Mental Imagery: Synthesizing the Physical and Mental Games

John Yandell

What should be going through your mind when you are hitting a tennis ball? It's a big question--possibly the big question. Yet it remains unanswered and usually unasked.

Writers such as Allen Fox and Jim Loehr have done brilliant work on the mental game over the last several decades. Their work has defined many of the mental, emotional and even moral and philosophical issues players must deal with in tournament tennis.

They have explored the nature of the competitive experience, the unique aspects of the tennis scoring system, and how to analyze the myriad situations that occur in match play.

They have also created specific strategies for managing the natural challenges of the game. These include how to think about and mentally frame difficult situations and problems.

They also include specific physical and mental rituals for the time between points and games designed to help players stay emotionally positive. (Click Here to see their work in our archives.)

The Critical Mystery

But all of these strategies and techniques don't address what happens during actual play. I once asked Pete Sampras to describe how he produced his running forehand.

His answer? "I don't know, it's just a natural feeling." And for him that is undoubtedly true.

If pressed, most coaches say something like Pete, that it's a matter of "habit" or "reaction" or" instinct," that things happen "automatically."

But that doesn't explain how players make decisions about shot speeds, spins and locations in fractions of seconds. Or how they execute the dynamic physical motions we call tennis strokes with such technical precision.

There is intention in every shot in high level tennis. How are those decisions made and then executed?

That is the mystery. What should you actually be thinking during the moments of actual play when you are reacting to and striking the tennis ball? It might be the single most important question in making use of your skills and accumulated knowledge as a player.

I believe that elite players can't describe how this happens in words because words have little or nothing to do with how it happens. I believe it happens at the subverbal level, at the level of imagination, imagery, and feeling. For elite players this process is usually partially or completely unconscious.

John McEnroe told me this 30 years ago: "Sometimes I will see a shot flash across my mind just before I hit it." And I have heard that insight echoed by other great players. Andre Agassi put it this way: "You have visions of what you are going to do before it happens."

So how can players at other levels learn to play in this same way? Billie Jean King told me that she noticed that she was also having this type of spontaneous visual experience. She then turned this experience into a conscious, disciplined process and ritualized virtually every shot she hit through mental imagery.

The Way We Learn

I believe that any player at any level can do the same. Research shows that when it comes to sports the vast majority of people are visual and kinesthetic learners.

Paradoxically, the overwhelming majority of the instruction they receive is verbal. This is why the traditional lesson process is so laborious and often so ineffective. (For more on the problems with traditional lessons Click Here.)

I believe that the fundamental challenge in improving tennis teaching is to move the emphasis from the verbal world into the world of seeing and feeling. This has been a primary aspect of my work in high speed filming--to capture and present imagery of the elements of world class technique.

In my work analyzing the pro game (Click Here) and in my new teaching method article series (Click Here), we have identified key positions in high level strokes. To give a few examples, the full turn on the forehand, the racket drop on the serve, the hitting arm structures on the two-handed backhand, etc, etc.

We have used pro footage to create images of these positions with specific checkpoints. These positions/images are the building blocks for creating or improving technical motions, and we have seen how that works over the years in the Your Strokes section. (Click Here.)

These same positions are the starting point for understanding the mystery of what to think during points. Players are frequently paralyzed talking to themselves in words about how to hit the ball even when the technical information is good.

Doubt

Another problem is doubt . Every player has had this experience. "I hope I don't miss this easy ball." And then watched that doubt create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The antidote is to learn to think in positive imagery. In the first two editions of my book, Visual Tennis (Click Here), I outlined how this process worked in detail. Now it's time to come back to the topic, and start to incorporate all the we've learned about the motions themselves in over 15 years of study of high speed video.

In this amazing journey we've learned more about technique than has heretofore been possible, as well as what elements in pro technique apply to what players at what levels.

All this enhances the fundamental point and that is that the critical aspect in creating and repairing strokes is learning to visualize the image and the feeling of the stroke building blocks.

