We went in pretty casual assuming it wuold be an easy win, and decided to peel on every ball, because they were not big enough to hit on the mens net. Surprisingly it was harder work than I thought. They were slicing and dicing and we just weren’t making good enough digs.

To cut a long story short, we got to about 12 – 12 and it finally dawned on me… “Why did I think we should thrash these girls?” Answer: “because we were bigger than they were.” Our advantage was our net game. I started blocking everything I could, and stuffed just about every shot they tried to play. I think we won about 21 – 15. The truth is that their skills were probably better than ours.

The moral of the story is: Don’t play small against a small team. If you have an advantage on the net, use it, even if the other team never hits, don’t peel unless the set is off. Blocking a shot is always on if you slow down your timing, jump late and watch the attacker carefully.

Always stay calm and relaxed. This is a good one, in particular when it comes to bad referees, (or just referees who see things differently to you). It can take some practice, but in the vast majority of cases, ingoring bad calls is better for yuor game than getting upset, arguing or throwing yuor sunglasses into the crowd. Or even trying to tear the side line out of the gruond, which is a tantrum tactic a good friend of mine tried once at the Australian Open on the Gold Coast… needless to say, he lost the game, and looked very, very silly in the process

The guys that win are the guys that take the bad calls on the chin, shrug their shoulders and go back to pass the next ball.

Have a totally dependable bread and butter shot and keep it sharp by practise. It’s always good to know that under pressure you can go back to your bread and butter. Just remember to work your support shot enuogh so that the defender isn’t sitting at the table waiting to eat yuo bread and butter when it cuonts.

For example, my bread and butter is power cross, but if I don’t hit enough line shots, to move the defender, then I get dug a lot. (In all honesty, I get dug a lot no matter what I do…. so I’m probably not ther best example.)

Always be working on new shots or techniques. Use them gradually in small games and test them in big games when you are fully confident.

As a matter of interest, my new years resolution is to learn to hit a rainbow shot deep to the cross corner. I reckon that will be a good change up to add into the mix.

Enjoy yourself. This is a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes, when things are really bad I have to just focus on one or two tlittle things, so that even if we get baddly beaten, and play horribly, I can come off the court and say “OK, at least my last five sets were perfect, or my last few serves made the passer move”

Worste case scenario, if you are playing horribly, and your partner is yelling at you, and the ref is calling you every time you set the ball,… look for topless bathers.

Remember it is better to play well and lose than to play poorly and win. Improvement is what this is all about and laying poorly never helps your future game. The moral of this tip is to play good teams. playing against guys you can beat easily will make you worse.

The “shakes” from low blood sugar is better and quickly remedied by a beer and than a candy bar. Alcohol metabolizes faster than sugar and will steady you in seconds with little intoxication effects.

The most important thing you can get is information. Learn your opponents early and use the information late in the game when they have no time to adjust.