The Mental Battle Behind the Tennis Game

The mental battle behind the tennis game

This post was written by Diana Chalikov, owner at DCTP Tennis &Fitness.

Many young tennis players and their parents believe whole heartedly that as long as they practice, practice and practice some more, they will win. Unfortunately, it is just not that simple.

True, practicing correct form, working on your footwork, and making fewer unforced errors are important keys to playing well. They are not however the keys to winning. The truth of the matter is; your brain will give up 10 times over before your body does.

Tennis players become frustrated, anxious, millions of emotions run through their heads. “My parents are watching”, “I can’t loose to someone ranked lower than me”, “my coach will be disappointed”, “I practiced that shot over and over!” And before they know it, they’re down 3 games.

Mental toughness. That is not something any tennis coach can teach their student. It’s like self-esteem. It is the esteem of yourself and no one can make it or break it. No matter how many times you tell your student; “you have the best form, you’ve practiced this, you’ve got this!” It doesn’t change the fact that once your student is out there playing a match and they become nervous, unforced errors will occur. And with those come lost points which turn into a lost tennis game.

So how does one become so zen that they are constantly playing their game and not giving in to pushing the ball back for fear of losing that point? Or getting frustrated and smacking everything out or in the net. Or what about those double faults? How do you keep from overthinking on those? “It’s 30-40, it’s my second serve, I can’t miss this.” The nervous muscle twitching starts, the toss is too low, and…it goes in the net.

I suppose breathing techniques help. Perhaps playing more matches. Or taking a bit of a break from tennis so the player knows there is a world outside of tennis. Losing one or 2 or even 3 matches will not be the end of them.

In my experience, young tennis players become so consumed with tennis, they forget (or are not even shown by parents) that there is in fact a world outside of tennis. And winning every tennis match is not that crucial. Parents need to take the kids away from tennis once in a while for a short period of time (2-3 days perhaps) and educate them on what else is happening in the world. Go to a museum, see a movie, catch up with non tennis playing friends. Enjoy life, it is good!

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