Mental Side

[tahnee]

Hi John I have subscribed to your great magazine for my daughter Tahnee,
is there some tip or advice you can give Tahnee regarding beating herself up out there, she is very emotional and animated on court but lacks a lot of experience in match play and seems to lose it to the point of tears, she is showing signs of a good player and is in a special squad and will be expected to do a bit of travelling later this year but the mental side is letting her down,
regards Dianne

[johnyandell]

Dianne,
Glad you like the magazine!
Have you read through the Jim Loehr articles in the Mental Game section? They are wonderful and he says it all much better than I ever could. There is also the first article in a series on Momentum from the English coach Alistair Higham. It's important to understand that all matches are a combination of things going well and not well...
Sounds like your daughter really wants it--which is great. Sounds also like she is putting a lot of pressure on herself regarding outcome versus process. You have to believe that if you work hard, try your best, and stay positive in adversity, that you will get the results you deserve in the long run. It's just not going to go that way in every match.
I would read Negative to Positive first. But then really try to adopt the practical stuff like the 4 Stages and the Breathing patterns Jim suggests.
The Allen Fox article on Even Champions Choke is great too.
Good luck to Tahnee and keep me posted.
Regards,
John Yandell
Tennisplayer.net

[davehagler]

mental stuff

It is important that Tahnee set some goals that relate to performance - not outcome. She and her coach should evaluate her matches based on how well she does in achieving these goals. Some sample goals could relate to "the 16 second cure." Goals can include things like maintenance of rituals, positive high energy walk, etc. If you film her matches then she can really see how her self destructive behavior is hurting her play. She can also have goals that relate to maintenance and adjustment of arousal level which can to some degree be measured by her footwork level.

Sample match goals from one of my students:

Maintain serving and return rituals
High Energy Walk
Move my feet - and take adjustment steps
Finish my shots
"Go for a walk" after two unforced errors
HAVE FUN!

This may be too many goals, but most of these things are pretty simple. Hope this helps

[CraigC]

Profound experiences

Hagler gives advice that can be read in any book. I'm so tired of hearing old school advice. Sorry Dave, I still think you are a great coach though!!

Getting away from the common answers, give Tahnee a profound experience that she can later draw upon. Take her to an event where a professional deals with stress and show her the reaction. A surgeon doing surgery, a lawyer closing, a businessman conducting a meeting, an athlete preparing for competition. Let your child see the reaction to intense pressure, and how professionals handle it. It is quite doubtful that an attorney would cry in front of a jury for a mistake. Also hard to imagine a doctor throwing a tantrum during surgery. Explain to her how professionals in any arena deal with adversity and you will be teaching your child how to deal with both tennis matches and life.

[vmiller]

I've found Fearless Tennis by Jeff Greenwald to be very helpful.

http://www.mentaledge.net/pub_products.shtml

It's a 2 disk CD set on developing mental strength. Mainly how to avoid getting wrapped up in results and the fear of missing. It's especially pertinent to juniors.

At first I was turned off by the idea of a CD instead of a book, but it worked out better because I often listen to it in my car and have listened to it many more times than I would have read it if it were a book.

[dgels]

May I say that I appreciated the suggestions above; it wasn't old and tired for me, as I hadn't heard it before.

I'm revisiting the game after a hiatus of 25 years. I always was baffled at the amount of time some players stared and fiddled with their strings after points. Anal compulsive personality disorders, I figured. Apparently, they were just relaxing, and taking their time to regroup.

The emotional irishman in me, on the other hand, wouldn't miss an opportunity of 16-25 seconds to beat myself up in proportion to the self-perceived stupidity of the error, in dramatic displays of self-flagellation, in the hopes of excorcising the demons that caused the choke. I figured it was mental "tough love".

However, the cumulative teeth gnashing led to periodontal disease. And my backhand remains unpredictable.

So I appreciate the suggestions for alternatives before I'm edentulous.

[johnyandell]

Yeah don't become edentulous.

[davehagler]

"old school"

The inquiry seems to indicate that Tahnee has not heard standard, common solutions. If you read 20 sports psych books you will find that they all say pretty much the same stuff, each author just puts a slightly different spin on things. If you listen to what succesful athletes and great competitors say you will also find a lot of commonalities. There might be a reason that you hear statement's similar to those made by coach Mike Babcock (now of the Detroit Redwings) during the Duck's unlikely run to the Stanley Cup Finals, "We focus on the process, not the prize." Though some may find statements like this tiresome, others can draw inspiration from them.

It would also seem that it makes more sense to learn about athletic competition from athletics. I have seen people who are tremendously succesful and poised in certain endeavors (school, speaking, music, business, litigation) who have difficulty in athletic competition. Why not give people tools which will help them with the problems at hand? Craig - your suggestions have merit, and may have proved effective with players who have not had success with more standard approaches. My guess is that if Tahnee were to utilize the suggestions that I made it would help her - and that should be the end goal.

Duano - have you considered buying a mouthguard?

dlh