Can I Beat Our Club Champion?? Mic’d Up Match (Ep 6) #tennis

hey everyone so we're back with another miked up match and as you might have seen in the last video we've got a new sponsor was sponsored by Magic mind which I'll tell you more about later in the video but today I'm going to be playing against James rosenal James is our club champion and he has been for how many years three years at the moment three years he knocked me off the pedestal in 2021 um we've played each other twice yeah um I managed to get the win on the first attempt on the second attempt James beat me so this is a really good match to play on the grass how you feeling James I'm nervous I think mentality is going to be a big one today I'm playing the tennis mental I'm playing the head coach and we got you know microphones cameras here um so I think yeah keeping those mental nerves in check is going to be key today yeah so just to give you a little bit of background on James James is a very very strong Club player and he's actually playing to the level now where he's um almost in the county team he's playing lots and lots of matches but unfortunately with the British tennis system at the moment he's struggling to get his ranking up they're just not enough competitive opportunities would you agree yeah I'm struggling to get into that higher end of the kind of County scene at the moment um there's very much a good club scene where we're based after that It's tricky to break into that county level yeah and he's not old enough to play in the um the ITF seniors like me yet so how many more years until you're over 30 four more years yeah four long years to go and that is a good setup you you'll get a lot of matches there against lots of different game styles and that sort of thing but um yeah we're going to have lots of fun um in a second James is going to talk to the camera and talk talk you through his tactics I'm going to talk you through my tactics and then we're going to have some fun let's do it all right here we go up against the tennis Mentor miked up it's as big as it gets folks it's as big as it gets all right um as I said in my intro I think mentality is going to be key today Ash is a Sound Player he's so solid I think a lot of players underestimate his mental ability he really does perform well in those clutch points he's got a lot of competitive experience so I'm wary of that as I mentioned in the intro as well I'm also conscious of the fact that I've got you know mics cameras I'm playing against Ash this is a change in circumstance for me so if I'm starting to be a bit passive and a bit defensive I'm going to try and remind myself to be a little bit more positive and aggressive um tactically with Ash I think we all know we got to pin him on that backhand side no offense bud but that forehand is such a space Creator such a weapon I don't want to be going there too much but as likes a chisel than a slice so if he's slicing away particularly on This Grass Court it's going to be staying pretty low um I want to be coming over it with Top Spin don't want to be getting into a chiseling battle let's take down the tennis Mentor so as you heard I've played James twice and he is one of the trickiest players to play against he's super fit so he's going to be great in any long rallies that we have he makes a lot of balls he hits with heavy Top Spin and you'd think that wouldn't be great on grass but actually it suits him really really well because one thing he's excellent at especially on his forehand is opening up the court even from the center he's able to whip that forehand short and wide I tend to have trouble with that and so my plan in this match is to try to keep the point short I'm going to try to use my serve and volley as much as possible as James doesn't tend to have huge weapons in his game his weapons are his movement and his consistency so I'm going to try to break him down as early as I can but yeah let's see how it goes up or down uh up please it's down okay I've chosen to serve in the last two okay and I've lost the last two okay so I'm going to let you serve all right not IDE deal I pretty much 95% of the time I like to receive as most of my doubles Partners will know but let's not let that affect today let's keep going just away that one mate okay what I didn't mention is he's definitely going to be targeting my back hand with that high ball oh he saw me trip sorry okay good back hand's already breaking down that's what we need so a pretty pretty bad start that's okay play too good oh oh no okay not the best start B myself when it comes to my returning game but Ash does have a very strong serve so again be patient we got a set let's see how it goes okay honestly think that was a nervous first game from James so let's capitalize with a good game of ss no yeah see better you got to keep reminding yourself hit through the ball just wide that's good as soon as I get him on that backhand side he's trying to find another option got to be wary though he's opening the court up really well in that forehand bit lucky on the return I thought we might throw in a seven volley that's better okay so deciding juice you choose the side oh yeah juice sudden death uh ju side please Bud y that's a great pick up play mate pick up mate okay two breaks to serve can't say I'm surprised against James slow it down with the slice wide return it ah sorry no you're not oh what a point jeez he's everywhere stop there I'm guessing everywhere that's good all right I'm going to need to another point for I can speak you've all played those players that just seem to get everything back and James is one of them there he is that's the one I'm talking about that's the full hand angle I wanted cheers Bud okay so one thing that I forgot to mention in the intro was James hasn't lost a singles match for four years five 2019 20 2020 okay since 2020 and I think I was the last person to beat him I guess you'd be correct yeah so that's going to make this match even more interesting so when the specs have come off you know I'm in trouble one two on serve he had a pretty good returning game