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hey guys this is gee from itunes hq i
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hope everybody's doing good
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staying safe uh it's been a while karu's
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been taking over youtube mostly but
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i'm happy to be back with you and today
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i will be talking about one of the most
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difficult
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aspects of the tennis game which is
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actually closing out matches
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this is one of the reasons why tennis is
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so difficult it's not like basketball
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where you can just
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you know hold on to the ball and just
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wait for the game to end it's not like
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soccer where you can just
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pass among your teammates and wait for
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the clock to run out
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in tennis you actually gotta go out
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there and you gotta close the match
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you have to win the last point there's
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no time limit there's no clock
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um that it's running in your favor you
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gotta go out there and you gotta win the
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last point
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otherwise you're going to lose whether
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you want to call it
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wasting a lead or playing out choking
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this happens at every level of the sport
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you can see several examples federer
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wasting two match points in the
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wimbledon final against
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djokovic he also wasted another two
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match points against djokovic in the u.s
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open
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i believe if i'm not mistaken was two
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years in a row
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in the semifinals that could have given
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him other titles
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alex zverev was leading dominic tm
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in his first ever grand slam final and
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you know you can see examples over and
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over repeating themselves um the two
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guys that
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don't go through that a lot are djokovic
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and nadal because they're just
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at a different level emotionally but
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besides that
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the pros do it amateurs do it college
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players do it so
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it's something that we all as a tennis
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world need to work on
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so today we'll be going through some
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concrete steps you can take to take your
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closing game to the whole next level
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[Music]
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also i just really wanted to appreciate
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the support everybody has been giving us
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we've seen some crazy growth within the
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last few months
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crew has worked has been working
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extremely hard to put out some good
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content for you
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subscribing and letting us know
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the things you do like and the things
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please do and make sure you're letting
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and what things you don't like because
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ultimately we really just want to make
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this channel
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a very useful resource for you for
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whether you're an amateur
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whether you're a college player whether
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you're a junior
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and we just want to make put out things
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that are going to be good for you so let
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us know
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we'll try to work on it and yeah we
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really appreciate the support
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and it we always drop a link below in
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our comments
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if you'd like to support our channel and
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you're planning already and buying
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something
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on amazon or tennis warehouse you can
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just use our links there's no extra cost
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to you and we got a little bit for it so
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great way to support our channel so the
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first step you need to work on
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when trying to close out more matches is
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identifying
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what happens in those moments where
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you're either serving for a match where
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you got a match point you got a big lead
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and then things go downhill from there
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that may be that you're rushing the
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points uh you're not being as consistent
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as you are
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in the rest of the match maybe because
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of nerves
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maybe because you're tired it may be
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that you're becoming too passive and
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you're not going for shots enough so
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every every player has a different issue
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in those moments but
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they're usually the same issue that
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keeps repeating itself so you need to
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identify
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what's going on why are you playing
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differently than you usually do
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personally in my case is because i
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always try to rush the points too much
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i just got so euphoric i just really
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wanted to close out the match you know
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you may be able to identify with this
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you know four four in the third set
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uh you go and you suddenly break your
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opponent and it's awesome you're just
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like oh i got this in the bag
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and you go and you sit down and change
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over you just open your water bottle
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you're just shaking you're just so ex
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just so static you're just like all
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right i got this in the bag and you just
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keep picturing
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you know you're going to the net and
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you're shaking your opponent's hands
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just
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you're playing what you're going to tell
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him and you know if you're in college
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you're just picturing all your teammates
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rushing the court and you know
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celebrating with you and then you go out
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there and you make a double fault hit a
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shot at the bottom of the net and then
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you're down above 30 and you
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start getting desperate so the reason
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why that happened was
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i always got so ecstatic
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to close out the match then i did not
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stick to my game plan
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i tried to rush points too early i tried
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to go for the lines
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and that made me make more errors and
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consequently that just made me less
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confident in myself
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which made me rush even more and then
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the next thing you know
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the game the match was over and my lead
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was gone and i would be stuck thinking
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about that match for weeks
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after that there was one specific match
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i still remember
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today we were playing against the
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university of tulsa
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and they had just beaten usc who was
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number one in the country
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the day before and we were playing tight
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match i was playing a good opponent
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and i lost the first three and then i
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won six one
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and i was up four zero and i was just
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thinking oh man i'm going to get such a
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good ranking after
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this and it's going to be such a great
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win and i started rushing points and
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just change over after changeover i just
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blanked out started making a lot of
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mistakes going for shots i didn't need
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to go
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and the next thing i knew i had lost 6'4
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and
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our team lost and i felt the weight of
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the world on my shoulders and i
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felt like it was my responsibility so
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there was something that made me stop
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and
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think about what i was doing wrong in
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those scenarios
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on a basic level whenever these
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situations happen
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it usually comes down to a lack of
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planning and a lack of discipline
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which are usually caused by too much
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excitement and too much thinking
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about the act of actually winning the
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game
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but it's very important for you to
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identify what's going on at that time if
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you're rushing
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if you're becoming too passive if you're
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making poor shot selection so when you
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do understand what's happening in your
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case
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you can go on and move on to the next
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step which is to actually develop a game
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plan for those situations
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so what worked for me was to have a set
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game plan
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that i knew i could count on whenever it
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came down to
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serving out for a match this game plan
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needs to be very specific
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and it needs to be repeatable and it
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needs to be measurable
