Focus on the Shot You Want to Hit

You're listening to the Tennis Psychology Podcast with Mental Game of tennis expert Dr. Patrick Cohn. Do you want to improve your mindset for tennis? Then join us on the Tennis Psychology Podcast.

Are you the tennis player that tends to worry about double faulting and thus you go ahead and execute that double Fault? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn. In this episode of the Tennis Psychology Podcast, I'm going to talk about how you can get your mind focused on the shot you want to hit rather than fearing the double fall. You're listening to the Tennis Psychology Podcast.

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Here's the question I received from John. John said I don't have confidence in my ability to make serves. I worry about double faulting all the time and thus I'm fearing making the double fault. When I'm playing matches, all I think about on my second serve is don't double fault this game away. How do I overcome this thinking? John, great question about double faulting, and I think you're not the only one that has this issue. So obviously you have two serves to get it in the box, and your first serve probably has way more pace on it than your second serve. Most people will hit more of a kick serve on their second serve. So one of the things that I want you to think about is, can I execute that kick serve or that slice serve or whatever your second serve is? Can I execute that in practice? I'd want you to be able to hit 7 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 in the box when you're practicing by yourself hitting serves. If you can't get there, it's very hard to have confidence. First of all, if you're only hitting 5 out of 10, the confidence isn't there that you can make that serve. But I'm going to assume for now that you can hit 7, 8, 9 out of 10 second serves in your practice in the service box. That means you have the ability to do it. Then what's breaking down? What's breaking down on the court is the fear, the fear of the negative outcome. What happens when you're fearing a negative outcome? It doesn't matter if it's a second serve or it doesn't matter if it's, you know, you have a sitter and you're trying to hit a winner to end the point. Whatever the situation is, it's still the Same if you're focused on don't hit it out, don't miss my serve, don't blow this point with another double fault. What's going to happen to your performance? Well, you're going to get tight, you're going to get tentative. Maybe you have a negative picture in your mind of hitting that serve out or hitting it into the net, which isn't going to help you at all. So what's the solution? What do I recommend here? Beyond the practice part where you can hit 7 or 8 out of 10 in the box, the next step when you're on the court obviously comes down to confidence and trust. That confidence should carry over from your practice. If you can hit 8 out of 10 in the court, what's missing now is the trust and the thought process. So when you step up for that second serve, what is it that you want to execute? The don't, don't miss, don't double fault is absolutely the wrong process because you're thinking too much about the outcome, which creates the anxiety and tension and lack of trust. So what I want you to do is I want you to picture, visualize, feel the ball going in the court, maybe even picture the trajectory of the serve that you want, maybe the target. But I want one positive image as you step up for that second serve. It could simply be feeling solid contact, the memory of that when I hit a solid serve for my second serve, this is what it feels like to me. So one positive image and that's I can, I will. But it doesn't mean that it's going to guarantee that your service is going to go in every single time. However, it's going to give you much greater chance of the serve going in when you're focusing on what you want to execute out there rather than focusing on the miss, because that's what tightens you up and you lose trust in your action. All right, thanks for your question. Good luck with the game. If you want help with your mental game and you want the personal approach, Visit us at sportspsychologytennis.com and click on Contact Us. You can contact my team and I where we help you improve your mental game one on one. Thanks for listening to the Tennis Psychology Podcast.

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