The professional attitude on the court
All great professional players have the same attitude on the court, look at the top 200 players and especially the top 50; they all have a positive and ultimately constructive mind-set. Local and club players are so different than professional players, you always find them frustrated and complaining, you can see the difference if you watch a club player playing against a pro. What I want our players here to understand is that a step to being a better player is controlling one’s mental state. It makes a huge difference! Being positive, calm, accepting mistakes and not complaining about everything is how you should act on the court. Screaming, shouting and arguing won’t make you win a match, that’s for sure; and even if it does work one time, it definitely won’t work next time when you face a better player.
Specific tips for improving attention control – staying focused
Confidence is very important in all sports and in life in general, confidence can make u play better and win more matches, winning feeds your confidence and makes players like Federer and Nadal seem to be unbeatable, sometimes too much confidence can lead to overconfidence which is as bad as having no confidence at all, so in order to maintain this level of confidence u should follow these tips that helped me and can help any player to develop his or her confidence.
-Avoid negative thoughts and feelings.
-Remain centered in the present and blocking out past and future concerns.
-Remind yourself to stay focused prior to playing the point.
-Be task rather than outcome oriented, thinking about the score and how do u look on the court are common distractions, the outcome only improves when u ignore it and attend what u have to do to succeed.
-Relax during points but avoid external distractions: focus on the strings or imagine an upcoming point.
-Be selfish with your attention; avoid talking to your opponent or the spectators during changeovers.
-Players lose their focus when they get tired; treat fatigue just like would any other common distraction.
-Withhold all judgments; stop judging your opponent, and respect him as a player.
All these few tips will help u reach the ideal performance state which is known as the ZONE.
The zone is a feeling that many tennis players reach during a match, it’s a feeling of enjoyment, satisfaction and great confidence. When u are in the zone u are on auto pilot, u play flawless tennis with minimal thinking and perfect execution, your body and mind act together like one integrated unit. The problem with the zone is that when u think that u are in the zone it slips away! The way to make the zone more permanent in your head and on the court is to stay thrilled with what u are doing, enjoy the process more, all this will lead to great performance.
Confidence
-Don’t get too serious.
-Have fun.
-Never give up.
-Believe in yourself.
-Imagine successful performances.
-Increase your physical fitness.
-Play weaker opponents on occasion.
-Eliminate negative thoughts.
-Maintain positive body language.
-Practice improving your weaknesses.
-Don’t idolize opponents.
-Love tough challenges.
The “Brain Game” – Tennis and Your Head
“True winners are those who have the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to get disappointed with what they encounter.”
“You become what you think”
Reducing Stress before a Match
Most stress in tennis is really self-imposed and not the result of antics by the opponent. It’s difficult and not even advisable to go in a competitive match completely relaxed. Stress in itself is not bad, as long as you know how much you need to help you perform properly. The human needs a certain amount of stress to perform at high levels, the key is how to manage this stress.
There are a number of steps you can take before the match to establish the correct amount of nervousness:
Learn to think as a winner. This is not possible if you are starting setting up excuses for losing: the weather is bad, the court is not good, you did not get enough sleep last night, etc. instead of dwelling on “ego outs”, think positively and visualize your strengths.
A realistic approach to your problems. If you had specific weaknesses a week earlier and you have gone out an practiced hard to improve them, you will come into the match with much more confidence. Most players however avoid their weaknesses in practice and thus have the same old problems and the same old frustrations week after week.
Be in sound physical shape. You give your opponent a great psychological lift when you look exhausted after the first set and he realizes that you are no longer trying to chase down every shot.
Know your equipment is in excellent condition.
Don’t sit in the sun for extensive periods before matches or you will be tired before you walk on the court.
“Hanging around” the tournament watching other matches may make you even more nervous.
Have an objective game plan. Unrealistic goals and excess ego involvement will only lead to intense frustration. Tell yourself before you go out to play that the best you can do is to make a strong effort in every department.