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so essentially you want to decide
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where you're going to serve where you're
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gonna hit the next shot and the first
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point
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where you're gonna serve in the second
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point where you're gonna hit the next
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shot in the
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next point how many shots you're gonna
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hit and
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how many shots you're gonna go for if
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you're becoming too passive
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you might wanna decide that you're gonna
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have to hit a winner before three shots
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um if you're rushing through shots you
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may wanna think
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i am going to make every ball
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possible i'm gonna make eight shots
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before you try to go for a winner
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in every point in that last game um but
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by having these specific
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goals for every point you'll be able to
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rely on that game plan
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uh when you sit down in that changeover
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at a 5'4
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at a 6'5 you will not have that
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desperation
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of of what do i do now to close out the
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match you will know
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exactly you will have a blueprint of
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what that last game is going to look
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like
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so you'll know when you sit down that
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changeover you just need to focus
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um on whatever you're going to do next
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and
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when you're coming up with a game plan
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you should focus on your
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bread winning shots in my case for
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instance
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when i was serving on the left side i
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knew that i have a good kick
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serve which gives me margins and that
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would
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usually return a shot to my inside out
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forehand so
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just think about what shots you're the
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most comfortable with the shots that
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even in a pretty nervous situation
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you'll still be able to make them
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and work on a game plan around those
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shots
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the third step to becoming a better
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closer is to actually go out there and
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practice your game plan
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and start tweaking it accordingly you
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can't
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just think about something and expect
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that it's going to work at the 5'4 but
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so i suggest that you go
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on the court you get on the court and
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you literally practice what your final
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game is going to look like
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when you're serving out for a match you
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just keep going over and over so you
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become extremely comfortable
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uh whenever that time comes and you'll
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be able to repeat it time after time
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uh it's definitely worked out for me uh
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i became
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a much better closer and i do think that
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by doing that you'll be more confident
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when the time comes and
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the good thing is you just keep building
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on it so you do it and then it works
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once
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and you feel oh great that's i'm going
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to try it again and then it works the
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second time it works the third time
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and then the last thing you know you're
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just considering yourself a very clutch
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player
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some extra tips to close out matches are
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one first serves are extremely important
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i suggest that when you're trying to
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close out a match
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you don't go full out for you know an
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ace uh you go for 80
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serves 85 serves that you're working
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that allow you to still stay in an
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aggressive
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stance but that will give you a better
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margins because
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if you miss too many first serves that's
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going to give your opponent
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an opportunity to attack and play loose
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and a lot of times players are
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just you know they had they have just
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given up
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the last thing you want to do is give
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them an opportunity to slap a shot and
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hit a winner and then they're
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suddenly like oh i got an extra life on
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me maybe i'll just hit four winners and
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break the game and so
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working with first serves is extremely
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important
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the second tip is to focus on rituals so
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besides having a game
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plan for yourself it's actually very
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important to have rituals
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that you're working on outside the point
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so
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whether that's going to your towel
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whether that's bouncing the ball
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six seven times whether that's tiny
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shoelaces whatever it is obviously
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you want to be respectful of your
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opponent but by having those rituals
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you'll be able to
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develop habits and you keep repeating
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them over and over and that's just going
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to trigger
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the right emotions the right feelings in
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your head when the time comes
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to repeat that game plan you've
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developed the third tip
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is to actually focus on high margin
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shots so
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while it's great to end up the match
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with a
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winner a forehand winner or go to the
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net and hit that huge overhead and
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bounces off the court
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i would say that it's much safer and
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much more successful
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to focus on high margin shots so shots
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that are staying
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away from the lines playing through the
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middle is a great great option
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both on your serve and returning during
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the points that's going to push your
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opponent back
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and finally land you a short ball and
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then you can go for that winner but
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you know keeping that keeping those
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margins high
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is a great way to successfully close out
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a match and
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you may be thinking oh what if i have a
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whole game plan that i've come up with
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that i've been playing against this
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opponent that has a really bad forehand
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and i've been going
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to his forehand am i supposed to change
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up my game just in this final game just
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to close out the match
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i say that you need to assess the
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situation
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because if there's a clear pattern that
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you've been working on
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and it's been working throughout the
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match and
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you know your pun is just breaking down
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you definitely want to stick to that for
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the last game and be
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disciplined but keep doing it over and
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over but
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uh if you if you've been just playing
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well you just you know have kind of a
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loose strategy against your opponent
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i would suggest that you actually stick
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to your game plan the one that you know
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the closing game plan
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that you have for yourself because you
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know at 5'4 in the third set
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it's not that much about your opponent
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but about yourself especially if you're
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serving
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it comes down to your ability of closing
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out the match so
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i think it comes down to you you have to
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assess the situation
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but those are definitely some things
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that you you need to consider if you
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want to learn more about some other tips
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that we have
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you can watch this really cool video
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career made when he's practicing
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against the number 73 in the world
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marcus gear on you can just watch the
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video here
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and he goes on he has some commentary
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there he goes on about what
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they're working on especially during the
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match play
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that's very valuable information people
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have been enjoying that a lot
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you can also check our website we got
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plenty of articles with very
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instructional information
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so you can check that out but otherwise
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i really appreciate you guys and
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once again let us know in the comments
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if there's anything you want us to work
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on
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