Why Are Rain Delays So Mentally Tough?
Wimbledon has been struck a with bad weather curse this year. The organizers are 177 matches behind the schedule at the time of this writing.
It’s not only tough for the Wimbledon organizers and visitors; it’s mentally draining for the players too.
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| (AP Photo/Sang Tan) |
Lleyton Hewitt for example started his third-round match against No. 22 Guillermo Canas of Argentina on Saturday, but rain and darkness delayed the 2002 champion’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win until three days later.
“That’s the longest and toughest rain-delayed match I’ve ever had to put up with,” Hewitt said. “It was a mental battle more than anything out there.”
This rain delays have also contributed to some surprising losses and tough matches among the favorites:
• Amelie Mauresmo lost to Vaidisova 7-6, 4-6, 6-1,
• Jelena Jankovic lost 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to Marion Bartoli
• Rafael Nadal is at 4:4 in the fifth set against Robin Soderling after having a match point in the third set
“There is no reason for me to lose this match,” Jankovic said. “But in these circumstances anything can happen. It suits the lower-ranked players. Without breaks, I think I could have won in two sets.”
So why are the rain delays so mentally draining and tough?
1. They prolong the mental stress. When you are preparing to play a match (especially if it is very important to you), you are under a lot of stress.
There are possibilities of losing the match and that can mean a lot of different things to different players.
For some players this can be very painful – either only emotionally or in reality – not earning the prize money for the flight home.
And this prolonged mental stress takes its toll on the mental fitness of players.
Eventually their mental toughness becomes not so tough and they are much more vulnerable to distractions and reacting emotionally to unwanted events on or off the court.
2. It’s hard to activate yourself 100% many times in a short time. When you start the match for the first time, you are ready to go, you have a clear game plan and hopefully you are in a fighting mode – to grind it out to the end.
After one or two rain delays it’s much harder to get pumped up again and be 100% focused on the match.
You need extra mental effort to activate yourself and artificially raise your activation level which at the start of the match was already there because of the exciting situation – playing an important match.
3. Players don’t relax enough in the rain break. And thus they keep expending their mental energy and eventually “run out of steam”.
The key to dealing with rain delays is to:
1. Be able to relax when the rain delay comes and save physical and mental energy
2. Be able to activate yourself to the same state of motivation and determination that you had at the start of the match
3. Accept them as part of the challenges of playing professional tennis. IT IS that difficult.
“Just got to be prepared to do it,” Hewitt said. “This is how you win majors. Whatever hand you’re dealt, you got to deal with it.”
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