last time so I think I need to get some more first serves in and do a little bit more with it which is hard to do both of those things at the the same time okay T great serve that's good all right stepping an up and Notch now meanwhile I'm dripping in sweat not sure he's broken one yet played nice combo definitely the kind of stuff I was expecting from Ash bigger quicker points that's where he's going to win this match keeping them points short was my intention start but it's not easy to do at the start of the match sometimes you just got to find your way in first yeah too good no Ah that's great touch James point no didn't need to go for that so two two two braks two holds anything can happen here he's playing a bit more freely now though so need to get some good returns too good see that's why I wasn't talking about the forehand whip in my tactics if he's there he's hitting it with some Venom pin the backhand side too good that's better it's not easy to keep the point short when you're returning cuz you don't have control over their serve but when you have that second serve opportunity you got to take it yeah on the line there we go love 40 it's not a given though but stay focused too good Ash too good legs are a little bit heavy probably shouldn't have fasted before this but I well I'll speak with the nutritionist later to be honest guys I don't think I've done too much wrong the stuff that I'm missing if I'm being honest I think is a little bit down to nerves I'm not just quite hitting through the ball enough and then the other stuff Ash is just hitting some really good stuff so I just need to remind myself to pin that backand avoid the forehand unless I'm fairly certain I'm going to get the point let's go first Ser again ah too good silliness from me there silliness too good too good difference in the moment is he first served go t again just long you're not handy Mari oh that's so lucky we don't believe in luck James you earned that one thanks which side would you like this time juice side please buddy all right we got him his juice might be feel a bit of pressure here we go HS through the ball hope it stick record's not great on deciding Point juices but this is your turn ah too good got nervous when he came in cuz you see he doesn't do much with the volleys but he reads my shots well and makes them in play which P's on the pressure but you'll notice Co I'm gassed my last shot I just bunted no need to go big there just placement sorry to interrupt but just a quick shout out to the sponsor of today's video magic mind now if you've been watching the channel for a while you'll know that I've been drinking these green smoothie matcha shots for a few months now I drink one of these pretty much every weekday morning as I get up at around 5:00 a.m. to do my admin and editing before I get onto Court its main ingredient is organic matcha green tea which is proven to help with energy levels but it's also full of tropics and adaptogens which help you with focus and stress levels as well but one of the main things that I love about drinking magic mind is the effect it has on the crash that you would normally get when drinking a coffee I'm ashamed to say that I used to drink two or three coffees throughout my long morning but now if I have one of these with my coffee I only drink one as it massively reduces the spike you get when you drink caffeine helping you to keep your energy levels for much longer throughout the day and as I mentioned in my last mop match Magic mind have kindly offered all of you a discount code I'll pop it on the screen below along with the link in the description so massive thanks again to Magic mind for sponsoring the videos let's get back to the match got an informal coach Ste watch me on the sidelines here we go then no pressure take it to him ah ah it's good don't get sucked into long R to good Ash yeah really well played he loves those backand cross rallies problem is if I go line first he's got that whippy cross forehand maybe I need to go more middle no so tight see this is why I don't play County I guess apparently ah ah it's too good so Scrappy man I must have hit the line like five times in that rally you smashed it sorry mate no well play nothing to do okay guys not really the score line I would have wanted at this stage um again I don't think I'm doing too much wrong I could be being more aggressive at times I thought my fitness would be the edge here but I'm holding on to a bit of tension so got to do my best to let that go hit through the ball be positive and let's give it a we go at least it's not a bagel here we go three games in a row okay so 52 up serving for it and it's very very important that I close this out here because James is a bit of a fighter you've seen him making a lot of balls I'm having to play really aggressively so I've got to continue that with a good first percentage see no played too big from him too big did well to make that return as clean as I did completely neutralize it off the forehand side all right let's find that backand again all grunt no Effectiveness sums me up body it's the difference he's finding his first serve a lot he must be in the 70th percentile wi here it's too big mate far too big I mean maybe you should do that more often yeah too good mate not getting that back cheers buddy cheers well played good stff good stuff so so we got the win 62 very slow start from both of us I felt um what you might not realize you might realize that when the cameras are on it gives a very different Dynamic to the match um and it's probably safe to say that I have a small Advantage because I'm filming these videos and I'm responsible for them but um it still gets into my head a little bit and thinking about what you're going to say in between each point um and that sort of thing so I think that probably attributed to how we played for the first two games and then we both loosened off but I think some of the nerves clung on to James for a bit longer he looked a bit more nervous throughout the match and I loosened up and was able to play my more attacking tennis um so yeah my initial