coming over the net that you can only hit in like a two out of ten times. Right, right. Don't hit like a shot that you are only going to be able to hit in two out of ten times, but just something that makes them move. So it's it's just really a sort of a safe, consistent mentality. And um, and you know, even if we look at professionals, you know, obviously they're different types of players. You know, there's players who are um, you know, fast and consistent, and that's their game, even at the professional level, and there are other players who are power players. You know, I'm not a power player. If you're a power player, you know, you you may have to sort of tweak my strategy, I guess. But um, but yeah, I d I don't think that any adult recreational um ladies tennis players should be going for the line, the line and and winners every time. I have not seen anyone be able to do it.

Erin 5:43

Yeah. I would say I'm a power player, and I will tell you the problem with being a power player is you hit more out than you hit in.

Gin 5:50

You know, and that's the person when I'm playing singles, if I'm warming up against that, is I am like, yes. Like this girl enjoys going for it, and she's gonna hit some winners that I don't get. But you know, this

Power Tennis And The Error Problem

Gin 6:00

is gonna be easy because she's she cannot do that. If she could hit if she could do that, she'd be a five-five. You know, like if she could hit that ball in 90% of the time, right? Yeah.

Erin 6:10

What's your mentality, Carolyn, in singles?

Carolyn 6:13

It was single. Well, if I get a short ball, it's put it away. Just because I've been taught, okay, put it away. And let me tell you, I can't put it away 90% of the time. I probably put it away 20% of the time because my body's moving, I'm not set up correctly, but in my mind, I'm like, oh, I got a short ball. I've really done everything I needed. And and it frustrates me. Then I get frustrated because I go for it and I'm like, I should be able to hit this because when my pro is feeding it to me, time after time after time, I can do it. Right. But in a real match, uh, you know, my feet aren't, you know, I'm hitting it a little differently and I'm missing it. And I've just, you know, I've never thought to like, okay, let's really bring the ball in some. Like you can still be aggressive, but bring the targets in and not go, not go for these winners. And I've always gone for the winners, and I I don't I don't win. So exactly. Yeah, but I think the thing is we don't I don't think pros really understand this because they play at such a high level, whereas Ginna's in the trenches, like she's playing 3-5 level, 4-0, 4-5, and now 5-0. Like she's seen it. I mean, she's seen the wrestling.

Gin 7:27

I believe I've played 76 for USTA um singles matches, and I'm 72 and 4. Wow. And so I have I have tested this theory and it and it, you know, it's pretty effective. Again, there you're gonna, you know, there will be people you come up against that, you know, it may not work and you you may have to tweak it. But yeah, I do believe people should really work on their can their consistency. You know, we're not professionals, and so we don't have that shot at a high enough percentage yet, you know, to um and if you do get it, like I said, you will be a higher rated player. So yeah, I I I would highly encourage people to really work on being a little more consistent and hitting balls. They have confidence they can hit in a lot of the time.

Erin 8:07

Yeah. I'm I'm I'm still gonna be mad that I it's like my it's uh muscle memory of like it was just so ingrained. And I remember bumping from three five or watching when I was probably a three-o, watching a friend of mine who maybe just got bumped to three five and she was I'm I'm sorry, just got bumped to four-o from a three-five. And I remember her walking off the court and she walked past me and she was like, every short ball that I gave that woman was a winner. Like she, you know, like she felt like that was the difference between three five and four-o singles was that four-ro players would put it away if they recognized either a short ball or a ball that they hit, like a deep to someone's backhand, you know, that they would come in on. And so that's it's been in my mind for so many years. And now getting to know Jin and hitting with Jin a lot more and watching her progression from those level, you know, up through the through the ranks. It's like, yeah, uh the pros, whatever the the somebody knows the numbers, but it's something like you know, maybe a three or five ball rally is typical. And that's because people are going for it. Now, again, that's a completely different it's all called tennis, but what they play and what we play is completely different. And um, you know, so like Jin said, if they can't hit winners or if they can't cut down on their unforced errors, we c we aren't gonna be able to do it. So I'm gonna try to change. We talked about goals last week on our podcast, Carolyn. That's my new goal is consistency, you know, hitting with gin more.

