How To Improve Tennis Focus

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.

Do you coach a sport but also compete? And when you go to competition you feel a little bit out of place? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn and in this video I'm going to talk about how you can feel like you belong with when you go and compete. You're watching sessions with Doc.

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So here's the question that I received from Rick. He said, I'm a tennis coach and I also compete in local and national tournaments occasionally, but most of the time when I start the match, I play timid tennis. I feel strange. If I don't belong on the court, how can I learn to be more mentally tough and feel like I should be there? Well, Rick, the first question that I would want to ask you is what happens when you play timid tennis? Because that's different for different people. In other words, are you afraid of unforced errors? Are you afraid of making mistakes? Are you afraid of double faulting? Do you focus on all the negatives on the don'ts and what not to do? Or do you just not play your normal game? You just hit it down the center of the court, you know, hoping that your opponent is going to miss and you don't really go for your approach shots or you don't go to the net when you have the opportunity to go to the net. So is it more of a mindset change for you or is it more of the tactics? And I'm going to, just for the sake of this video, I'm going to assume it's a little of each that number one, you're changing your tactics, you're playing a little bit more safe and then also timid. To me, timid tennis means you're afraid to make mistakes and hit out on the ball. Now, as far as going out and feeling strange, part of that may be because you're more comfortable in the coaching position. Now, you said you only compete occasionally, so part of that may be the issue. In other words, if you're only competing three times a year, you're going to feel like a fish out of water. So one of the answers is maybe you need to compete a little bit more on the local level. So you feel more comfortable when you go into those national tournaments. And that's always a problem for instructors and coaches is they're always working hard with their students and their athletes and, and it's hard for you to carve out time for yourself to go and do those things. So that may be part of it too. The other part is you have to ask yourself before you step on the court and say, did I pay my entry fee? Well, I guess you did if you're there. Secondly, then, do I deserve to be here? Yes. Did you qualify for that national tournament based on your ranking? Yes. Then you deserve to be there. So you have to convince yourself, you have to find ways to convince yourself that you belong there. You deserve to play at that level, especially if you qualified for that. Now the other part of that is playing timid tennis. You know what I'm going to say? I'm going to say go out there with your tactics and play aggressive tennis. In other words, make it your goal or make it your small objective to go out there and play aggressive tennis. Because you know your tendency is to play timidly. So basically you want to fight that with tactics, mental tactics, such as, okay, what are you going to do to play more aggressive tennis? Hey, when I have a short ball, I'm going for it. I'm going for the kill, I'm going for the put away. Or hey, when I get drawn up to the net, I'm not going to retreat. I'm going to go and I'm going to go up there and I'm going to volley. And you know what, I'm not going to just hit in this blooper on my second serve. I'm going to go for my second serve. So you have to define what aggressive tennis is. You have to see yourself playing more aggressively through your visualization. Your pre match visualization set that up in your mind. But when you step out on that court, you absolutely have to know that you belong there. You deserve to be there just like any other player in the tournament. Regardless of you only play in a few of these things. Thanks for your question. Good luck with your game.

Thanks for listening to the Tennis psychology podcast with Dr. Patrick Cohn. Discover the secrets to superior tennis confidence. Visit www.sportspsychologytennis.com for practical mental strategies to improve your mental game of tennis.