003 – Interview With WTA Tour Player Chieh-Yu Hsu

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Earlier this year, I had a chance to make it to the Dow Corning Tennis Classic, in Midland Michigan, and watch the 100,000 USTA event and then sit down with Chieh-Yu Hsu (Connie She) and go over what she thinks during the match, what is important to her and her game and what recreational players could do to take their games to the next level.

I hope you had a chance to check out the Charting sheets from episode 002 and I hope that you were successful in picking who won the matches.  If not, you can go to realtennisnetwork.com/002 and at the bottom of the show notes you can download the actual match sheet.

I also will have a one-page template of each episode for you to file away if you like in a binder, if you are into that sort of thing.  I always find myself listening to podcasts and taking notes through Siri on my notepad or writing them down, so if you are like I am, Im trying to make it easy for you to have it on paper. And in one place

Today, we are going to talk to a WTA tour player Connie Hsu.  I met up with her at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic, actually a few months ago in Midland Michigan, and since I was trying to be Mr. Perfect Podcaster, I didn’t get it in until now and as you see from this interview, it was one of my first ever.

You can also go to the video portion of the website and see Connie’s interview and I threw in some video of her hitting as well during the our talk so you would stop staring at my awesome tan last winter

Info about Connie:

• From Taiwan
• Started playing at age 5
• Ranked 260 in the world
• Played college tennis for one year at the University of Pennsylvania

Some Questions for Connie

1. What does it take to become pro

• Work 100% every day
• Stay positive, even though you start out losing all of the time
• You will have to make sacrifices

2. What goes through your mind prior to a match

• Stay Positive
• Stay Focused 

3. What do you focus on the most?

• Right now it is simple technique (did I hear SIMPLE……?)

4. In doubles, why do you see the pros playing one up and one back so much?

• Ball is moving so fast now, it is tough to get up there
• You have to rely on your partner to pick off balls at the net

 5. What do you play formation-wise

• One up and one back unless I have to switch to the “I” formation or Australian formation

6. What do you stay focused on during the match

• Keep it simple
• Pick a couple of things that you want to do properly
• Know your opponents weakness

What three things can you offer our listeners to take their tennis to the next level?

1. Practice serves a lot (the most important shot)

2. You have to move well the WHOLE TIME

3. Stay positive and don’t give up

We plan on getting in touch with Connie throughout the year wherever she is around the world and see how she is doing. And hopefully we can all be considered her online personal fans after a few visits

Let’s talk about some other ways to think that will help out our games during the match

After the interview, I started to think about what other thoughts go through the minds of some of the great players and thought I would share just a few.

* Nick Bollettieri quoted Bjorn Borg in an article about concentration.  And Borg said,

I was talking to Pete Sampras at an event I was part of a few years back and I asked him what one of the first things to go was and he said “Focus” It is hard to have that extreme focus for a whole match that is needed to compete successfully and stay at #1 or #10 or #50 for that matter

* Jimmy Connors said once “I like to think about one thing technically

Some things I remember Roger Federer saying were………..

1. Before the match – Have a game plan and a backup plan. You don’t always win with your “A-Game” or your best game. You need other tools in case YOUR game is feeding right into your opponent.
2. Visualize yourself playing this person (Mentally helps, similar to watching a match. )

Your body reacts to things as if it were really happening, even if they are not (this is because of your subconscious mind).  Visualization is EXTREMELY POWERFUL (I could do a whole episode on that too, maybe I will)

Think about biting into a lemon the size of a grapefruit (my mouth waters every time). Your body reacts to it as if it were really happening. Its like watching a great match on TV and then going out and playing great.  You were visualizing!

This next one I heard from Nadal

1.   Never give up

One point can change the whole momentum of the match

1. REMEMBER: Tennis is a game where both players are making a lot of errors like we discussed in Episode 002.
2. The player who plays better while the two (or 4) of you are making errors will most likely win the match
3. The only way you are going to have the best chance to win the match is to stay focused and try as hard as you can to accomplish whatever the task at hand is POINY-BY-POINT

2.  Portray confidence whether you are winning or losing (this obviously comes from him too)  Nadal looks like he wants to chew you up and spit you out the whole match, but after it is all said and done, he is a very classy gentleman.

3.   This next one comes from my father-in-law who I think has only thought about playing tennis a couple of times, but he is a very rational, logical and full of wisdom.  So he comes to me and he says, “ Well if I played tennis, and I don’t, I would try to do the things I do well and make my opponent do the things he doesn’t do well.” And I was like “Thank You Captain Obvious”, but then I though more about it and he did hit the nail on the head.

This takes some pre-match scouting and prep work on your part.

4.   Most Importantly (A key in the pros)…….Focus on Performance and not Outcome!!(May be one of the next episode

Examples Of performance might include

1. 1. First serve %
   2. First two shots in doubles
   3. Hitting the ball deep
   4. Hitting to a weakness
   5. Countless others 

 Examples of Outcome might include:

1. I have to win this match
2. I have to win this point
3. I want to get to the semis in this event

There is a time and place for Outcome goals, but usually not in the middle of a match

So, what do you concentrate on during a match? I would love to hear from you.

Please let me know by calling our hotline  at 231-735-8518 or make it easy by pushing that big red button on our website or the Speakpipe app at the top of our Facebook page

A big THANK YOU TO CONNIE for taking the time to help us understand what goes on in the mind of the big players. We hope your year continues to be successful

And also a big thanks to you our listening audience.  Your comments and feedback are always welcome and I do hope to get to know each and every one of you a little bit better

And finally, I am already working on episode 004 and hope to get you involved in the conversation with the community of players and pros and hope we can help you take your tennis game……….To the next level

Chris Michalowski, USPTA
Coach Mick

Template – Episode 003