How to Stay Aggressive During Competition

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.

Welcome to session number 67 of the Tennis Psychology Podcast. Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn, and in today's session, I answer a question from a coach about why junior players revert to a different style of play when they enter tournaments compared to what they're taught in practice.

Why do so many junior players revert to a style of play in matches which they know is less effective than the style they've been practicing during coaching sessions?

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In most cases, I see junior players who go out onto the court in matches and end up playing more defensively, more tentatively than than what they do in the practice situation. That's because they're trying not to make mistakes. They're trying not to screw up, they're trying not to lose. It's the old saying, they're going out there to not lose rather than going out there to perform their best or play their best. So most often this comes from, like I mentioned in podcast number 66, it comes from a fear of failure that athletes have where they don't want to disappoint a coach, they don't want to disappoint a parent, or they don't want to disappoint themselves, for example. So they go out there with this mindset of just don't make any mistakes and everything will be okay. Now, in that mindset, you know, your players aren't hitting their full shots most of the time. They start pushing the ball back or they start guiding it in what we call steering their shots, rather than going ahead and just letting it go, thinking about their targets and letting it go. In addition to that, they can also change their style of play in terms of their game plan and what they're doing. They'll be less likely to go to the net, for example, less likely to try and execute a lob or lob an opponent, for example, less likely to want to pass an opponent. They'll be more careful. So the bottom line is they're trying to be more careful. Sometimes perfectionists try to be more perfect, and most often it's athletes that don't want to make mistakes. They go out there and it creates a completely different style of play. Now, in a few cases, this is not the norm. This is more rare. I see players that will go out and be super aggressive, over aggressive and not hitting their normal shots. So now they're hitting a lot of balls out because they're trying to end the point really quickly. And there's different reasons for that. One being maybe they're anxious and they want to get the point over with quickly and they try to go for the winners and then they miss hit. But in any case, the bottom line here, I think, comes down to how you're allowing them to practice. In other words, you want them to do a lot of practice matches, not just the drills. Obviously, that's important for working on the technique and the mechanics. But if you're working with juniors, intermediate to advanced juniors, you certainly want them to do a lot of practice matches. And maybe you set up some type of a round robin where they can get experience playing with different players. And you want to talk to them about this issue and tell them, I'd like you to play the same way you do in the practice situation, in the same way you do in the drills. Hit out on the ball. Trust your stroke. Don't worry about missing. All right, thanks for the question and good luck with your players game. Hey, by the way, don't forget to download my new sports psychology app. It's an iPhone app, but you can also get it on the web at peaksports Us. Or you can search I Peak Coach in itunes. It's a free app where I give you daily mental training and sports psychology tips. It's for athletes, parents and coaches, so visit the website at peaksports Us if you want to learn more about the new app.

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