All posts in Tennis

What does it truly mean to believe in yourself? When you believe in yourself, you have full confidence in your physical skills and ability to execute shots in tennis. My definition of self-confidence for tennis is how strongly you believe in your ability to execute a successful shot or win a match. Dont confuse believe in yourself (self-confidence) with self-esteem. Self-esteem is all about how you view yourself and how you appraise your self-concept (how you see yourself), also called self-worth.

Self-confidence comes from a baseline of past success in matches, practice, preparation, and a strong mental game of tennis. For example, a beginning tennis player has little or no confidence in his ability to execute a service in tennis. But with practice, he becomes competent in the skill of serving. With competency or skill mastery confidence improves. You can also get confidence from the belief that you are physically talented, which mirrors the definition of confidence.

When working with my personal coaching students, I discuss two different types or levels of confidence. The first is a general or broad belief in your ability as a tennis player the feeling that you can win or perform well. The second type of confidence is the specific belief in your ability to nail a successful overhead or hit a winning serve. Both broad and specific confidence are equally important and they influence each other.

Over my 20 plus years as a mental game coach, Ive come to learn that many athletes have practice self-confidence, which comes from working hard in practice to develop your skills. However, these same athletes dont always transfer that confidence from practice to playing matches. They lack what I call tournament self-confidence, for many reasons. Match or tournament self-confidence is critical to your success in matches.

It seems irrational that you can gain a high level of self-confidence in your practice, but cant transfer that confidence to tournaments. Most of the time, this problem is due to the mental game getting in the way and how you practice, which Ill discuss in another article.

One of my readers recently asked this tennis psychology question: What is the checklist for gaining confidence before a tough match? I have no simple answer to this question because every player reacts differently to a tough match. However, Ill give you the top four strategies that every player should apply:

1. Check your expectations in the parking lot. I believe that expectations (demands you place on your game) are harmful to high confidence. You want to believe in your skills and your practice, but without demanding how the match should go.

2. Review the reasons why you deserve to play well before each match. You might default to your practice, your experience, or your superior talent.

3. Prepare five positive self-talk statements you can use between points when you need a lift of confidence. These statements can be as simple as I deserve to play well today.

4. Cut off any last minute doubts. Doubt is the opposite of confidence. When you engage in doubt and allow it to feaster in your mind, you confidence suffers. Acknowledge any pre-match doubts you have and practice rebutting your own doubt.

Do you get frustrated when you are not playing up to your potential?

Many tennis players experience frustration during a match. They may make the wrong decision on a shot, make an unforced error or lose a game when theyve had the lead. These can all be sources of frustration for tennis players. Many players experience frustration because they are not playing their best tennis.

One tennis player wanted to know how to stay focused and calm when not playing as well as I would like.

The key is to know what causes you to become frustrated or upset about your performance. Many athletes are frustrated because they arent performing up to their expectations. Expectations arent helpful to your performance. Expectations can cause athletes to judge their performance and can lead to added pressure.

The key is to let go of your expectations. Because your expectations have developed over years and years of play, it may be difficult to let go of your expectations. Try setting process goals to replace your expectations. Use process goals to guide and track your performance. Avoid trying to judge your performance based on your process goals.

Another cause of frustration is dwelling on mistakes. When players dwell on mistakes they may over analyze or think too much about the mistake. Tennis players who dwell on mistakes are stuck in the past, which doesnt help them play in the present moment. Dwelling on past mistakes can affect your performance on the next points and can cause more mistakes. The key is to play one point at a time. Think of each point as the start of the match.

Some players may be annoyed or frustrated at their opponent. Players may become angry at their opponents strategy, their line calls or personality. The key is to play the ball, not your opponent. When you focus too much on your opponent, you become distracted at the task at hand. You arent able to focus on execution. Try to focus on whats important to perform successfully.

Composure is an important mental skill for athletes to learn. To stay composed during matches, be aware of when you lose composure and what causes your frustration. Use process goals instead of expectations, play each point as a new point and focus on whats important.