Gin 9:39

It's a strategy to try. You know, we all get out on the court and try different, you know, and you may have to tweak it. You may have to say, oh gosh, I've run aga up against another player who's doing this same strategy and she's faster and younger and more athletic than me. Like I gotta, I'm gonna have to, you know, do something different. And so, you know, this isn't just a catch-all, but it I do think that I don't think people think about it enough. I would like to enter this in as like another sort of way to play uh that people work on, you know, work on it in your clinics. Uh, you know, maybe go to a clinic and don't see how hard you can hit it and because that's fun. You know, we all love to go and because it doesn't matter, you know, who cares if I hit it out? But like maybe go and say, I want to see how many, you know, maybe I can try to have fewer than five errors all day today. Or, you know, just it's just a different way to um think about your game.

Erin 10:23

Have you ever counted your own errors in? Like have you recognized how few you had that you were able to count them?

Gin 10:29

I have won a set. I could think of non-match ever. I have won a set before not losing a single point. Um, and almost won the whole match without uh That's a golden, isn't that called a golden match? It is. Somebody told me that was like a golden match or something.

Golden Matches And Shot Tolerance

Gin 10:40

I did, I did lose a couple points. So maybe I think maybe we were three games into the second set or something. Um yeah. And so have you ever done that?

Carolyn 10:48

Have you ever, Carolyn? I had a golden match. No, I've never even heard of that. That's how I've I've never even been close to that. Well, that's because you like to put the ball away.

Gin 10:57

You know, you're a different style of player.

Carolyn 10:59

Well, I come in, let me tell you what I do. I come into the net, like I'm like, oh, they're lobbying it. I've gotten it to a shot where I can get to a volley and I hit the volley out. Uh-huh. Or I mean, I may hit some winners and they feel so good.

Erin 11:12

Yeah.

Carolyn 11:13

But it's few and far between. Like this is kind of a different way to think. And Jin is very athletic. So she can move, she can get to things. She does have that style of play. But to be a little bit more like, I need to be consistent versus let me try to put something away, even though I'm getting older and I'm not as athletic as I was, and I'm not to the, you know, like I don't have the skill to do it. I haven't done it a million times. I think I'm gonna try Jin's way. I know. I'll let you know how it goes.

Erin 11:41

Exactly. We'll have to we'll we'll do a follow-up podcast and see.

Speaker 3 11:46

Yeah.

unknown 11:46

Yeah.

Erin 11:47

I have this one funny story about Jin. Actually, I have a couple funny stories about watching Jin play singles. Um, one is um a friend of mine, we were out watching it was it was a suburb singles match because I remember it was like after dark, and I think we were like having a drink at our club and just watching Jin play

The 278 Ball Rally Breakdown

Erin 12:03

because we enjoy it. And this poor woman she was playing against, there was just nothing she could do. And so my friend Canna and I were like, that she needs to, that woman needs to just get into the net, like try to put balls away because she wasn't gonna outlast her. So we kept saying, like, why is she doing that? You know, hit two balls and come in, like hit one ball and come in, do something different. But then the same thing kind of happened. The other funny story was the same thing sort of happened to Jin in a match where she voice texted us after because she had such a long story about she actually had to finally change her mentality from being consistent because she came up against another Jin, basically. So she would hit 200 and some balls with it.

Gin 12:40

Like I counted. Do you want me to tell? Yes, please. So I she's right. I was like reluctant to tell this, but um, you know, I did. I ran up against somebody who kind of played my game better than I did, and um, and she we we were having just incredibly long rallies. It was summer, it was very hot. She was younger than me, and I was counting rallies, and I mean they were many were over a hundred balls, but the one that I I counted one that was 278 balls, and I lost the point. And I and I really was in that match trying to move her. You know, I was I felt like I was changing it up, you know, and but she just was getting everything back in her balls. Anyway, it was she was better at that day than me at my game, and and so I did. Aaron's right. That's the only time in my, you know, uh tennis career so far that I have been like, to heck with this. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not you know, I thought to myself, this is adult record, I'm not having fun, and I'm going to just I'm gonna end this match one way or the other. So I did start hitting as hard as I don't know. I'm talking, you know, one might be a winner, and then one would go two courts over. I mean, you know, it was, it was, I was, but I was like, I'm I'm sticking with this strategy. And I won a game like that. Um, but then I I did not end up winning that match.

