One of the main reasons why you lose games and eventually matches is because you don’t give 100% of effort all the time.

You may feel down, frustrated or disappointed (you’re in a low activation state) or you may feel angry, upset or nervous (you’re in a high activation state). In either case, you’re not giving 100% of effort at that moment.

You may also feel somewhat tired and your body’s natural response is to save energy. If you’re not mentally strong enough to overcome those impulses, you’re again not giving 100% of effort. (more…)

I play tournaments every week but  i can’t seem to bring my game together on match day.

At training i play great but in matches i only play a good point once every two games.

One day i beat the number 4 seed the next day i lose to a hacker. How can i always bring my steady and aggressive game to my matches?

———————————————————————————————————

First, you can’t always bring your steady game. Top players don’t win all the time.

We are humans and not robots – we have good days and bad days.

The more you accept bad days as something normal, the sooner they will disappear and the less they will appear.

What you resist, persists.

(more…)

The Miami 2009 tennis tournament proved to be very exciting and Victoria Azarenka, Juan Martin Del Potro, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray did very well here.

What do these great tennis players have in common in their mental game that enabled them such success?

It’s the power of belief.

They all believed (or just started to believe) that they CAN win and beat the higher ranked opponent.

Juan Martin Del Potro Celebrating His First Win Against Nadal (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Juan Martin Del Potro really believed that he could beat Nadal this time. He played Nadal 4 times before and always lost in straight sets.

When I watched Del Potro in Indian Wells two weeks before when he lost to Nadal 4-6, 2-6, he really didn’t seem to believe he could win.

He seemed intimidated by Nadal, had too much respect for him and really didn’t attack Nadal as he should.

But Del Potro learned something very important from this loss.

He learned that when he plays his own game well, Nadal will not just blast him off the court.

He realized that Nadal is just a human, that he can be neutralized by consistently playing to his backhand, that he can be attacked to the forehand side and will often just defend and that with smart tactics, it is possible to outplay Nadal.

That’s why the Miami match was completely different: Del Potro played the ball. He didn’t play the “big name”. He focused on his game plan and didn’t even falter in the final set tie-break. (more…)

by Alexander Claussen

You and your opponent just walked out on the court. You warm-up, and the match starts. You start off the match with an error in the net, and a “C’mon, right here,” rings in your ears. You let it go. Next point, your opponent says loudly the same phrase just as you begin your ball toss. You double-fault.

It is one thing if your opponent is trying to pump himself up, but I don’t think this is the case. During the many years of my playing of tennis, I have encountered players whose strategies heavily rely on this concept, gamesmanship (and cheating too).

And of all the cases I have encountered, it wasn’t the actual acts of gamesmanship that won the match, but the overreaction of the victim player.

If you are an active player, you’ve probably experienced players like this many times. Whether it’s stalling, questioning every line call, or like the example presented above, we all need to learn how to handle gamesmanship that leads to on-court meltdowns and ultimately the match.

(more…)

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?

(more…)

How to handle the kind of pressure when in a tournament situation, a player is 4-5 up serving, and fails to finish the match due to what we call “elbow”?

The player gets so tensed up that he or she can’t perform at the level they suppose to.

Also; when you have players that are naturally tensed up players, how you teach them to train more relaxed, and then apply that skill in a tournament setting?

The reason why the players get tense when serving for the match is because they don’t want to lose this opportunity. If they miss the chance, they will feel very bad. (that is only their opinion – in reality, there is only a probability of winning and not a guarantee)

(more…)

I have a problem with confidence and doing my best, because whenever I actually try (I usually play by putting as little effort as possible) I feel depressed when I lose or mess up.

That’s because failing even at my best makes me feel as if my best is nothing, that is why I put little effort so when I mess up or lose I don’t feel as bad because it’s not my best. Help!

Let’s see where this comes from “because failing even at my best makes me feel as if my best is nothing”.

The game of tennis is not so much about winning or losing especially if you are a competitive player. Most players lose all the time. (go on ATP Tour website and check win / loss ratio of a top 100 tennis player. You’ll see what I mean.)

It’s the long term accumulation of POINTS that pretty good determines who is good or not. So when you lose it doesn’t mean you are “nothing”. That’s just your very critical description of a loss.

(more…)

Hi, I’m a junior player who’s just started playing tournaments this year.

All my coaches as well as kids and my parents say I’m fantastic and could be top 5 in the nation if I could play that way in matches.

I used to play top kids in practice and beat them badly. But recently in a low level tournament, I lost to a kid who was EXTREMELY BAD:) he lost to alot of other kids who aren’t very good and I lost to him 6-4 6-3.

It seems as thought I am the weakest and dumbest tennis player ever mentally and during matches; I’ve never come back and won from a set down. For me, it’s either win in straight sets or lose in straight sets.

My question is do you have any tips for me with my kind of tennis mental problem? Is there any way that I can overcome this mental weakness and be positive and relaxed during matches?

Cause I feel like I’m letting my coaches, parents, and myself down when I play like that.

(more…)

You may know that you “should” come to the net more often to finish the point but somehow you resist that and stick to the comfort of the baseline.

Why is that?

You resist coming to the net because you feel uncomfortable there. So you need to dig even deeper and ask yourself why do you feel uncomfortable at the net?

Some of the possible reasons are:

1. You don’t trust your volley and overhead skills.

This mistrust can be legitimate – meaning your net skills are really not that good and you make too many mistakes OR your net skills are actually good but your OPINION about them is negative.

(more…)