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Difference between the top 5 and Everyone Else = Their Thinking

23 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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A short YouTube talk (Fortitude 365) recounts a Florida tennis-academy study showing the main difference between top-5 and other top-25 players is their thinking in the 10–15 seconds after each point. Top players use brief positive self-talk (examples given) which reportedly slows heart and breathing rates and conserves energy over a match.

There was a study done in Florida at a tennis academy and what they looked at was what is the difference between those tennis players that are top five in the world versus those that are top 25? Was it their diet? No. Was it their exercise? No. Was it when they started playing the game? No. Was it their coaching? No.
What they actually found was this. The difference between the top five ranked people in the world and the others in the top 25 was their thinking in the 10 to 15 seconds after a point had been scored in tennis.
Those athletes that thought positive things.
Things such as I love this game, there's nowhere else I'd rather be. I may have not got that shot but I'm going to get the next one. Watch this.
Those athletes that thought positive it slowed down their heart rate, slowed down their breathing rate and across the entire competition they were conserving a lot of energy.
They were feeling better about themselves and thus across an entire tennis match in the end they.