plan of being aggressive at the start was the right plan but I probably need to start the match off slightly more conservatively so I can feel my way into the points um to find my rhythm and just to relax a bit because yeah a bit uptight at the start but it'll be interesting to see what thanks didn't take down the tennis Mentor sorry everyone but the better man won um yeah I think I'm not too disappointed with how I played um I didn't pin that backhand enough that as much as I wanted to as soon as he was getting on that forehand side he was really ripping it creating space as I feared and I think the first serve really came in clutch today Asher has always had a strong serve but yeah overall pleased with the mentality please be giving it a go um we'll get him on the clay we'll get him on the clay so we finished the set um first of all did it go to plan for you did you kind of stick to what you thought you were going to do I did my best um I mentioned at the start that I was really trying to pin that backhand on the forehand side you're creating a lot of space you really utilize it as a good weapon um I think for me I didn't find it as much as I needed to and then the times that I was I was kind of gassing trying to get over it the Top Spin um so a little bit more Fitness and a little bit more tactical awareness required yeah so I actually mentioned at the start that your Fitness is one of your strengths and I think it's important to say to the camera now you're fasting you're currently on hour 39 39 hours of not eating or drinking anything but water water and black tea yeah I mean yeah I mean I wouldn't call that an excuse but if you want to play as one I'll take it is um how long are you planning on fasting for 44 hours today 44 hours so nearly there I think the the viewers will be really interested in this so if any of you guys have any questions about it you can drop them in the comments I'm sure James will jump on and answer any that he can but it's it's I find it fascinating um I'm really pleased that he decided to do it today um but yeah so you you targed in my backand I actually forgot to say that to the camera that that was an obvious choice for you and I think it was the right move the very first point you hit a really loopy moonball to my back hand I was like okay okay this is going to be tough and I resorted to my slice which you probably predicted yeah I think as the match went on I hit my slice less often and I hit through the ball a bit more as I was starting to relax um my plan was to keep the point short okay I felt like I did that towards the end and I think that's that helped me to win the match I was serving a bit better I was trying to step in on your second serves which towards the end as well I felt like I had more and more of those opportunities first her percentage was possibly a bit low yeah for me I I think at 22 or 32 whatever it was in that set um there was a period where your first servs were coming in clutch I thought you made probably around 70 80% today if that's fair to say um whereas for me that difference was I wasn't getting any cheap points on that first serve and then once you found the second serve start starting to step in a bit more it was kind of hard for me to get on the front foot in the points yeah yeah and the interesting thing was in my last couple of matches I've played on the grass Ser volley has been a really good tactic I tried it a couple of times early on and you're so good at getting the return down low yes not with much Pace on but just at my feet and almost looks so easy for me to pick up and I was shanking them missing them so I think you returned very well to stop me from doing that when it comes to the mental side of that match how did you feel I mean the cameras do play A Part yeah how did that affect you yeah I think it's not like the typical scenario that you'll find yourself in in a club League match for example right um you are slightly conscious of the mic that's you know strapped to your chest um to be honest I didn't think about it too much from point to point but I think maybe there was something subconscious um that could have affected my play um I was a little bit like tense nervous in the stomach um so I was trying not to let that affect my game and try and be positive um but I don't think I was as purposeful as aggressive I need as I needed to be um to get the win today and interesting thing you said at one of the change of ends is that in an actual match you have started to try to give yourself feedback after each point in this kind of way um you know so it some in some ways it can be helpful in the long run for players to actually not overanalyze but maybe at the end of a game you know step back have a think about how the game went what you would do differently and actually act upon that because I think sometimes we go through the motions we get stuck in a bit of a rut and don't really give ourselves that valuable feedback bang on the money I think particularly with a setup like this as well with just one set it's very easy for you to just kind of get into neutral mode and all of a sudden six games have gone by and it's like oh actually the set's running away from me a bit so those vocal reminders just even little things like okay next Point come on don't think about it on we go again just helps to bring you back into that moment um and keep going totally and when when you say about this short format I played a club match the other day and it took me a whole set to figure things out and in a match you can let things slide because you know you've got that barrier of or that safety net of another set and another set this you don't so it's kind of making you act quicker um and it's only going to help you tennis but James thanks so much awesome to hit with you and hopefully we can play a real match in the club Champs again suay let's do it rematch on the clay so there you go thanks as always for watching if you've got any questions for James or myself pop them in the comments below and let me know if there's anybody else you'd like to see me playing take care