Man, how intangible is this thing we search for called confidence in our tennis game?

How crazy do we get trying to figure out what it is and how to then make it tangible?

Look, I’m no mental giant by any stretch of the imagination.

I’ve read a lot of books about the mental skills required to play well in tennis, but in the end, and alt least for me when I play, confidence for me is simply a sense of not having any fear at that moment.

I’m not talking about being fearless in a risky way, no, it’s simply for me about not considering something negative might or is about to happen on this next shot, this next point, the match, and on and on…

Confidence in tennis is about not perceiving a negative consequence.

And I’ll be the first one to admit that there are times when I have to overcome my natural fears of a negative situation by totally lying to myself.

There have been times when I instinctively want to to think something like this – “OMG, I simply have to win this point because if I don’t there’s no way I’ll ever get another chance.  This guy is better than I am and I’m just damn lucky he’s not playing well.  Come on Brent, don’t blow this.”

Uh, hello, I don’t think that’s really a good set of thoughts that will help me play the next point unencumbered by fear.

Fear is the ultimate killer of quality shot placement decision making and performing your needed fluidity of stroke fundamentals.

The absence of fear gives you the best chance of making the right decision of where you want to play this next shot and allowing you to perform your practiced stroke fundamentals within their ideal timing.

So, let’s get back to this notion of lying to yourself when you recognize you’re pumping a bunch of fearful inner talk.

I wouldn’t really call it pur lying, but I know I do force myself to not recognize the fear by over riding it with specific thoughts, self talk, and even sing a song to myself.

Your brain will allow you to play the game of tennis on a conscious level.

Whatever you’re thinking or telling yourself at that moment is what your brain believes.

And if your brain believes you’re scared, it’ll help you ply scared, but if your brain believes you’re not scared, it’ll help you play the next point without fear.

Without fear translates to you being able to play your best tennis.

But this goes on between every frickin point.  You can fool yourself into being fearless for awhile, but you can also allow yourself to be scared later in the match.

Ever play well for the first set and a half and then just can’t close out the match?

Yeah, well, get in line because you’re not alone.  Most of us allow our fears to take over in the latter stages of a match.  We actually stop lying to ourselves at that point and start believing our self talk.

This takes a ton of practice to be able to discipline yourself to keep lying to yourself throughout the entire match.

I keep saying lying, and I’m not sure that’s what I mean, but I know you know what I’m trying to say.

You must consciously over ride your natural fears with something positive.

What’s helped me over ride my biggest fears when I’m playing against the top guys out there has been my between points 4 part routine.

1 – Go straight to the hook of the song of the day immediately after the point is done;

2 – Take 3-4 deep controlled breaths where I literally do the meditation thing of focusing on each breath so I’m not thinking of anything;

3 – Then consider any specific strategy I want to use to start the next point (not how to win the point but how to start the point);

4 – A little self pump.  Something very positive like “OK baby, I love this, here we go…”

And that’s it.  There’s absolutely nothing in that between points routine that is negative, and if I’m scared out of my mind and want this match so bad I can taste it, I’m putting myself into the same mental place point after point after point.

One of the keys to being a consistent shot maker (at least for me when I play my best tennis) is to be extremely consistent with what we do between points.

I know you’ve heard this a kazillion times, but on average 80% of the match is NOT playing points.

That’s right, only 15-20% of the match actually takes place during a point.

What you do with the 80-85% of your match time, between the points, determines how well you’ll play that day.

So, stop being so darn honest to yourself between points by recognizing any fears, and start lying to yourself like a monster…

Brent

Have you got a between points routine that helps you overcome fears or negative thoughts?  If so, let us know below in the Comments area.  Thanks in advance…

Recommended Lesson by Brent: “The Mental Skills Required For Competitive Tennis Players”

Why do we seem to get those little voices going off inside our heads that seem to be only talking about negative stuff?

You know what I mean, “Don’t double fault”; “If you lose this point you idiot you’re going to be down 2-5″; “I hope those guys over there don’t think I’m a lousy player”; and on and on.

I’m not smart enough to know why we seem to get so many of those voices yakking at us during tense times in a match.

I’m sure we’ve got someone here who can tell us from an educational point of view what might be going on.

However, I do believe that one of the reasons tennis can be such a mental struggle is because our opponent is facing us.

Our opponent is across from us and it’s sort of like a boxing match.

We look right into their face and get locked in emotionally.

We are confronted with another personality that can bring up fears, anger, doubt, etc. when we play.

When I had my first significant tournament win back in the 70s against the #1 seed in a minor “B” tournament in Berkeley CA, I told myself the night before that I wasn’t going to visually make contact (look at) my opponent’s face the entire match.

I don’t recall why I decided to try it, but at that time I was a nervous wreck in matches, and I was really searching for ways to stay calm in my matches.

Obviously, not looking at your opponent’s face is easy to do during the point, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t look into his face between points, even if he asked me the score or some other question.

All I focused on was the ball. Rather than looking into his face when he was about to serve, I just found the ball in his hand and forced myself to stay visually locked on the ball.

Same when I was about to serve, right before starting my tossing motion I’d look anywhere but his face (without of course giving away the intended direction of my serve).

It was a real challenge to not look into his eyes, his face, etc, during the match, but I eventually got comfortable with it at the end of the 1st set.

I played the best tennis of my then short tournament career that day and learned an incredibly valuable lesson about psychology and the value of not engaging emotionally with my opponent.

Since then, when I’m playing my best tennis in either singles or doubles, I don’t look at my opponent’s face, I don’t get emotionally engaged with them, and I simply focus on the ball which is clearly the most important object to look at during your match.

The biggest challenge for me is when I’m playing someone who is loud, attracting a lot of attention to themselves, is giving the old fist pump and “come on” whenever they win a point, making a derogatory remark when they make an unforced error, you know how it goes, that’s when I have to be extra disciplined to not look at them.

I want you to try this – get out there in a practice situation and try to not look into your opponent’s face. If you’re at your baseline and they’re at their baseline, ask them a question but look past their face so you don’t see them other than out of your peripheral vision. They won’t know you’re not looking at them and you’ll begin to take yourself out of the emotional engagement that I believe can cause those little voices to go off on a filibuster.

Does this post bring up anything for you?  Would love to have you weight in below in the Comments area.

Brent

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