The Lesson Lounge - Tennis Warrior

Your Link to Professional Thinking!

The Refocus Technique!

Last lesson we covered the Sleeper Technique. In order to think correctly and apply the Sleeper Technique you'll need to know a little bit more about a technique that should be familiar to most of you by now. It's called the Refocus Technique, which gives you the ability to bounce back and refocus after a mistake or failure! You accomplish this by a little internal self-talk after a mistake. The phrase I use is, "the next shot is more important than the last mistake." The principle is, do not serve or return serve until you have cleared your mind of the last mistake.

If you are going to come back from a love 40 deficit you better be able to deal with the failures that got you there in the first place! You cannot begin using the Sleeper Technique and make a comeback if you are still preoccupied with your last mistakes!!!

Now, when I teach the Refocus Technique everyone usually nods their head yes, I got it, I understand! "The next shot is more important than the last mistake." But, there is a subtle mental error that's extremely important everyone seems to make in regard to this technique! Even though everyone says yes, I got it, one day they come to a lesson, miss an easy shot and go ballistic! They spend the next couple of minutes upset with the easy shot they missed! After a while, I question them, "what happened to, the next shot is more important that the last mistake?" The answer, "but this is an easy shot I make all the time."

Then, it dawned on me!!! When I'm teaching the Refocus Technique, in my lesson's mind it means "the next shot is more important than the last mistake" on mistakes they think it's okay to miss on! But, if it's a mistake on a shot they think they're supposed to make, the principle doesn't apply! They have unknowingly justified not using the Refocus Technique because it was a mistake on an easy shot, which in their mind is not the same as a mistake on a difficult shot! Wow! They have misapplied the principle by creating two categories of mistakes. Mistakes they think are okay to make and mistakes they think are not okay! They use the Refocus Technique on the shots they think it's okay to miss, and become annoyed and frustrated on shots they miss that are easy.

The obvious solution is from now on do not separate them! Use the Refocus Technique on the difficult misses as well as the easy misses. "The next shot is more important than the last mistake" on all mistakes! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

Tom Veneziano