It seems that every time I see Maria Sharapova practicing these days she's working on her serve. T-Hog is in her ear after each one, telling her what she did right, what to do next, etc. It's really kind of disheartening. I know she's had to change her technique a bit in order to protect the injured shoulder but if she's 100% (and I'm not saying she is or she isn't) I stress over whether all this tweaking and tinkering is just fucking it up more. As Ana said last week at Indian Wells:
If you start to think about technique going down the stairs, you're gonna fall down. (Laughing.) Really, if you start thinking what which leg is doing, it's hard to focus walking down the stairs.
It's the same with my serve. If I start thinking about every aspect of it, I can't serve. So I just try to trust my motion. Because I have been doing it since I was five, so I can do it. It's just a matter of trusting it again.
Because I became so technical about it and I had so many advices that I forgot what I was doing and what feels natural.
Now granted, Masha's game is the opposite of "natural" and Ana is the more gifted athlete of the two. But I have to think at some point she's just going to have to start ignoring technique and just throw the ball up and hit it. I totally accept that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Maybe it's just my inner athlete coming out. I just really hated it when a coach was on me all the time about technique.
Oh, I wasn't being dirty. Stop it.
(Pics: Forty Deuce)
