The Lesson Lounge - Tennis Warrior

Your Link to Professional Thinking!

Percentage thinking

I’m not talking about percentage play, but percentage thinking! They are different. Percentage play is the ability to select the highest percentage shot that gives you the best opportunity to win over the long haul. For instance, in singles your best percentage play from the baseline is a crosscourt shot. Why? Because the net is lower and the court is longer when you choose to hit crosscourt. Therefore, the percentages say you will hit more balls into the court by hitting crosscourt which reduces the chance of missing the shot. By the way human nature has a big time problem selecting percentage shots with any kind of consistency. Percentage play does not seem to be compatible with the impatience of human nature and the all or nothing mentality! Players are constantly playing in the “hit winners” mindset.

What is percentage thinking? It’s similar to percentage play, but strictly deals with THOUGHT. Percentage thinking is the ability to select the highest percentage THOUGHT that gives you the best opportunity to win over the long haul. For example, when you make a mistake you have two choices, number one, let it bother you or number two, forget it and move on. Two choices! Percentage thinking dictates that you must select number two, forget your mistakes and move on. Doing this will give you the greatest opportunity to win over time.

You will have many opportunities on the tennis court to make decisions that are crucial to the outcome of your matches...crucial! You must learn percentage thinking to win with the strokes you possess today. Some of those correct percentage thoughts are:

1. Do not allow mistakes to bother you
2. Do not allow self-doubt to sneak into your mind
3. Do not over think your failures
4. Do not change your game when you are winning
5. Do not panic when you have a run of mistakes
6. Do not panic when your opponent has a run of good shots
7. Do not become over confident when you have a big lead
8. Do not think that you cannot win when you are about to lose
9. Do not think that you have already won when you are about to win
10. Do not think that you are the only one that is nervous
11. Do not think winning at tennis is all about great tennis strokes
12. Do not think losing at tennis will ruin the rest of your life!

This is just a partial list but it will help you tilt the mental odds in your favor and win a higher percentage of your matches. And you can do it with the EXACT STROKES you possess today. Just change your thinking!

Tom Veneziano