Off Court Visualization

John Yandell

In the last two articles in this series we covered how to use on court mental imagery in building high quality technical strokes (Click Here), and how to ritualize your game during match play using a combination of key mental images and between point behaviors (Click Here).

In this article, we will explore how to use off court visualization in developing and improving your technique and your match play results. Seems fully appropriate for our current times, with most clubs and facilities closed.

But these visualization training techniques have been around as long as sports, developed independently by athletes themselves as well as by sports psychologists, coaches, and other students of the game. If you are unable to play actual tennis, it is entirely possible that using these techniques you could actually improve your game by the time you get back on court.

Recently, Texas doctor Archie Dan Smith did a great overview article on the research into off court visualization that showed it could improve your tennis in at least 10 areas, including serving speed and accuracy, focus, decision making and overall points won. (Click Here.)

One prominent researcher in the field, Dr. Richard Suinn, has summarized the research on mental practice this way: "We know for certain mental practice has a powerful effect on performance outcomes." Another analysis of more than 60 individual studies concluded that across a wide range of motor skills, visualization produced measurable improvements.

Surveys of Olympic and other elite athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists have found that 85 to 95 percent incorporate some form of imagery into their training programs. Legendary champions such as golfer Jack Nicklaus, Olympic skier Jean-Claude Killy, bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, decathlon gold medalist Bruce Jenner, and all-time great running back Jim Brown are on record stating the role mental imagery outside of physical practice played in their achievements.

Typically, these athletes reported they pre-visualized before competition, anticipating what could happen and what they wanted to happen. Richard Gonzales, one of the greatest players of all time, had a regular pre-match ritual. In the locker room he would sit with his eyes closed and visualize the patterns and combinations he thought he would need to defeat a particular opponent.

There was no such thing as sports psychology in his day. His intuition and instincts led him to develop this technique on his own.

The Right Images

In tennis, technique is usually a problem for most players at most levels on one or more or all strokes. So if this is true for you, it's questionable that visualizing your current actual strokes will have great benefit. What you need to visualize is yourself executing the sound fundamentals all good strokes share.

For over 20 years now I have been studying world class technique and identifying core fundamentals in all the strokes that apply at all levels and writing about how to develop them. In the Teaching Systems section I have been working through the strokes in detail, discussing confusing and conflicting opinions, then identifying core technical positions and creating teaching progressions based on them. (Click Here.)

I have also summarized all this into a minimum number of elements for all the strokes in the Ultimate Fundamentals section. (Click Here.)

If your strokes have weaknesses, I believe that doing systematic mental imagery work with these sound fundamental positions has a direct benefit. If you can consistently visualize a great turn or finish on your forehand, or the correct upward swing path on the serve etc, this will help you move toward those positions when you go on court.

The idea is to move the physical motion toward the mental model. Once you have clear models, you can do this. The imagery will facilitate direct improvement and also your ability to execute in competition.

How Much?

So how much offcourt visual practice? That varies with the individual. But as a starting point try 3 sessions of 5 minutes a week. Pick one or two or three key images for each stroke. In your mind's eye see yourself swinging and making the key positions.

The simplest way to do this is to just sit down in a comfortable chair and close your eyes in a quiet, or maybe a dark environment. Maybe while also playing music. See how long you can concentrate and how much you enjoy the process and adjust the number of sessions and their length from there.

But you can do this work anywhere. A student once told me that she visualized strokes when taking her afternoon walks - and in meetings with her boss.

Give the images as much detail as you can. See your entire body and your racket. See the brand names on your racket, tennis shoes, tennis clothes, and so forth.

Try visualizing in color if you don't naturally. Add the sound of the ball striking the center of the sweet spot. And add the kinesthetic aspect by imagining exactly how the motion feels.

Another variation, especially if you have trouble sitting still, is to get up and swing your racket while simultaneous visualizing your model images. You can swing either super slow or at real speed or both. Do it eyes open and closed. You can also stop at the key positions and adjust the actual swing to the model and refine you images.

When I was first experimenting with visual techniques that's what I did. Swinging through the positions, eye open, eyes closed listening to AC/DC, the Back in Black album. I felt the stroke patterns were literally being absorbed into my body and my mind.

Combos

You can visualize shot combinations as well as basic strokes. See yourself hit a series of forehands, topspin backhands, slice backhands. Gorgeous service placements. Crisp decisive winning volleys. Heavily under spinning unreturnable drop shots.

You can visualize patterns of play that are typical of the kinds of points you play or would like to play. Visualize yourself working an opponent off the court crosscourt with your forehand and then hitting a forehand winner down the line. Visualize dominating with inside forehands.

Put points together. A serve, a forcing forehand on the return, and a winner into the open court. A serve followed by a winning first volley. A return of serve followed by a forcing groundstroke or a passing shot. Feel all this as if it were really happening on the court. If you really believe that it will happen it will happen.

Video

Another technique in off court visual training is to use video images. That's what the Music Videos section on Tennisplayer is all about. (Click Here.) There are over 3 dozen music videos, spanning 3 generations of the world's top players from John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl, to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Some of the music videos are focused on specific players, some on specific strokes. I've down several focusing on Federer, and embedded probably my favorite one here! As you watch visualize yourself hitting the same shots!

The music videos are also a resource for developing timing, rhythm, and inspiration. Many top players including McEnroe, Lendl, and Chris Evert have reported the benefits of practicing to music and even singing songs to themselves during matches.

One of the mentally toughest singles players on the girls' high school team I coached in San Francisco sang to herself during matches. I rarely saw her choke or miss an easy ball.

She attributed this to the effect of her internal music on her play. A rock music fan, Megan changed her chosen song frequently to suit her current passion in music or her mood on a given day. I saw her nervous just once before a match--when she was having difficulty finding a new song.

