Breaking Down Your
Opponent with Attitude

By Allen Fox, Ph.D.

Anyone who has played tennis for any length of time knows that winning a tough match involves a prolonged and often agonizing mental struggle. The match may last for hours, and to win you must concentrate with intensity from start to finish. That's hard work. And on top of it, you are becoming increasingly hot, tired and physically uncomfortable. Maintaining your resolve under those conditions is no easy task. But to win, you must; because when your resolve dissipates, you are finished. Until then, you always have a chance.

Your opponent across the net, meanwhile, is experiencing the same problems - difficult as that may be for you to perceive in the heat of battle. I always found it hard to picture - when my own body ached with fatigue and the cool drink and shower were looking better than the winner's trophy - that my opponent might be getting ready to fold. Even though I knew intellectually that he must be as tired as I was, my own pain had a certain reality that his could never quite match.

The astute tennis player understands that his who takes steps to nudge the opponent in the right mental direction so that it is he, and not you, who gives in to the physical and emotional pressure of the moment. How can you help him along?

First, keep in mind that a player brings with him to the tennis court all of the components of his psychological makeup from the "real world." By better understanding some of these components, you can learn to use them to help you win tennis matches.

Consider one: a person's attitude about himself - or his "self-image." On or off the tennis court, our self-images are largely determined by feedback and information given to us by other people. Others constantly react to us and, thereby, tell us what they think of us. These "evaluations" are, by and large, transmitted to us without words, and relate to our every ability and trait, both mental and physical. They are noted and weigh heavily in our own evaluations of ourselves. We like to think that we have the strength of character to resist being buffeted emotionally in the stormy seas of other's opinions of us but reality is far from it.

Attitudes of Others

If you don't believe this, picture, for a moment, a horrible experiment that could be done on you by a group of your associates. Suppose they all got together without your knowledge and decided to mentally break you down. To do this they might, whenever you were trying to say something within the group, glance away and appear disinterested. They also might belittle your comments, cut you off as soon as possible and, thereafter, direct all their conversations away from you and only to each other.

How long could you maintain your good self-esteem under these conditions? As strong as you might think you are beforehand, how long would it take them to totally destroy your self-confidence? I'm sure it could be done in less than a day. You would quickly conclude that you had become dull or unattractive or both. You would be hurt and depressed. And if it went on for any length of time, your "self-image" would be deeply affected. In fact, since we are social creatures, we ultimately accept the accumulation of other people's "evaluations" of us (as evidenced by the way they treat us) as reality.

Similarly, on the tennis court, your opponent's self-image as a tennis player will be affected by your attitude toward him. If you fear him, he will feel strong. If you disdain him, he will feel uncertain. If you respect him, he will fell confident. You must be careful, therefore, lest you supply your opponent with psychological ammunition to be used against you. Your objective is to undermine his confidence, not to build it up.

Shaking fists at opponents: boorish, antagonistic, wrong.

First, however, let me qualify this idea with the understanding that a tennis match is not a street-fight. There are definite written and unwritten codes of behavior by which we must abide. But within these codes, it is absolutely legitimate to try to debilitate your opponent in every way you can. You cannot separate the mental and physical aspects of tennis competition. Making your opponent feel emotionally comfortable will make him play better and fight longer, whether you do it by massaging his ego or by feeding him his favorite shots.

An acceptable, yet effective, attitude is one in which you indicate to your opponent that you expect to beat him no matter what he does. Furthermore, you want him to feel that you have no fear of his game or abilities - that you are completely impervious to his finest efforts. In convincing him of these things, the line that you must not cross is the one where you overtly attack him by word or deed. In the years before tennis became an open, high-profile, money sport such breaches were rare. In those days players were sincerely concerned about maintaining the respect and friendship of their fellow competitors. Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, and John McEnroe changed all that, and in my years of coaching the Pepperdine tennis team I often saw young players shaking their fists at opponents, calling them names and behaving boorishly antagonistic. This is not necessary, and, moreover, it is wrong. The goal of weakening an opponent mentally can be achieved with equal effectiveness and more subtlety.

Stan's belief in his invincibility was annoyingly obvious.

Before the open era the great players were very capable of making an opponent feel small, weak and vulnerable without the slightest breach of sportsmanship or ethics. They did it by their attitudes. When you walked on court with the likes of Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Arthur Ashe, John Newcombe or Stan Smith you were significantly intimidated without them appearing to do anything. They did it by the way they carried themselves, in their bearings and in their reactions to your shots. Nothing you ever did seemed to worry them. They looked like they expected to win and your small efforts to the contrary were futile.

Stan Smith was particularly adept, in his playing days, at making opponents feel small and weak. In fact he was even a little annoying, although no one could ever actually pin a bad sportsmanship rap on him. What debilitated his opponent was the fact that Stan (who won Wimbledon in 1972 and the US Open in 1971) had unswerving belief in his own invincibility and his bearing made this belief obvious to his opponent. If you hit a great shot against Stan he never acknowledged it - he didn't look at you, he walked in his normal, erect, purposeful manner and went routinely about his business as if nothing had happened. Stan always gave the impression that he had total control of his little world, you were no part of it, and your efforts to shake him were puny and unworthy of notice. Nothing was said. This is was simply how he appeared, and you, as his opponent, felt like a pigmy.

Steffi took no notice of opponents while dismantling them.

All the great players display some or all of these characteristics. Since they actually do believe that they are going to win their body language and gestures are merely a reflection of this belief - a belief that is palpable and demoralizing to an opponent. Steffi Graf walked quickly and took no notice of an opponent. Pete Sampras walks slowly and, similarly, takes no notice. The lady-like Chris Evert had an unflappable, intimidating, and hard-eyed stare for opponents, and Martina Hingis, when she was on top, walked and flipped her racket around in a cocky, "I'm better than you are", manner. Federer and Nadal rarely react in any way to the loss of a point. They simply go about their business and prepare to win the next point. All the great players do it, and all of them do it in their own way, but their message is the same: "Your best shots have no effect on me and nothing you do lessens my confidence in my ultimate victory."

Whether you feel it or not you can weaken your opponent by behaving in the same manner as the champions. Never let your opponents see your weaknesses. These encourage them, give them hope, and keep them fighting longer. If you are tiring physically, hide it. If you miss and easy shot, do not cry out in anguish. (Your opponents expect you to and it will shake them if you don't.) If you are nervous, don't broadcast it by rushing around, grousing about conditions or telling people about it. I have actually heard players shout, "I am choking!" What a wonderful psychological boost something like this gives an opponent. Everybody chokes. Choke quietly if you must.

No matter what the circumstance or how you feel inside, it is best to appear cool, deliberate and confident. It's the best way to help an opponent fold.