I call these combinations of pictures and corresponding feelings kinesthetic images. The image and the sensation are two halves of the same whole. Different players will naturally emphasize the balance between them differently, but to some degree for all players they are a matter of both seeing and feeling.

These kinesthetic images are also the foundation for executing in competition and recreating the same mental experience so many gifted players experience spontaneously.

In my new teaching methodology articles I will be addressing how to identify and experiment with specific key images for all the strokes. But those articles will be based on the same general process.

To execute stroke patterns, particularly under pressure, learn how to visualize a stroke element. You create these elements by experimenting until you find the ones that are effective, what I call active keys.

The key functions like a mental blueprint. On the forehand it might be the image and the corresponding feeling of the left arm stretched on the turn. It might be the image of the hand extending to eye level on the forward swing. Or both, or something else.

In play the eyes focus on the path of the ball. But simultaneously, the mind's eye visualizes the key. Imagine the image of the key and now your body and racket passing through it over the course of the swing. The result is that the physical motion follows the mental blueprint.

One of the fabulous aspects of this process is creativity. Every player experiments for himself and finds the right images for his strokes and shot selections. And then follows his intuition as these keys naturally change and evolve over time.

A key can be a still image of a particular position in the stroke, like the turn, or the extension of the forward swing. It can also be a moving image. For example, the rotation of the hand, arm and racket from the drop to the followthrough on the serve.

The Emotional Dimension

This process also has an intrinsic emotional dimension. The images are not merely technical. Visualizing them should also be a source of positive emotional energy. If you visualize the forehand extension point, for example, you should also imagine the feeling of making a powerful, accurate shot.

Overtime this leads to belief in the shot, something palpable that you feel. The imagery allows you to develop real confidence that you can execute the motion.

Using the imagery in this way is the antidote to choking. When fear and doubt arise, you chose to imagine yourself making the shot. Following the imagery in this way will have a huge impact on your ability to execute under pressure.

Players can ritualize shot key elements in this fashion for every stroke, and even every shot in every point. Or use imagery intermittently for difficult shots or situations.

You can make written charts of your various stroke keys, take them to practice and matches, and refer to them on court. The process of integrating your key images is personal and something that should continuously evolve.

Off Court

Your system of kinesthetic images is the basis for an additional, powerful training component. This is off court visualization. Research has established that mental rehearsal has powerful benefits in all sports.

There are multiple anecdotal stories of how great players in tennis have made off court imagery a regular part of their routines. Pancho Gonzales, arguably one of the toughest competitors in the history of tennis, pre visualized every match he played, including specific shot combinations. In his mind he had already won the match when he went on court.

As I will be detailing in the new method series, every player can incorporate the benefits of off court visualizing in a variety of ways. It can be a regular component of daily training as well as a prematch ritual.

You can set aside regular time on a weekly basis. 5 to 10 minutes is all that is really required to make a real impact. You can also work more informally, whenever you have spare time or a break in your schedule.

For myself, I visualize my current keys for all my strokes driving to the courts or in the parking lot. I then feel ready to key all my strokes precisely from ball one.

This use of visualization away from the court merges seamlessly with stroke development and visualization in match play. Finding out how all the possibilities in this multi level process work in your own mind is what leads to the full integration of your personal kinesthetic images.

Combining the use of kinesthetic imagery with between point rituals gives players the potential to develop a complete approach to the game and every moment and aspect of match play. In time it can even evolve from ritual to the kind of sublime, unconscious process that elite players have described.

Using these combined, interrelated processes has a huge impact on outcome. Players have a better chance of staying in the moment, and resisting the impact of negative events. The focus is on execution and the results take care of themselves.

As Allen Fox has written, roughly half of what happens in a close match is emotionally negative, since the balance of points won by the players is usually close. The player who stays most positive through these inevitable vicissitudes is more often than not the winner, but more importantly the player who enjoys playing competitive tennis the most.