How to Play Opponents That Get Into Your Head

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Do you struggle with playing three or four specific opponents and keep losing to them over and over and it gets into your head?

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Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn. Today I'm going to answer a question from Megan. She had this to say about her game. My problem is that I have too much pressure on me when I play three or four specific pitch players because I've lost to them constantly since the past eight years. And it's actually all mental because I've been told that I'm better than them, quicker than them, fitter than them, stronger than them. Others don't understand why I lose to them every time I get too nervous or anxious or just mentally break down in a match against them. I care a lot about beating these players and I really need your help. Megan, thanks for the question. I think this is very common for players to get certain individuals into their head, certain opponents into their head where they feel like they can't perform their best against those opponents. Now I will say before we talk about the mental aspects of this, sometimes you're not going to match up well against specific players. For example, if you play a baseliner that gets everything back and that's just not your game or you struggle with that type of player. That can happen in tennis where you just simply don't match up well. Your style of tennis doesn't match up well with your opponents. What with that said, let's talk about the mental factors that go into this. I think a lot of times when you start losing the players, it can become a self fulfilling prophecy. Well, how does it become a self fulfilling prophecy? Because when you go into that match you tell yourself, well, I've played this player for 8 years now on and off and I always find a way to lose against this player. In my work we call that an overgeneralization. You're generalizing based upon your past experience that I'm simply going to lose. So most likely you, you go into the match with that type of mentality. Starting off the match, well, I'm probably going to lose. So don't give too much effort or whatever I do, I'm going to lose to this particular player. So if you go in with that mindset, then you're done from the beginning. So what you need to do is go into the match with not having any history at all. I know that's hard because you have history with certain opponents out there, but you need to go in there and look at that player as basically nameless, rankless, seedless. In other words, it's just another player across the net. And with that approach now, that allows you to focus more on your strategy and your game plan for playing that particular player. And don't forget, you don't want to go down with the ship and stick with the same losing strategy. In other words, when my daughter played in the junior ranks for 10 years here in Florida, one of the things that she would do is she was a baseliner. She'd sit on the baseline, she'd try to get as many balls back as possible, and then when she couldn't win points, she would continue to do the same and try to hit it by the player. Basically, she tried to hit it stronger and stronger and go for more and more if that approach wasn't working, but she didn't have a plan B where or she didn't have a plan C to go to if her main strategy wasn't working. So keep in mind, if you're playing and it's a losing strategy, it's not working. You have to have the willingness to mix it up against that player. Now, in order to mix up your strategy, then you need to practice other phases of the game, like obviously your net game, obviously short angles moving the player back and forth, getting the player to go north and south instead of just east and west as well. So be willing to change up your strategy. But the biggest part, I think, when it comes to beating players that you've never beaten before is to not put that pressure on yourself that I'm better, I'm faster, I'm stronger, I should be beating these players. That expectation will tighten you up right from the start. Hey, if you want to learn more about improving your mental game for tennis, visit sportspsychologytennis.com There you can read articles, watch videos, and shoot me an email if you have a question. Thanks.

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