Erin 13:48

But um, yeah, so I did run into that. You're right. But that was one out of like, you know, 70 or 80 singles matches ever. But it just made me laugh because she sent this long voice, you know, recording to us, and she was like, y'all, I mean, I had 278 balls, and then I just decided I had to change everything. I was just hitting winners, I was hitting as hard as I like it. Jade me laugh because it's like, well, that's kind of our everyday match. And that was like once in a lifetime for Jin.

Carolyn 14:12

So yeah, it was great.

Erin 14:15

That was not my favorite match.

Gin 14:17

No. She did a great job. She was a great player that day. Yeah.

Carolyn 14:20

Yeah. How long did that match take? How long?

Gin 14:23

The first set was a very long set because we were both doing that strategy. But no, once I I mean, I switched to that maybe a couple games into the second set, and then it was over very fast. Um I mean, the first set was at well over an hour. Was it a was it a set tiebreak, or what were your scores? Do you remember? I don't remember. Uh for close first set. I don't remember if it went to a tiebreaker, if it was just, you know, 6'4 or 7'5 or something like that. But um, and then the second set wouldn't, because once I started doing that, I think I won one game and then no more.

Erin 14:50

What did she say to you after?

Gin 14:52

Was there any like office? I think she said, I think she said, Well, you could have done that much earlier and saved us some time, you know, but nicely. I mean, we had to do that. Yeah, yeah, as a joke. We had very good rapport and yeah, she was kind of kidding, like, why don't you do that and save us, you know, some energy and heat, yeah. Exhaustion and everything else. Yeah.

Erin 15:08

Could you imagine? I told Gin this. Could I don't know how many points there would be in a whatever uh I I'm sure I could do the math quickly, but I won't. But like whatever a golden set or a golden match would be, however many points that is. But I don't think I've hit 200 and what'd you say, 78 balls in an entire match. And she was talking about one point. One point, yeah.

Carolyn 15:27

One point. That's so crazy. That's so crazy. Yeah, that's amazing.

Erin 15:32

Would you ever do that, Carolyn? You never would. You would rush to the net. You would just rush into the net.

Carolyn 15:36

I don't think I could. Like, I'm not at that level to, you know. Well, most people aren't. That's what that's what's I don't think I could do, to be honest, more than 10.

Erin 15:47

Oh, I've seen you hit it. Could I do more than 10? Yeah, you can.

Carolyn 15:49

Even if it's hit directly to me. Yeah, you could. Could I do 20? Yes.

Erin 15:53

Maybe not right now, but but this this spring you're going to. You could you can do 20.

Carolyn 15:58

What do you think yours?

Erin 15:59

My shot tolerance? Yeah. If I was pretending like I was just hitting against a friend and that I was not hitting a winner, I think I could have a I I could definitely do 10.

Gin 16:09

Oh, you we just did a hundred. We just did, yeah.

Erin 16:11

I mean Oh, a hundred. Okay. Wow. Yeah. But see, but here's the difference between Jin and I too. I wouldn't do a hundred in one point because I know that I still have like 70 more points to play out or whatever the, you know.

Carolyn 16:23

Yeah, I I don't have the stamina for it either. So there's you have to do what Jin did, which is stamina, nutrition, yeah, everything involved to do it. That's crazy.

Erin 16:32

That's also I know, but that's good, that's really good single strategy.

Carolyn 16:35

And it's good, it's yeah.

Erin 16:37

Carol and I are both gonna play a lot of singles, so we're gonna try to implement some of this, a lot of it.

Carolyn 16:42

Yeah. Yeah. We'll let you know how the gin strategy goes.

Gin 16:45

Yeah, maybe some of the listeners will try it and let us know. I know, but they better not try it against us, right?

Carolyn 16:50

Yeah, don't do it against that. We can't have two people doing that.

Gin 16:52

That's true.

unknown 16:53

Yeah.

Gin 16:54

This is just for us. Never mind. Don't put this out.

Carolyn 16:56

Yeah, this is not going out. Thanks again to Gin for coming on the podcast. If anyone listening tries Jin's single strategy and it works, please let us know. Also, contact us if you've ever had a golden set or a golden match because we'd love to hear about

Try The Strategy And Report Back

Carolyn 17:13

it. You can contact us on our website, which is secondserfpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.