The Lesson Lounge - Tennis Warrior

Your Link to Professional Thinking!

Every shot you hit has a mental challenge

If you listen with an informed mind to the commentators in a professional tournament you will pick up many excellent pointers that often go unnoticed. Once such pointer came from Cliff Drysdale, a former top tennis professional from South Africa in the 60's and 70's. Cliff is now a television commentator for many professional tournaments. Personally I think he is an excellent commentator with a treasure of tennis knowledge. Many months back I heard him debate with his co-commentator about the validity of the open stance forehand versus the closed stance forehand.

For those of you who are new to tennis, the open stand forehand is hitting with the body facing the net, whereas the closed stance the body is sideways.

In the match they were watching Cliff argued that the forehand a pro just hit was fine with the open stance. The other commentator argued that it would have been better for the player to use the closed stance. I was on Cliff's side, if it were natural for the pro to hit with this stance...so be it!

By the way the closed stance is generally accepted as correct with conventional methods. Although because of Bjion Borg and his tremendous success with the open stance, conventional methods are changing. Even at that, many teaching pros are still sticklers on the closed stance for beginning players. I have no problem with either the open or closed stance. I allow my students to use whatever is natural on a given shot.

In the Indian Wells tournament Cliff Drysdale made a fascinating comment. After one of the pros hit a ball poorly he said, "every shot you hit has a mental challenge." Did you ever think in terms of each shot having a MENTAL CHALLENGE? Do you think the pros just hit the ball and that's that? When the pros play do you focus only on the external shot and are not aware of the internal challenges? If you do, you are missing the inner game of tennis! And missing a golden opportunity to improve your own game.

To start with you must understand the pros have the same challenges you have when hitting a ball. The difference in many cases is they have learned through experience to ignore the incorrect mindset and go with the correct mindset.

Let's go over a few of the MENTAL CHALLENGES that exist in a match when hitting a ball. I am not going to explain in any detail what the correct mindset is in each situation, because the situations are too numerous. The point is, even though you may be hitting the same shot, THOSE SAME SHOTS ARE NOT THE SAME depending on the situation at hand. These situations require complete control of your mind to work your way through these MENTAL CHALLENGES. You must learn to recognize the different situations and adjust accordingly. Below is a list of some of those challenges. When reading these different situations imagine what it feels like inside at that moment, rather than your present state of mind when reading them.

* Hitting a ball when you have made a mistake on your last shot.
* Hitting a ball when you've made a series of mistakes.
* Hitting a ball in the opening points of a match.
* Hitting a ball to win a game when you are in the lead.
* Hitting a ball to keep you in the game when you are about to lose.
* Hitting a ball to win a match.
* Hitting a ball when you are about to lose a match.
* Hitting a ball to make a comeback after falling behind.
* Hitting a ball to make a comeback after you were in the lead, than fell behind.
* Hitting a ball when your opponent is on a roll and playing aggressive and well.
* Hitting a ball after you have hit a brilliant shot, but lose anyway.
* Hitting a ball after you have had a long, long point and lost.
* Hitting a ball after you have had a long, long point and won.
* Hitting a ball after you have had a bad line call.
* Hitting a ball when your opponent is beating you badly.
* Hitting a ball when you are beating your opponent badly.
* Hitting a ball when the match is close.

That's right you are not just out there hitting balls, you are playing the moment, the situation, the mental balances of the match...always! Your challenge is to maintain a relaxed ‘go for your shot' mentality regardless of these different mental situations. Sometimes you have to step up your game and increase your intensity and other times you have to slow down your game and not over play.

Many players ask me how they can stop losing concentration because their mind wanders. With all these MENTAL CHALLENGES I don't know how their mind wanders that often!!! I can only think they are NOT keeping track of the MENTAL CHALLENGES of a match or perhaps they do not even know these MENTAL CHALLENGES exist.

If you are one of those players maybe this lesson will help. Each shot has a different mental challenge. You must learn to not worry about playing perfectly, but instead learn to cope with the changing situations and be prepared mentally to QUICKLY adjust to the challenges at hand. In this fashion you will think exactly like the pros.

Tom Veneziano