Danielle Collins feels like she is ‘in the zone’ in Miami
Miami Open finalist Danielle Collins feels like she is playing some of the best tennis of her career.
Collins said that she felt like she was in the zone from early on in her Miami Open run.
She also revealed that she had made some minor tweaks to her game.
“I mean, I think a lot of these sports psychology books and things that they talk about, like, high-level sports, they talk about being in the zone, almost feeling like you’re hitting beach balls, I think it can feel like that at times. That’s a good thing,” Collins said in Miami.
“In other times that I have played well and have had deep runs in tournaments, it’s been like that, and then, you know, in other times, there’s days, it’s like going out to the golf range and having a bad day and you’re missing shots.
“But right now I’m timing the ball really well. I think I have made some physical adjustments too that’s kind of helped me be able to kind of control my shots more and hit them with more accuracy and precision. I have been working on that for a while.
“It’s hard to sometimes make those types of changes. They’re not big changes but small changes.
“So I think that that’s kind of just helped me, like, get a little bit more consistent in these points and bring it in the court a little more.”
Collins said that she wasn’t going to get too in-depth when discussing her approach to the game but said that her changes centred around doing the basics properly.
“I don’t want to give too many of my secrets away, right? Yeah, but I can give a little bit of insight,” Collins said when asked to elaborate on the tweaks she had made.
“I feel like one of the things that I have been working on over the course of my career is having good body control. I think in our sport and it being a rotational sport, the tendency to rotate and to use a lot of power and force — well, I’m still doing that. I think I have improved a lot of my core strength. So that’s helped me be able to stay a little bit more still. So I think that’s helping.
“That is something I think a lot of coaches I have worked with over the years and people in general, like, even at a basic level, if you’re taking tennis lessons, they tell you to do.
“Sometimes it’s the really simple things you have to kind of remind yourself of.
“I hear coaches on court with really high-level players here telling their players to stay still and keep their body under control, and I hear that at the country club when you’re playing next to a 4.5 player and they’re working on their forehand.”
