Declare A War Against Negative Thoughts
Hi Tomaz,
What you are saying is helpful, it is just that I am having trouble implementing these thoughts.
I just can’t seem to break through that little voice that says “No, Impossible” and as a result my game sucks.
I don’t care about winning, I mean that is nice, but I really just want to play well.
But when I get on court I switch immediately from positive mindset to negative, and what is worse is that I know that I’m doing it.
I have been playing rather bad for a very long time, and I think I have somewhat trained these “impossible” thoughts to come out when I get on court.
I am sick of this mindset and really want to change it, and I really want to play great tennis, but I haven’t a clue how to retrain my head.
Yes, I know what I haven’t told you.
It’s a WAR.
You have to declare WAR on your negative thoughts and might take months or years to win the war.
You may win some smaller battles sooner but to win against negative thoughts - in a sense that they don’t appear anymore takes year of guerrilla fighting. 
Really. I have gone through this process myself.
I realized how negative thoughts are hurting me and tried to change my thinking. It’s very difficult.
After a while I could replace the thoughts if I was very determined and focused on my positive thought.
But they still appeared so I still had to fight.
The other tactic is to prove to the negative thoughts that they are wrong.
When you think it’s impossible to hit the ball and eventually hit one in, your negative thought was WRONG. Once you prove that, it loses power.
So what also helps is that you don’t fight them but just ignore them because you see they are wrong. You just don’t care about your thinking.(if that makes sense)
Just watch the ball, keep your general strategy in mind and play.
After you “disappoint” your negative thoughts many times by not giving them any attention, they stop appearing.
Then you have won the war.
Start now, it’s a journey towards freedom.
- Related posts:
October 24th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I am 80 years old, I play at maybe b level but inconsitent, mainly because of my negative attitude, at times I can hit some great shots, but the next shot is a dumber. Mainly I talk a lot, can’t keep my mouth shut, it’s like I think i’m Bob Hope or something, got to may a wise crack, and this alway’s causees me to loose concentration, I know it, but don’t seem to be able to quite, but I still enjoy the game, or I would just hang it up. Besides it keeps me young. But I can serve practically every time and get the ball in, it medium hard I would say, the average good player dosen’t have too hard time returning it, but I seem to just stand there and watch the ball i have trouble following the ball in, because I seem to be afraid i’ll get a deep return and be out of the play I quess, going to the net seems to be my nemis but when I am there as a rule, i’m not very effective. I have trouble being at the right place at the right time. thank you.