Be aware of those things you do which sabotage your game. If you find yourself being obsessed by negative things try to stop obsessing by simply staying “stop it” .
Keep in mind that the major TV and radio networks are not going to call you for your scores. And even if they do or your match is televised, the viewers, as a matter of fact even your friends, often forget your scores within a week.
If you are afraid to play a particular player remember: your opponent usually has the same fear about you.
Try to become “process oriented” as opposed to “outcome oriented”. When you think about the process you must activate to hit the ball properly, the outcome is automatic. When you worry about the outcome, the process gets fuzzy.
Don’t be afraid to lose. The best professional players are not afraid to lose if they know they have given it their best shot. But they hate to lose if they didn’t practice or failed to play intelligently.
Take responsibility for your wins and losses. Your coach, your parents and your friends did not make you win, you did it all on the court by yourself. And if you played great you chose to play great. You are the only one who knows what’s going on inside your mind.
On the other hand, try changing your vocabulary to “I chose to get angry” rather than “they made me angry”, or “I chose to hit silly shots” rather than “they made me hit silly shots”…
During the Match
A. Rule out external stimuli
How can you learn to rule out distractions such as weather, bad line calls, thoughts of winning or losing, unnerving movements by your opponent? How do you detach yourself from any kind of personality involvement?
1. Do whatever you can to keep your attention glued on the shot you are making or anticipating. Pay attention to your breathing or some lithe checkpoint on your swing that keeps you thinking of the present condition, not the past or the future. We are less efficient when there is too much brain activity. The brain has to send a clear message to your muscles ant it can do a better job when it only has to send one clear message at a time.
2. Let go of the judging process, meaning judging yourself and your performance as either good or bad. This does not mean ignoring errors. It means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them. Judgments result in tightness and tightness interferes with the fluidity required for accurate and quick movement. Relaxation produces smooth strokes and results from accepting your strokes as they are, even erratic.
Quiet your mind by letting go of mental self-instruction and let the body do what comes most naturally.
3. Don’t lose your energy, or your concentration, getting mad. Concentrate on the shot you make and don’t worry about the easy overhead you just missed, or bad line call. The bad calls, the lucky breaks and the crummy shots tend to fall both ways in a close match.
4. Be always prepared that the ball might come back and don’t be discouraged by the opponent unbelievable saves. You hit a fantastic winner but still the opponent can return it for a winner. All you can do is dwell on the present and keep making the play.
5. After the match try to recall the distractions that arose and at what point began affecting your concentration. Remember the key thing is to know that you are focusing only on the things that will help you have a good hit, and to find out what is it that relaxes you or keeps from focusing on the hit. By going through a little checklist of external distractions that appear to harm your play (e.g. players talking on the adjoining court) or typical situations in a match that cause you to tense up, you can begin to gain greater mental toughness.
B. Learn to close out your opponent
1. Never let up when you have an opponent trouble. Don’t relax; don’t ease off because you feel sorry for him. If he falls and you have a wide-open court, concentrate on hitting a winning shot, then see if he needs help. If you let a person off the hook and he gets back in the game, he shows no mercy. Moreover, if he goes on to beat you, he completely forgot your generosity.
2. If you are winning, never change your style of play. If you take a big lead by playing aggressively, don’t suddenly turn cautious and conservative when you sense victory. Why change a winning tactic? However, if you are losing, then you should change your strategy and the point at which you change should be determined prior to the match.
3. Don’t let overconfidence or your eagerness to win ruin your patience. Whether you have the lead or you are behind, try to maintain a high-frustration threshold.
4. Learn to treat the first point of every game with the same respect as 30-all. This habit will help you approach every point with the intensity of match point.
C. Develop a competitive ethic
Don’t be consumed by “win-or-else” philosophy. Half the people who play tennis every day are losers, but that does not mean they can’t have fun and feel good about striving for improvement.
Champions have flexibility: they can adapt to losing situations and learn from them. Losers can’t take it, they lose and the whole world is on their shoulders. They live in the past instead of trying to work on their future by improving their strokes in the present.