Stroke Archives

And then there are the Stroke Archives. Both in super slow motion (Click Here) and in real time (Click Here.) Thousands of clips of the world's best players. You can pick a player and/or a stroke, or multiples of either.

You can visual yourself hitting the same shot you are watching. You can download the clip or clips to your computer. One of the things I like to do is download the clip then set the clip on loop in the player.

I like this with the real time clips especially. Now the clip repeats over and over. Try visualizing along for 5 or 10 repetitions.

Then go to another stroke. There are also a lot of real time point sequences where you can do the same. You can repeat the process every time you sit down at the computer.

Testimony

In my high school coaching years, one year our girls' high school team was considered the underdog in a league championship match, having lost to the other team in the regular season. But, since I was pretty familiar the players on both teams, I thought we could win. So for both the singles players and the doubles teams, I made lists of the patterns I felt they needed to play.

Number one singles was probably going to be our only real chance in the 4 singles matches. And honestly if these two players met 10 times, the player from the other team would probably win 8. But we only needed one!

This girl had big groundies and loved to hit winners. Players usually lost to her by trying to trade high pace baseline shots.

So there were two dimensions to the strategy. Take a little pace off, mix up the rhythm with a few moon balls, and make zero unforced errors from the back.

But this was combined with a second dimension: frequent, intermittent net approaches. The idea was, even if my player lost half or more of the net points early, it would create cumulative pressure on an opponent who had a history of becoming mentally fragile in tough matches in USTA tournament play.

To win the match I felt we needed all 3 doubles. The other teams' coach believed fervently in getting both players to the net in doubles as soon as possible, so these kids were all coming in on both serves and returns. But that was a bluff.

They weren't that great at the net and they counted on opponents making errors overhitting returns and trying passing shots for winners. So the rule was to put every and I meant every return in play at the feet of the server and make her hit at least one low volley if not two or three before trying a pass or a lob--even if the ball seemed easy.

This was combined with very aggressive poaching in the middle. Both on low volleys that popped up or were close to the middle, and especially on the opponent's returns.

The week before the match, I told the players to spend five minutes a day visualizing the patterns and listen to music doing it if they wished. 15 minutes before the match I got all the players together, had them close their eyes and visualize all the patterns a few times.

It worked! We won number one singles and all 3 doubles matches for a 4-3 win and a league championship.

Our number one player mixed her shots and approached the net, forcing the opponent to come up with a lot of passes, but also making a lot of errors. I could feel the mental toll it was taking on her since she believed she was so much better than our player. It was a 2 and a half hour, three-set match, that ended with the other girl drilled a passing shot into the tape on match point. Loved that.

All three doubles teams made successful poach after successful poach and forced volley errors with their consistent, low returns. All of them won in straight sets.

One player described the experience this way: "Before I had even set foot on the court, I had already played the match. As we played, I was hitting the strokes and playing the points just the way I had visualized them."

Personally

When I was competing in Northern California and NTRP tournaments I would use the same techniques myself. If I knew the specific opponent, I'd tailor that to his game.

I've written before about the last tournament I won in the 4.5 division. 7 matches in 9 days, thank you. (Click Here).

After winning the semi-final I went to check out the other semi which was still going on. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

A short guy was hitting nothing but slow pace 30 foot high moonballs--and I mean nothing but 30 foot high moonballs. He was destroying a young junior college player with great technical strokes.

His moonballs weren't that deep, landing a few feet behind the service line. He was daring the other guy to overhit. And he was also making constant annoying comments and a few highly question calls. The other guy was at this point trying to blast winners off every ball, missing almost all of them, and talking to himself about how much he hated tennis.

So that night and again the next day, I visualized the points I planned to play in the final. I knew my opponent couldn't really hurt me, so I imagined just dropping down to the pace of his ball. I made a resolution not to show the slightest disdain for his tactics - I knew that would encourage his belief he could upset me.

Then I imagined hitting deep, high, slow topspin moonballs of my own to his backhand and pushing him deeper and wider. Then the same kind of ball to his forehand. I told myself I was not going to get impatient or make one unforced error.

Then I imagined a few scenarios when, inevitably, his balls started to land even shorter. Without changing pace, I visualized hitting normal groundstrokes deep to the corners, basically running him side to side, going back to the moonballs if he managed to reset.

When I got him wide and/or deep enough, I'd roll a slow, short crosscourt forehand or hit a short sharply angled backhand slice. This opened the court so much I could hit slow paced groundstrokes for winners.

I also visualized getting into the net when I had him ridiculously out of position, then hitting (again slow pace) volleys into the open court that he couldn't cover and also overheads off his lobs, but again in rhythm with the pace of our exchanges. I also imagined hitting drop shots and if he retrieved them, hitting lobs over the top.

It worked. I won the match. But after winning the first set, I started to get impatient and force the pace. I started missing forehands going for winners and choked some volleys.

So I had to reset for the third and went back to the original plan. Not the kind of match I really like to play. Hundreds of balls and 3 hours.

But without that plan and the visual practice I would have probably ended up like the guy in the semi and it would have been extremely unpleasant to lose to this opponent. I really wanted that trophy.

The match was an extreme example of the power of imagery and further increased my faith in the process. Now the question for you is how to apply it creatively to your own game?

That's one of the fun things about this. It's an individual creative process. Like I said above, you could come out of the shelter a better player than when you went in.

One more example. An NFL offensive lineman sat out a year with an injury. Every week during the season, he visualized playing the entire game against that week's opponent. Both he and coaches said he came back and played significantly better the next year.

Maybe that can happen for you. Share some stories in the Forum!