How to Not Let a Critical Point Derail the Match

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 lose one critical point in the match and then all of a sudden lose confidence for the rest of the match? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn, a mental performance coach at Peak Performance Sports. In this video, I'm going to answer a question from a tennis player who after one critical point tends to lose confidence in his ability for the rest of the match. You're listening to the Tennis Psychology Podcast.

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Here's the question I received from Henry. Most times when I lose a critical point, I lose all rhythm and feel for the ball. I will lose all confidence and ability to play at a high level. I'll usually drop several games in a row and eventually lose the match. I have tried many different things to overcome this. I am hoping to find guidance to improve my mental game. Henry, thanks for the question. So my understanding is you lose all feel and rhythm after you've lost that critical point. The problem here is that that one critical point causes you to change your mindset. Now all of a sudden there's something wrong with your strokes, and now that there's something wrong with your strokes, you feel like that you can't play. The other challenge I want to introduce is this idea of an overgeneralization. If this has happened to you in the past, then you have an overgeneralization that it's going to continue to happen over and over again. And maybe it's only happened a couple of times for you in the match. So we want to be careful of having those overgeneralizations and, and thus talking yourself into thinking that it's not going to be a good day on the court for you. Now, why would you lose all rhythm and feel and confidence after losing one critical point? Well, obviously the results of that one critical point. For example, maybe it's add in, add out. Maybe it could be a match point. That one critical point is allowing to dictate your confidence. The results are allowing to dictate your confidence. So the question I need you to ask yourself is, have my strokes really changed? Have my skills really changed? Is the game really different all of a sudden because I lost one critical point? And the answer is no, it's the same size Court, same size ball, same racket, you're the same skilled athlete. When you started that match, the only thing that's changed is you've convinced yourself that you can't win that critical point and because of that, you've lost confidence in your game. So the key here to get it back on track for you is, is number one, to have stable confidence. Stable confidence is based upon years and years of practice and play. It's not based upon one game or even one point for that matter. To have that stable confidence, you have to understand that your skills are your skills. When you step on the court, they're not going to change. Just because you missed a couple of shots or you lost a critical point doesn't mean that your skills have changed. So that's the idea of having stable confidence and in your game. Now, as far as your rhythm and feel, I think that's a confidence issue. So I believe if you can maintain confidence, your rhythm and your feel is going to be good as well there. But however, what I'd like you to do is I'd like you to think about seeing the ball where you want to hit it deep, high margin, over the net and deep in the court and just get a little bit of that feel back without trying to pound the ball or without trying to over hit the ball. A lot of players, they'll start trying harder, they'll start forcing things, they'll try to be more perfect and that's obviously not the way to go because now you're tightening up and you're trying to paint the line and you don't want to be in that mindset, that over aggressive mindset. And I've seen that many, many times in junior matches, for example, where someone loses a close first set tiebreaker and then they come out and they try to hit it harder and harder and harder and paint the lines. And obviously they're playing above their head and, and over their ability. They're not playing within themselves. So you want to stay within yourself, but you want to get a little rhythm back by seeing a good shot that you want to see deep in the court, high margin and obviously you're not going for the lines in this case, try to get a little bit of rhythm and feel back before you go ahead and start swinging out hard on the ball again. But keep in mind, score is a result outcome. If you're focused solely on I lost that first set, in that first set tiebreaker, then you're focus more on the outcome rather than the process of playing. You have to reset on that second set and go out there and pretend that that's the first set of the match for you. And play your game and continue to trust in your strokes and don't change anything. Nothing needs fixing. Your strokes are your strokes. All I want you to do is change your tactics a little bit and see a better ball in your mind. All right, thanks for your question. Hey, if you want more information about mental training or mental coaching for tennis players, jump over to peaksports.com and check out our coaching programs. Or if you're interested in more podcasts, videos and articles, you can go to sportspsychologytennis.com as well. Thanks for listening.

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