How to Let Go of Comfort Zones in Tennis

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Do you ever find yourself cruising along in a match in the second set or third set, you're in command and controlling your opponent, and then all of a sudden, boom, something happens and you lose the match? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn. Today I'm going to respond to a question from Sebastian, who said he was recently playing a third set, was in command, and eventually lost the match.

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Here's what he had to say. Yesterday I was up 40 in the third set and was controlling my opponent, and then something just happened, lost my focus and lost the match. And the third set, 4 6. Well, Sebastian, you're not alone. I see a lot of junior players that tend to tighten up when they get in the lead. They maybe split sets and now they're playing a third set, they might be well in command, up maybe 5241 or 40 like you, and then all of a sudden, boom, something happens. Well, what happened? Certainly you lost your focus, but most of the time this issue is around comfort zones. Comfort zones prevent you from stepping outside and continuing to play your game. When you're in the lead and you're in command of the match, typically what will happen is you go into protect mode, you start to play safe, you worry about missing, and you wait for your opponent to miss. So it looks like maybe it's a semi push or maybe you hit it more down the middle. Essentially, you stop playing the game that got you to 40 in the third set, whatever game that was, maybe going to the net, playing more aggressively, trying to hit winners, going for every ball. So the problem is protecting, sitting on the lead and just hoping that your opponent gives in. As soon as you do that, your opponent senses that something's going on, that you're playing more tight, you're playing more cautiously or safe, and your opponent is going to get energy, is going to get confidence and gets the momentum going. Now, a lot of times when they get the momentum going and they rip off four games in a row, now you're going, oh, what's going on? And you're reeling. You might get frustrated, you might get upset with your game and. And that could lead to other challenges, obviously. But the key when you get up 40 in the third set, you need to keep your pedal to the metal, as we say. What does that mean? You need to continue to play aggressive tennis. You need to continue to go for your shots. You need to continue to go for winners like you were going for, which got you into 4 0. You need to continue to go for your serves, continue to focus on your tactics and your strategy and play all out. My recommendation is try to close out the match as quickly as you can without over hitting, obviously, but go ahead and close out the points. Close out the match one point at a time. Don't think ahead about what it means if you're going to win the match, because that's part of it as well. Too much outcome thinking. Hey, thanks for your question. If you have a question, jump over to sportspsychologytennis.com and contact me there. We read all your questions that come in and we might include it into the podcast as well.

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