Emotional Control on The Tennis Court

Welcome to the Tennis Psychology Podcast with your host, Dr. Patrick Cohn. Dr. Cohn is a Mental Game of Tennis expert. Do you want to improve your mental toughness for tennis? Then join us on the Tennis Psychology Podcast sessions with Doc.

Hi. Are you a young junior tennis player that tends to lose emotional control on the tennis court when you make mistakes? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn with Peak Performance Sports. Today I'm going to talk about how to help this tennis player let go of bad shots. You're watching sessions with Doc.

Improve your mental game quickly by visiting sportspsychologytennis.com today and claim a free tennis psychology report titled 6 Unforced Mental Game Errors Tennis Players Make Between Points.

Here's what Sean had to hello, I'm 13 years old and an elite tennis player but struggle with my emotions on the court. I get angry quickly when I miss balls into the net or long. How can I get better with my mental game and improve this aspect? Sean, this is another common question that I get with tennis players quite a bit. And also parents want to write in and talk about how their kids tend to lose emotion control and start getting upset, crying or showing outbursts on the tennis court. Okay, so the first thing that you have to understand about this is is that it's not necessarily the mistake that's causing the frustration. I know to you it feels that way that when you miss a ball into the net or halfway up the net, you're like, oh God, that's unacceptable. That's awful. It's really, really how you react to that mistake that ultimately is going to change your emotion after that. So think of the mistake. Hitting a ball into the net or hitting it long as just the trigger. It's just a fact. The fact that you hit the ball into the net doesn't mean you have to be upset with yourself. Alright, given that, then what's creating the frustration? Ultimately, the frustration is created by how you think about that mistake. And let me revert back and talk a little bit about expectations. Often it's based in your own expectations about what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable on the tennis court. What that means is if you hit a ball into the net, maybe it's a short ball or maybe the ball sitting up, just a, just a routine forehand. In your mind you're going, well, I should never hit that ball into the net. You have these specific expectations about your performance and that's part of the reaction that is your undoing. So it's really the trigger of hitting into the net really just starts the ball rolling and you thinking about how unacceptable that is. So there's two areas that you have to do to improve this. Obviously, it has to deal with your reaction. First of all, you have to keep those expectations in check. Knowing that you're not perfect, you're going to miss shots. Everybody has unforced errors, even Roger Federer, Nadal, they make unforced errors during a match and you have to be able to be okay with that. Secondly, you have to start to change your reaction to that unforced error. How do you change your reaction? Well, first you have to look at what is the expectation, what's the belief, what's the negative reaction that's causing me to be frustrated? That's unacceptable. So I want you to change that reaction to I'm not perfect, I'm human, I'm going to miss shots and that's okay. Hey, thanks for the question. If you want some more tips about how to improve your mind game in tennis, visit my website@sportspsychologytennis.com where you can watch more videos, get lots of articles and and also sign up for a free tennis report to improve your mindset between points. Thanks.

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