Have you ever missed an “easy” sitter and couldn’t let go of that mistake?

It kept replaying in your mind and that distracted you from being focused on your next point, it made you more and more frustrated and you couldn’t play as well as you did before.

Most of us have had this experience and we realized how being unable to cope with a mistake worsened our performance.

I’ve recently partnered with Dr. Patrick Cohn from sportspsychologytennis.com and we did a tennis podcast where we discussed:

• What are the top mistakes that tennis players have trouble letting go of
• What type of player is most prone to dwelling on mistakes
• How do mistakes affect players mindset; such as frustration, trying harder, etc.
• What causes players to dwell on the past
• What are the solutions for helping players cope with mistakes

You can listen to the podcast using the audio player below or download the mp3 file.

Download the tennis podcast MP3 (Right-click and “Save as…” to your hard drive.)

Patrick and I plan to do more podcasts in the future on the topic of tennis psychology.

To be sure you won’t miss any of them, please subscribe to the TennisMindGame Newsletter and I’ll send you a link to the podcast as soon as it’s online.

I am a tennis player that has a huge passion for the game. I would play it everyday if I had the chance.

Recently, i have been in a slump. i went to Regionals for my school team and I was seeded number two.

My draw looked like a ticket into State. I rolled through my first match 6-0, 6-0. My second match however was a completely different story. i had beaten this girl before and she had been an easy competitor, although I came out quite nervous because of what was at stake.

The match went on and i lost the second set. My mind was in the gutter by then and there was no getting it out. Needless to say, I lost the match, my opportunity to go to State was gone.

My main school coach never talked to me once during the match, although I did get a few comments from the assistant coaches. I was disappointed in myself, and i thought that I had disappointed everyone else in the entire world too.

i definitely learned a lot from that match, about myself and my game. Since then, I feel like my mind is always negative and extremely stressed. And I am naturally a very bubbly person. I feel like I cannot improve.

I have a great regular coach but with limited funds I rarely get to talk to him. What can I do to improve, whether it be in the gym, out on the court, or mentally?

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