How to Close Out the Match When Up

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.

Do you get up in the match and then somehow blow your lead? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn. In this podcast, I'm going to talk about how you can continue to play well when you're up in the match. You're listening to the Tennis Psychology Podcast.

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Here's the question I received from Alan. Alan said, I'm often winning matches against higher or lower ranked players, but give away the lead and tend to lose. If I'm winning 30 or I'm up 30 early in the second set, I struggle to keep it going and to finish the set off. Alan this is a super common challenge for tennis players, both junior level tennis players and adult tennis players as well. I've seen this many times as a sports parent myself, watching my daughter play. Athletes tend to get protective when they're in the lead. In other words, you don't play the same style of tennis once you get up in the match. So if you win the first set and you go to the second set and you're up three love, what do you think about don't miss, don't hit it out. Don't blow the lead. Especially if it's happened to you in the past where you were up in the match and then ended up blowing the lead. That can play in the back of your mind too, because it's like a broken record or what we call an over generalization. So you got to be very careful about how you change your tactics and how you change your attitude when you go into that second set and you're up in the match. All right, so what's the solution? The bottom line is you're being held back by a comfort zone. You're uncomfortable playing that better player and you're up in the match and you're unsure whether you can close it out. Here's what you need to do. First of all, you have to stay in the moment and play one game, one point at a time and not get ahead of yourself. Secondly, you have to stick to the same tactics that got you in the lead in the first place. In other words, don't hit it down the middle or start dinking it or start pushing the ball. Once you're up in the lead, you got to continue to start going for your shots. And that's the hardest part for tennis players. When they're up in the match, they tend not to continue to go for their shots. They tend to play it more safe, more of a defensive style of play, rather than continuing to close out the points. Third, I want you to think about how quickly you can close out the points. Not radically quickly, but I want you to think about how many shots is it going to take me to close out this point. In other words, if you close it out in five shots, well, maybe you think about closing out in four shots. That keeps you on offense, that keeps you playing aggressively on the tennis court. And, and that's what you need to do. Once you realize I'm up, the first thing is don't judge that you're up, right? It's that judging that, oh, I'm up in the match, this player's higher rank than me, what do I do now? It would be awesome for me to win. So that's the part about staying in the moment. Don't get ahead of yourself and think, well, I can beat this higher ranked player and how's that going to affect my UTR or my ranking, for example? And those are some of the thoughts that might go through your mind when you're up in the match. Keep your pedal to the metal. Stay focused on the tactics, the winning tactics that help you get into the lead and continue to swing out on the ball. Trust your shots and go for it. All right, thanks for the question. Hey, if you want help with your mental game, check us out@sportspsychologytennis.com where we have other videos and articles for you to read. And in addition, if you want one on one personal mental coaching, contact us at Peak Performance Sports and our team can help you rocket your mental game.

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