Walking the Mental Game Talk: Looseness and Focus

[johnyandell]

Let's discuss Jeff Greenwald's latest article, "Walking the Mental Game Talk: Looseness and Focus"

[doctorhl]

Great article by Jeff.I have experienced total focus with appropriate muscle tension only a few times in tournaments. However, most times my mind wants to equate acceleration( for perceived power) with increased muscle tension and deceleration(for perceived control) with decreased muscle tension. This mindset usually results in disastrous results.
I have noticed that some people have the ability to intensely focus without resorting to muscle tension extremes under pressure. Anyone got any ideas on this other than puttiing in years of tournament time in pressure situations. My mind usually over or under contracts the hand, elbow or quads under pressure.

[ten1050]

Excellent article on looseness and focus. To maintain the level of looseness that Jeff describes, the arms and shoulders must be totally relaxed and the torso and legs become the only real sources of power. The technique of a Federer or Borg is similar to walking, the legs and torso move while the arms swing freely without effort. An effortless, whip like serve is created by the back and forth action of the torso which sends a relaxed arm into an accelerated swing. This level of looseness is very difficult to master. Ten thousand hours of deliberate practice is not an exaggeration. Many of the great players began playing shortly after learning to walk! To them, playing tennis is as natural as walking is to us. Nevertheless, we must strive to stay loose and focused as Jeff recommends in order to really enjoy this wonderful game.

Norman Ashbrooke

[stotty]

This is probably an across-the-pond-language-barrier-thing, but looseness doesn't seem the best or most accurate term. I prefer relaxed. I also tend to come at it from the other way around. Good focus leads to relaxation. If you mentally immerse yourself in a tennis match to the exclusion of everything else, then you will become relaxed. It's really about cutting out the external and internal distractions.

"A rowing boat alone on the sea with the waves of the crowd crashing around me...." - Jim Courier

I was a poor match player when I was young. Not because I didn't win matches, because I did. But they were fraught and the only enjoyment from winning came from shaking hands at the end. Only when I got older and learnt to engross myself in matches to the exclusion of everything else, did I really start to enjoy the process of playing matches....win or lose.

Jeff's article is good and I endorse it wholeheartedly. I just think my take on the same subject is slightly differently.

[doctorhl]

This is probably an across-the-pond-language-barrier-thing, but looseness doesn't seem the best or most accurate term. I prefer relaxed. I also tend to come at it from the other way around. Good focus leads to relaxation. If you mentally immerse yourself in a tennis match to the exclusion of everything else, then you will become relaxed. It's really about cutting out the external and internal distractions.

"A rowing boat alone on the sea with the waves of the crowd crashing around me...." - Jim Courier

I was a poor match player when I was young. Not because I didn't win matches, because I did. But they ewere fraught and the only enjoyment from winning came from shaking hands at the end. Only when I got older and learnt to engross myself in matches to the exclusion of everything else, did I really start to enjoy the process of playing matches....win or lose.

Jeff's article is good and I endorse it wholeheartedly. I just think my take on the same subject is slightly differently.

Good stuff Stotty! Focus -“free the mind, free the body”. I think your concept might also apply to practice. For some kids, early in their learning curve, excessive value judgement on whether they hit the ball in or out reinforces a tense style of play over time. And practice loses its sense of joy!

[arturohernandez]

I agree! I was about to write this in the Donaldson forum. I just had a long discussion with a friend and a separate one with my wife about parents talking to their children during matches.

In her last tournament, this past weekend, my daughter had to ask her opponent's grandfather to stop talking.

My wife said I should have intervened.

I told a friend the same story and she said that before a 10 point tiebreak, a coach and parent went to talk to her daughter's opponent.

She and her husband were not so schooled in tennis so they went to get coffee and missed the whole end of the match.

Their daughter won anyway.

Parents are scouting, coaching and constantly telling their kids what to do.

I agree with Jeff and as a player the only thing that has helped is to try and get into a frame of mind that is loose and focused.

Parents and coaches talk too much.

My answer to my wife and my friend is that talking is actually worse for a player.

All these parents are making the kids think and that just makes it worse.

If you watch TV and catch a glimpse of the player's box, you will only see positive body language toward the player.

Just stay positive no matter what.

I also think that focus comes from focusing on something physical, breathing, the warm feeling of the sun, the sound of the strings.

All these things occupy our mind and let us stop thinking.

Perhaps the hardest thing to learn about tennis is how we should feel.

Thanks, Jeff!

P.S. Why is a video called an article?

[jeffgreenwald]

Thanks for your thoughts, Stotty. Perhaps, it is a cultural difference as you suggest.

I chose "looseness" many years ago because "relaxed" is rarely the true experience of most players, including Federer (although he certainly pushes the envelope in this territory).

Relaxed typically conjures up images of relaxing on a beach with a good book, a glass of wine in front of the fire, etc..and certainly very few players ever really associate this experience with hitting a tennis ball in competition with adrenaline pumping and intensity high. I have found that contacting the ball with less muscle tension, releasing on contact rather than contracting can be trained. In fact, I've even seen many rec players learn to access a more personal level of "looseness" by becoming aware of the difference between tension and looseness and have this become more accessible--and never does this happen by telling yourself to be loose. It happens by recalling the memory/feeling/visual of that shot and the "kinesthetic" feeling that comes with it.

In regard to focus, you make a good point in that focus IS the "doorway" to one's best state, including a looser or relaxed physical state as you suggest. A deeper focus allows you to immerse yourself into the moment, onto the task at hand, which slows the mind (more "alpha" state than "beta"-reflective of more mental chatter). This minimizes distractions that can often lead to more physical tension. That said, most players DO lose focus in matches, they have negative thoughts and physical tension can creep in an instant. So, while focus is the initial key and something you can also control, the need to adjust muscle tension (and relatedly the tendency to force shots) is necessary for most players in most matches. That is why I developed the "loose dial". It's not an all or nothing situation. It's about micro adjustments. And getting looser in a second is possible with the right training and greater awareness.

Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts. Perhaps, this thread, more than anything, highlights the reality about how complex, personal and endlessly interesting this game really is.

[don_budge]

The ability to make a strenuous effort look easy under pressure. Breathe in...hit out. Stay in the moment and play to the score. It's an easy game. Try not to make look so difficult.

[don_budge]

Perhaps this thread highlights the reality about how complex, personal and endlessly interesting this game really is.

Tennis tests the human being on the intellectual, emotional and physical level. Throw in spiritual. God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation...along with golf.