Overcoming Expectations of Who You Should Beat

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You find yourself struggling with the mental game when you have to play an opponent that's younger than you or or maybe that doesn't have the UTR or rank that you have. Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn. Today I'm answering a question from Nathan, who struggles with his emotions and his game when he's playing younger opponents.

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Here's what Nathan had to My problem in matches is playing an opponent younger than I am. I'm afraid to lose to this kid. I get really frustrated every point when I make mistakes. My tennis and practice and matches are very different. For example, when I go to the tennis court, I get scared. When I get these easy shots or short balls, I miss the easiest of shots. How can I play better when I know I should win these matches against younger players? Nathan, thanks for the question. And I want to assure you that this is a super common issue or challenge that I find with many junior tennis players is they intimidate themselves when they're playing someone who they think they should beat. So your question is really all about your expectations about beating certain players. What that means is maybe you look and see, well, geez, you know, they're in the 14s still and I'm in the 16s and I should win. This player's playing up and oh, it would be really awful if I lost to this player. So there is a fear of embarrassment about that. There is a fear of not playing up to your expectations, like I should win this match. That is really undermining your ability to swing freely out there and play freely. So I tell all my students, look, if you label the person across the net, the person as having a lower utr, a lower ranking, a lower seating, they're younger than you. Then all of a sudden now you're putting yourself in a position that says, well, I'm supposed to win this match on paper because I have a much higher state ranking than that opponent, or I'm two years older than that opponent. So that's where all your tension is coming from. And then thus, now you're worrying about the outcome of the match and oh, it would be really awful if I lost to this kid. So what you need to do in this case is stop labeling the quality of the player across the net. And this goes for better players, players at your same level players, players that are younger that don't have the same ranking as you. It doesn't matter because it's all the same. Which means that it's another match. You have an opponent across the net. You're trying to find your opponent's weaknesses and you're trying to pick on your opponent's weaknesses so that you can win points. That's what it comes down to. So with that said, I call it nameless, rankless and UTR less. I've talked about this in other video podcast is when you walk on the court, it's just another opponent. What's the most important thing about your opponent? Is it his or her ranking? His or her utr, his or her past history? No, not at all. The most important is what are my tactics for this match? What am I going to pick on for this player where it's going to help me win points? So the most important thing doesn't matter if it's a younger player, older player, higher ranked, lower rank is how am I going to grind out one point at a time and win points? Stop labeling that player across the net because it's only serving to intimidate you and create undue or unwanted expectations. Hope that helps. Good luck with your game. If you want more tips, articles, strategies and watch some of my videos, jump over to sportspsychologytennis.com and you'll find them all there.

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