Month: July 2019

If you want to improve your tennis game, learn to watch the ball. Don’t be distracted by the movements of the player beyond the net, don’t worry about what they’re doing that might indicate how they plan to deliver their next swing. And don’t look at their side of the court to decide where you want to send the ball back to them. Focus on the ball itself so you don’t lose sight of it once it passes the net, as most players do. Practice with a friend or a machine so you can return several balls without pause and practice watching the ball until it hits your tennis racket. If you take your eyes off the ball too soon, it’s going to be difficult to make sure it hits the center of your tennis racket, which is a clean hit in tennis and the most desirable way to return a ball.

Watching the ball can prevent hits that go off in unexpected directions because your tennis racquet has turned in your hand. It’s often not a grip problem (though this can be an issue, too) but because you’re not focused on the ball, you can’t tilt the tennis racquet properly to ensure that the ball hits in the center and that the tennis racquet is angled properly. If you’re looking at the ball just before it hits the tennis racquet, you can quickly changed the tilt of the racquet to make the shot you intended.

The more you learn to watch the ball, the better you’ll be able to return it from the center of the tennis racquet. You’ll also find you’re a much better judge of the speed and likely drop spot of the ball if you watch it until it hits the racket, rather than taking your eyes off it feet before it reaches you.

Unless your opponent is up close to the net as well, don’t return the ball too close to the net. If you do and they return from the back of the court, the ball will likely sail past your outstretched tennis racquet because you’ve had no time to move back into position to return it. If they’re close, though, it’s a great opportunity to do that to them.

Concentrate on staying in the center of the court. This is the best position to be in to quickly reach almost any ball. And don’t get so caught up in watching your return ball fly that you’re caught off guard by your opponent’s next move.

Study your mistakes and learn from them. If you’re always hitting the ball out of bounds, practice reigning in your swing. If the ball constantly ends up in the net, adjust the angle of your tennis racket and your swing to get it over the net more often. Letting yourself get frustrated over these errors will only cause you to make other small miscalculations. Look at them as opportunities to improve your tennis game and have even more fun.

After working with several junior tennis players on their mental game, Ive noticed that players limit their success when they focus on opponent rankings or tournament seeding. As you might already know, comparing your tennis skills to an opponent is a mental game no-no in my book.

When you make comparisons to your opponents, you are essentially saying to yourself that they are better than you! When you look at the draws to find out who you are playing, do you focus on seeding or player ranking?

Whats the mental game of tennis danger in comparing your ranking to your opponents ranking? You make too many assumptions (or generalizations) about who should win and who should lose the match. It may seem logical that the number one seed should beat the number two seed right? You know this is not always the case and this type of thinking can cause a poor mind game for tennis.

Why? If you are losing the match to a higher seeded player (that you think should win the match), how will you react? Yes, youll confirm your pre-determined expectations about who should win the match and then tank it. You wont be willing to fight back after losing the first set. Youll engage with the here I go again syndrome.

I know its hard to not pay attention to who you are playing and your opponents ranking or number of wins. I also realize that you can prepare your game depending on the style of your opponents game. So you could argue that knowing who you are playing can be an advantage. However, in most cases its not helpful to your mental game when you compare your ranking to other players in the tournament.

Then to compound the matter, players feel expectations from others to win if they are the better player or have a higher ranking. Your expectations about winning can turn into added pressure to win and fear of failure about losing.

Youre tennis psychology tip for today: Dont focus on your opponents ranking or the tournament seeding. Focus on your strengths instead of comparing yourself to other players. Think about how you can perform your best no matter the level of the opposition.

Confidence and momentum in tennis are close cousins. When you have momentum, you have confidence squared. Yes, momentum is a huge psychological advantage in any sport especially tennis. Players feel a sense of exhilaration when they have momentum on their side its a huge boost to your mental game of tennis.

Although momentum can give your mind game a boost, it must be contained or it can lead to making mental errors on the court. In addition, when you feel like you are losing momentum in the match to an opponent, your mind game can go into the tank. Therefore, you have to beware of the some of the dangers that go along with this powerful confidence booster in tennis.

Momentum in tennis can lead to excitement or a thrill of playing well. This is a good thing for most players. The additional boost of excitement can cause the release of adrenaline in the blood stream. You get a boost of energy and you feel pumped up, juiced, and focused. For experiences tennis players, they interpret this as a very positive feeling. They welcome this feeling when playing well, but they must throttle the additional boost of energy.

You must be careful with the additional shot of adrenaline that comes from momentum. You dont want it to cause you to play too aggressively or change your shot making. Seasoned tennis pros know when to throttle back if the adrenaline bug bits. Amateurs experience the same physiology when pumped up on momentum. You hit a great backhand to earn yourself a break point in the match. Your extra excitement and adrenaline helps you focus better, but you must account for the influence of adrenaline or youll swing to the moon.

The other potential problem with momentum is when you had it and lost it. Confidence can turn into panic during the match when your opponent turns the momentum in his favor. As one player asked, How do I overcome a loss of momentum during a match? Often I win a number of games only to not win another for the rest of the set.

Momentum and a big lead has it advantages and disadvantages. Your advantage in tennis is when you fly to a big lead in the first set. Your opponent my feel devastated and unable to compete with you. On the other hand, big leads for some players can cause big crashes with their mental game. I also think this has a lot to do with comfort zones, which I have studied extensively, but will hold this topic for another article.

If you get out to a big lead with momentum on your side, you might get complacent or protect your lead. Players who protect their lead sit on their lead. They begin to play defensively not wanting to lose points instead of continuing to play offensively and trying to win points. Most likely, if you have a habit of building up a big lead only to lose the set, you protect the lead and give momentum back to your opponent.

Therefore, my inner game of tennis tip for today is to continue to play on offense. Play aggressive tennis. Dont sit on your big lead. Put the set away as fast as you can without rushing.