Do You Play Down to Weaker Tennis Players?

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Do you struggle mentally when you're in matches playing against other tennis players who you think you should beat or that you're a better player and you feel like you're expected to beat them? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn, and in today's session I answer a question from a tennis player who has trouble performing his best when playing against opponents who are not as strong as him.

Darko, a tennis player has the following question for you. Dr. Cohn. I struggle with playing against players that are not as good as me in many aspects. I have a fear of getting embarrassed and what others will say if I lose to them. I get too nervous and underperform. But when I'm playing against solid players, I perform 10 times better. How do I play well when I'm the better player?

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Hi Darko. This is a common problem that I see a lot in junior tennis. Now, I don't know what level of tennis that you're playing. I assume you're an amateur player. But often in junior tennis, if players go in and they feel like they're expected to win, that they're either seeded higher or they're ranked higher, or they've been beat someone previously in a previous match, then they have a lot of expectations placed upon their shoulders about winning the match. And this is what it sounds like to you, a little bit with a little twist, certainly of the fear of getting embarrassed and worrying about what others will say if you lose. And this will lead to a nervousness on your part, attention on your part, a cautiousness on your tactics, and eventually underperforming. It's interesting that you say when you play solid players or good players, you perform 10 times better. So there's another factor going on here as well, and that is maybe you raise to the level of your competition that is your game. Likewise, maybe when you're playing players who aren't as strong as you, you lower yourself to the level of competition. So there could be two factors going on here. One is the expectations that you feel about beating players that you think you should beat. And then the other factor is you just playing up to or down to the level of your opposition. So to answer your specific question, how. How do you play well when you're the better player against players that aren't as strong as you? Well, first of all, you have to let go of this. Worry about embarrassing yourself and what others are going to say if you lose. That, to me, is ultimately what causes you to play tight and scared and underperform. That's pretty complicated, but I've talked about that concept quite a bit in some of the past tennis Psychology podcasts, and you might want to go and review the last few that I've done. In any event, that's the first step. Let go of this fear of embarrassment. The second step is to go out there and say, what do I need to do to perform my absolute best on each and every point? What are the things that I need to focus on to perform my best on each and every point? That's a better way of performing, rather than having this cloud and this fear of embarrassment over your head while you're playing and then get nervous and tight and not play your normal game. So focus on what you want to do during the points, either your tactics, your footwork, your preparation, whatever it may be. That's where you want to put your attention, not on the outcome of winning or losing it and worrying about what others are going to say if you lose to a player who's not as good as you. Thanks for the question and good luck with your game.

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