How to Play Your Best When You Have the Lead

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.

Hi, welcome to session number 65. I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn. In today's session, I'll discuss how to play your best when you're in the lead instead of folding and playing defensively when you have the lead in the set.

Many of our matches are lost due to the fact that when we get into the lead, we tend to lose later in the set. How do you play well with the lead?

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One of the challenges for many players is when they get a big lead on their opponent, they tend to protect or sit on the lead. It's really based upon the notion of a comfort zone and where you think you should be during the match. If you're in the lead, it's very easy to get protective, play defensive style tennis as opposed to continuing to play offensive or aggressive tennis. So that's the basis of why I think players sit on the lead. And I've seen it in junior tennis as well, where a player might be up 5 love and starts to play defensive, protective gives all the momentum to the opponent and then the opponent can come back and win 7 5. So I've actually witnessed this happen and it is a big problem for players. I think at any level, whether you're a recreational player, whether you're a junior player, collegiate player, it's very difficult for some players to hang on to that lead. And that's where really the problem starts, is you don't want to think about hanging on to the lead, you don't want to protect the lead, you don't want to play more of a defensive style of tennis rather than what got you in the lead. So you have to think, how did I get in the lead? What style of game was I playing that helped me get in the lead? Then you have to continue to play that same style of tennis, that aggressive tennis, to be able to close out the match. I think the first problem begins in this scenario is because you all of a sudden start thinking about score. Oh, I'm up four love or I'm up five two. Oh, this is going to be easy. So you can get complacent as well. So that's really where it starts to break down is you're not playing one point at a time. You're playing, oh, well, I've got the lead. I'm up 4, 2, or I'm up 5, 2. All I have to do is win one more game. Let's not blow it. So really, you don't want to think so much about score and where you are in terms of the match, but instead, play one point at a time, one shot at a time, and do your best that you can playing that same style of tennis that got you into the lead. So, bottom line here is you have to continue to stay aggressive. You have to continue to hit out on your shots instead of starting to push the ball back or starting to just stay on the baseline and rally from the baseline, waiting for your opponent to make a mistake. Sometimes that will work in your favor, and it may work out, but most of the times you'll give your opponent. Like I said, you give your opponent momentum and then they get confidence and they can start to come back on you, and that can cause you to become frustrated as well. I've got this big lead now. I've just lost the lead. And so now you're in a state of frustration because you thought you had it in the bag. So there's a lot that goes into this. But the bottom line is stay aggressive, don't protect that lead, continue to hit out on your shots, and don't push the ball. Thanks for the question, and good luck with your game.

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