Relax.
Feel the grip slide down your hand until only your thumb and a couple of fingers loosely hold the racket. Now let the racket lazily swing back and forth like a pendulum, feel the well-oiled hinge in your wrist.
Bounce the ball. Tap your back toe on the ground a few times, checking your balance as you lean forward.
Look over to the other side. Pick your spot. In your mind's eye you see the ball firing out of a rifle barrel straight for that spot. You imagine the pleasure you'll feel when your preview is real. Your actual eyes stare sightlessly somewhere else, causing your opponent to shade away from your spot.
Bring your hands together, maintaining the slippery oily loose feel you had a second ago, then spread your arms wide, flipping the ball into the air while you cock that loose hinge holding the racket behind your head.
Stare at the ball spinning up into the air. Watch it reach its apex. Right now, your conscious mind is empty of everything but that ball -- no net, no opponent, no service line, no meeting tomorrow at 10:00 am -- while your unconscious mind remains fixed on that spot. Your focus slows time. You can see each of the individual fibers sticking out of the ball as it slowly begins its descent back to earth and then something in your brain tells your arm to HIT through the ball so hard your racket swings all the way around like a windmill.
You look up in time to see the ball hitting the spot as you bring your racket up to the ready position.
Relax.
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