Overcome Frustration and Distractions in Tennis

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Hi. This is Dr. Patrick Cohn with another episode of the Tennis Psychology Podcast. Today I have a special guest on the show. His name is Ian Westerman. He's a USPTA Certified teaching professional and he's also the host of the Essential Tennis Podcast, where He enjoys number one on iTunes right now, which is really great. So it's one of the most popular podcasts out there. I encourage you to go and subscribe and check out. He's got all sorts of experts on the mental game, the physical game, equipment, strategy, everything you can imagine. And you can also check it out at his website@every essentialtennis.com Ian, thanks for joining me today.

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Hey, Dr. Cohn, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be back on your show again and really looking forward to answering some more questions from your audience.

How can I avoid frustration from external factors affecting my performance, such as the wind, sun, poor night lighting, or unusual sounds nearby? Now, I do want to point out this is an interesting question because it's really got two parts, and the first part is how do I not let these external distractions bother me? But then it sounds like that she's also getting frustrated that she's letting these external factors bother her. In other words, she knows that they affect her and it's frustrating her that she can't deal with it. So let's just talk about that first issue of how can she deal with some of the what I would call external distractions affecting her performance, like the wind and the sun and poor lighting?

Sure, we've all been there as tennis players. We've all dealt with those kind of external distractions, and some of them are more legitimate than others. Very often, you know, the sun really can be right there, you know, on your service toss or on the overhead or whatever. So they can definitely be legitimate reasons why it's making things more challenging or difficult for you. But I think one of the first things I like to tell my students is just realize that it's the same for everybody. Like it's not just you that's dealing with this. I think a lot of times players tend to get kind of a Woe is me kind of attitude about stuff like this. Maybe there's a noise, you know, some kind of noisy, you know, crowd or something else going on next to the courts, and they get really annoyed and distracted very easily. And they'll come off the court having kind of tanked the match and say, I just. I just couldn't play well. I just couldn't concentrate. There was this, you know, commotion going on inside of the court. Well, both of you are playing on that same court, and whether it's win or sun or other distractions, you know that you can't really use that as a crutch or an excuse. It's. It's the same for both players. So it's kind of like a, well, what are you going to do about it? This other person won under the same conditions. So don't be. What's the word I'm looking for? Don't be a victim. That's it. Don't be a victim. You know about it. And kind of take that mentality. You've got to take that and rise to the challenge and rise to the occasion. And that's probably the number one thing that I just has a mentality kind of statement that I like to tell.

My students, you know, that. That's a great tip, Ian. And I'm also going to add from another perspective is preparation. Preparation is what's going to really. And being able to cope with those things. So I remember I took my daughter out to vacation in Montana, and just while we're out there, I hooked her up with a. One of the top players out there just to hit with once during the week. And they have indoor courts there, right? So they're never dealing with the wind. They. She pretty much practices all the time. And so we, we met at a court outside and the wind was blowing hard left to right. And the, the other parents, the. The other player's mom said, well, you know, let me. Let me get a reservation to hit inside. And I'm saying, well, why? It's a beautiful day. You know, we play in the wind all the time. And so I think it. I think it upset the player that she had to play. She's not used to playing in the crosswind, you know, a big crosswind, because she's indoor all the time. So if you, if you don't practice in those conditions, if you don't practice in a strong wind, you don't practice serving into the sun, you don't practice in poor lighting conditions, then it is more likely to affect you and I always recommend to players is to prepare in two ways. Number one, practice in every single condition that you're going to find yourself in. You know, whether it's clay or bumpy clay that you have to play on a strong, you know, tailwind or headwind or crosswind, whatever it may be, try to find those scenarios. And then secondly, prepare yourself mentally that if you're going to go into the match and you have the potential for a windy match or the sun's going to be in your eyes when you're serving, just be prepared mentally that that's going to be there for you and have some type of a coping response ready to go for yourself, that you can deal with that. So I think often, you know, people that aren't prepared, don't practice in these situations and aren't prepared mentally to perform in those situations are the ones that are going to be most affected. What do you think, Ian?

Yeah, you're totally preaching to the choir on that, especially the, you know, put yourself in those situations. Back when I was teaching full time at my most recent club in Maryland, there was, you know, a very kind of clean cut indoor and outdoor season. And it was the same kind of effect that what you were talking about. The, our ladies teams. We had seven different ladies teams that we coached myself and the other pros, you know, and we would come outside for the first time from the indoor season and, you know, it was to be expected. It's a transition, you know, it takes a little bit of time to get used to it. But we would come out for the first practice getting ready for their competitive season. And the complaining, oh my gosh. And it drove me crazy, you know, these ladies would be, oh, it's so windy and the sun is just in the wrong spot. And we would every year have so many requests to move the practices indoors and. And that always just drove me crazy because as you said, it's the exact opposite attitude you should have. You should, you know, kind of revel in the opportunity to be able to toughen yourself up, get used to those elements, and you want to have an attitude of putting yourself in the most challenging practice situation possible so that when it becomes time to actually do it for real and it counts and you want to perform at your best. If you've hid from those tough situations during all of your practice sessions, how in the world can you expect to play well when you not only have those distractions or elements, but you've got the pressure of it being an actual competitive situation on top of that? So Your attitude is going to be even worse when you don't perform the way that you were hoping to. So, yeah, totally preaching to the choir there.

Well, that's some world class advice, Ian. I know you've just finished your doubles domination, I think 2.0, which you gave me a peek of that program, which was just some awesome content and material. What do you have coming up?

Hey, thanks. I appreciate that. I'm working on 3.0, actually, which I hope to be releasing maybe late January or early February 2012. So I'm working on adding more sections to that course. It was definitely a really big success and I was, you know, really happy and kind of humbled to get all the great feedback from people and really looking forward to releasing it again and getting another big group of players through there. I love doubles. It's one of my favorite parts of tennis. So it's a course I really enjoy teaching.

Great. And I know the kids love playing the doubles at the tournaments, so it's Ian Westerman. You can find him at Essential Tennis and be certain to subscribe to his podcast on itunes. It's the Essential Tennis Podcast. Great branding there, Ian. Thanks a lot.

Hey, thanks very much, Dr. Cone. Great to be on your show.

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