Does Your Tennis Player Lose Momentum When In The Lead?

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Do you have a young junior tennis player that seems to play well until he or she gets in the lead and tends to either choke or give up the lead? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Comb. In today's Tennis Psychology Podcast, I'm going to answer a question from a sports parent who says his child tends to lose momentum and confidence when in the lead. Here's the question I received from a sports parent. When my teen junior tennis player is up and ahead in the set, he will at times reach set point in his favor. He'll be up and serving 5:3 in games multiple times and then end up losing the set after losing the momentum. What strategies or tips might you have to help with overcoming this type of situation in a tennis match and maintain the momentum instead until the end of the set or match?

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Well, let's first discuss what are the dynamics behind being up in a set, being up 5, 3 and having the opportunity to close out the set and your athlete doesn't? Oftentimes, I find that athletes start to think ahead about the outcome, about winning the set and or winning the match, and this typically is their first mistake because they start thinking ahead and they start thinking about winning. I've got this in hand. I've got this match in the bag. They tend to protect their lead, they pretend to sit on their lead, they to tend. This comes under what I call a category of a comfort zone. When an athlete is up in a match and they may be out of their comfort zone, maybe they're not expecting to win, for example. They tend to play very protectively, which means they don't want to mess up and they don't want to screw up. They don't want to miss shots, for example, and thus they tend to change their style of play and give their opponent the momentum. As soon as they switch from an offensive style of play to a defensive style of play, the opponent gets a game or two in on your athlete and then they get the momentum all of a sudden. And that can often frustrate athletes who did have the lead and end up giving up the lead. So with that said and done, let's talk about Some mental strategies you can employ if your tennis player tends to get up in a match or in a set and lose it well, the first thing I suggest that you talk about with your athlete is how to continue to play that offensive aggressive style of play rather than slamming on the brakes and playing defensive and trying not to make mistakes. This is the biggest mindset shift that your athlete needs to make. In other words, your athlete needs to stay on offense, stay aggressive, continue to play the style of game that got him into the lead in the first place, and not get complacent and wait for his opponent to start missing shots and winning points that way, one thing you can do is really set some goals around that particular behavior. In other words, what does it look like when you're up in the set and how do you want to continue to use your game? Plan to your strengths and continue to attack your opponent's weaknesses. The other strategy I suggest in this particular situation is to help your athlete set some aggressive goals in this scenario. So you might ask your athlete that if they get up five three that that you want them to finish the point off as quick as they can, for example, or try to continue to trust their strokes and hit out on the ball and not go to a pushy defensive style of play. So it's all about what you want your athlete to do in that situation when your athlete is leading or up in the match, rather than what you want them to avoid. In other words, having the goals to not play so defensive, not push the ball back, not be scared to miss. Those are not really good goals you want to focus your tennis player on. Thanks for the question and good luck with your game.

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