How to Focus
by: Dave Winship @ On The Line

Statistics often show that, during a match, the ball is in play for just 20% of the time. Let's call that time "uptime".

The remaining 80% of the time is spent doing other stuff, like walking, sitting, standing around, bouncing the ball, adjusting strings, collecting balls, and so on. Let's call it "downtime".

When you're in uptime, you need to be totally absorbed in the dynamics of playing the rally. It's not the time to think about train times or what to have for dinner. More relevantly, it's not the time to indulge in excitement or anxiety about the implications of winning or losing the point.

Players can sometimes sustain that total absorption for long periods. They can keep it going through downtime as well as uptime. You'll hear them refer to it as being "in the zone". However, we usually have to settle for switching in and out, i.e. focusing narrowly on the ball and the relevant periphery during uptime, and then relaxing the concentration during downtime. It's a difficult technique and requires lots of practice. Actually, what it really requires is lots of matchplay, because the mind wanders out of focus much more seriously when we're under pressure - when we get excited about winning, when we get anxious about losing. Emotions such as excitement and anxiety should be kept well under control during downtime as well as uptime.

So what should you think about during downtime? Well, use it to evaluate and adjust tactics. For example, you might say to yourself: 'His backhand's breaking down - I must target it on the big points'. Use it also to remind yourself of something you might improve technically. For example, you might say to yourself: 'I must split-step when I move in to volley'.

As uptime approaches, you must narrow your focus. A useful technique for achieving this is visualisation, whereby you play an image in your mind of what you want to happen, i.e. imagine your serve or your return going where you want it to.

To simplify things, you might approach it like this:

downtime: work out what to do uptime: in the words of the famous Nike slogan - 'Just do it!'

Regards.

Dave Winship