Off Court Visualizations

[johnyandell]

Would love to hear your thoughts on my latest article, "Off Court Visualizations!"

[J011yroger]

I like the article a lot, it reminded me of something my coach said.

He said the way to beat me is pretty clear; when he plays me there is no hope for him to my right, but there is a small window to my left and if he can get me to move to my left and hit a backhand he can take control of the point because my recovery is delayed. He said that the only advantage I have as a two hander is the ability to hit open stance and recover quicker, so we practiced several footwork patterns to get me in and out of the backhand corner quicker.

He said that he learned all of his footwork patterns in school. The mind makes no distinction with regard to learning motor patterns between imagining and actually doing. He said he was a troublemaker in school and often got detention and he would sit at his desk in detention with his eyes closed and visualize all of his footwork patterns in slow motion, then when he actually trained he would just make the steps.

I thought it was pretty cool!

J

[seano]

Dr. Jim Loehr, in the 80's, was talking about the brian not knowing the difference being visualizing a movement and actually doing the movement. Used to tell my students that all the time.

SeanO

[stotty]

Around twenty five years ago I coached a bloke who would have a lesson once a week. He started to improve really quickly for a guy who played just once a week so I made a point of complimenting him on his rapid progress. He replied that he had achieved his rapid improvement by practicing the things I taught him 'mentally'. He did this on his daily commute to work by train. He revealed that he also 'practiced mentally' in many areas of his life and thoroughly believed in the concept.

I thought he was bonkers at the time but have since come to be completely convinced by the practice. It's 100% valid. Sometimes the student can teach the coach a thing or two it seems.

[johnyandell]

Yep. He was right.

[glacierguy]

When the usual daily worries and stresses creep into my head, I just block 'em out by visualizing serve action, and mentally replaying over and over Pete Sampras video clips. Good for mental health, good for serve!

[andreas]

In stressful situations I always think about Djokovics victory in the final of the 2012 Australian Open. The imagination of being Djokovic makes me mentally strong again.

[johnyandell]

Good one!

[doctorhl]

This is not a paid response for tennis player.net(LOL), but my two cents on the power of visualization. Decades of teaching others did not translate like I thought it would toward changing and improving my own game. Without tennisplayer stroke archives and supporting articles, I would never have been able( at age 58 at the time ) to transfer old school strokes(pre -80’s), to new school strokes. The amount of muscle memory to unlearn and then relearn just couldn’t be accomplished in my case with practice only. Absent thousands of dollars to get feedback from a private coach( who wants to help old people anyway), hours of visualization along with practice was my only ticket to improvement. The key checkpoints that JY laid out over the years for all the strokes enabled me to not get bogged down in all of the different archive stroke styles when relearning. In addition, the advantage of visualizing so many styles helped me develop a memory bank of styles that I was able to exploit when playing an opponent or use when helping a player develop their own style.

[johnyandell]

Great (unpaid) testimony!

[don_budge]

This is not a paid response for tennis player.net(LOL), but my two cents on the power of visualization. Decades of teaching others did not translate like I thought it would toward changing and improving my own game. Without tennisplayer stroke archives and supporting articles, I would never have been able( at age 58 at the time ) to transfer old school strokes(pre -80’s), to new school strokes. The amount of muscle memory to unlearn and then relearn just couldn’t be accomplished in my case with practice only. Absent thousands of dollars to get feedback from a private coach( who wants to help old people anyway), hours of visualization along with practice was my only ticket to improvement. The key checkpoints that JY laid out over the years for all the strokes enabled me to not get bogged down in all of the different archive stroke styles when relearning. In addition, the advantage of visualizing so many styles helped me develop a memory bank of styles that I was able to exploit when playing an opponent or use when helping a player develop their own style.

Watching the final round of the Master's Golf Tournament from 1981 onwards. I am up to 1987 now. 1986 was an inspiring tournament win for Jack Niclaus as he captured his 20th major. Watching the most beautiful and stable swings of the champions of yesteryear has given me much insight and the visual rhythm and tempo which has equated into the same for my own swing. Yesterday I was pureing all of the irons and wedges up to the 4-iron. Perhaps the best practice ball striking I have ever experienced. I believe that I have hypnotised myself into an excellent tempo which is so key to the backswing. Watching how the shoulders control the tempo without the hands interfering but only doing their part is a key aspect of any swing.

J011yroger could prosper by watching the service motion of John McEnroe as he takes the slow methodical dip into his backswing and ever so smoothly takes his racquet into the splendid arc of his backswing. I recommend the 1984 and before motion.

[klacr]

The best matches I ever played I remembered specifically visualizing not just perfect stroke mechanics from a Krajicek serve, a Tommy Haas Backhand, or an Edberg volley, but also the kinesthetic feeling of hitting a clean and effortless ball and with minimal effort, letting my racquet head guide through the ball and reach the other side of the court tracing the path of the ball.

In terms of on-court demeanor, I always imagined Borg. Stone cold killer. Never knew what he was thinking or if anything bothered him. Opponents spent their energy wondering more about what he wasn't doing than anything else. Absolute Ice King.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Delray Beach
SETS Consulting

[nickw]

I'm a firm believer too, great to read experiences of others. The stand-out one for me was not so much using the visualisation for playing great tennis with great technique, but for preparing mentally for an important club match that was going to attract quite a few interested and noisy spectators. I imagined the environment, every detail from the people watching to the forecast weather that day, and most importantly as I visualised playing, I added in a sense of complete calm in this environment, and sure enough on the day itself, I felt a stronger sense of calm than I'm sure I would have if I hadn't done the visualising, and I played great.

My students sometimes doubt when I tell them that the brain is unable to distinguish between visualised groundstrokes/feelings ect and real ones, which is why it works so well. I tell them to think about how the most ridiculous dreams seem totally real at the time, along with emotions like fear, and point to that as proof. I don't know if it is or not, but it tends to convince them!