The Lesson Lounge - Tennis Warrior

Your Link to Professional Thinking!

Acknowledging negatives is not negative thinking!

It is time to learn the MENTAL TWO-STEP. What is the MENTAL TWO-STEP? It's simple! When you are having trouble on the tennis court, whether it is just a mistake or the accumulative affect of having a tough match, you are always two mental steps away from a negative mental attitude OR a positive mental attitude.

THE FIRST MENTAL STEP IS RECOGNIZING THE PROBLEM. Whether it is a mistake, self-doubt, or the accumulative effect of a tough match, you must be aware of the problem. Too many people think to recognize a negative, mistake, or failure is negative thinking. It's not! Negative thinking is when you let the negatives, mistakes, and failures affect your overall mental attitude. Just to acknowledge negatives in itself is not negative thinking, but yes it could lead to negative thinking. The principle is that mentally tough people can think in terms of negatives without getting discouraged.

THE SECOND MENTAL STEP IS RECOGNIZING THE SOLUTION! Whether the negative, mistake, or failure affects your overall mental attitude depends on YOU. You must learn to accumulate different mental solutions to apply to different situations. For instance, with mistakes you could use the Refocus Technique, "THE NEXT SHOT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE LAST MISTAKE." With self-doubt you should understand that mental toughness doesn't mean you will never have self-doubt, everyone does! It is part of competition. With a chain of bad mistakes you should orient quickly to the fact that you are no different than a pro, who also has to cope with a series of bad mistakes. Forget it and move on! You must take responsibility to not let these situations bother you and to practice the second step of the MENTAL TWO-STEP.

Do you have a propensity toward becoming discouraged, getting down on yourself, or maybe even feeling sorry for yourself? If so, get out there and practice thinking correctly when these situations occur. Yes, you must practice THINKING just like you would practice a backhand or a forehand over and over and over again until one day recovering from your negatives, mistakes, and failures becomes more automatic,

In summary, remember the first step, RECOGNIZING THE PROBLEM IN ITself IS NOT NEGATIVE THINKING. Do not think you are a negative person because you are thinking about your negatives, mistakes, and failures. It is whether you let these problems have a negative affect on your overall mental attitude. The second step of the MENTAL TWO-STEP, RECOGNIZING THE SOLUTION AND STAYING POSITIVE, depends entirely on YOU!!! And I like that, because if YOU cannot handle negatives, mistakes, and failures correctly YOU have no one else to blame but YOURself. Welcome to the real world of mental toughness!