Take Your Practice Game to Competition 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. It's actually his second appearance. His name is Joe Dynefer. He's a master professional in both the PTR and uspta, a distinction awarded to only a handful of people in the tennis industry. Joe's also the author of seven books and more than 30 DVDs, and currently he's the owner of On Court. Offcourt.com Joe, thanks for joining me today.

Thank you, Patrick.

I'd like to discuss a very common question that I get from my readers and my listeners. And I'll just read the question to you and we can have a discussion about what's the solution? Because this is at the heart, I think, of mental game coaching. Mike's a tennis player and he says, why can't I play as well in a match as when I practice? In practice, I have all the right ground strokes worked out wonderfully and can execute them over and over. And I assume over and over means pretty consistently. And he goes on to say, when I play in a match, it's like I have no idea of what is wrong with my strokes or how to correct them. How can I play better in matches and use my strokes that I use in practice?

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Obviously, Joe, to me, it's at the heart of the mental game. How would you respond to that?

Well, as you said, this is common, absolutely common question and concern and anxiety and frustration for players all around the world. Two things come to my mind as the main issues here that are involved. The first is that players have to take a look at how they practice. So tennis is what's called an open sport, which means that it's unpredictable. There's total randomness involved. Every ball that a player sees for their entire lives has any combination of the following ingredients. The ball coming over the net to you has various types of speed, various degrees of spin, topspin, backspin, side spin. It has direction as another variable. It has arc, which has to do with the height over the net and the height of the bounce. And it has depth. So you have five different things. And if you picture a combination lock with five numbers, it is so. Or winning the lottery. You know, if you've got to pick five numbers, it's next to impossible. And probably average tennis player will never see two balls exactly the same their entire life. So the reason I say this is a lot of people when they practice, they will either be hitting on a backboard or a ball machine or it will be in a tennis lesson where the tennis pro or coach is feeding balls to them, or they'll do cross court drills and they're able to get rhythm and get grooved into what they're doing. But it is not realistic to what happens in a match since the match is going to be totally unpredictable. And tennis players that play well feel like it's effortless and they're in rhythm. And then in a match where they're not in rhythm, it's totally different. They feel very awkward. So I think players have to first understand what it's like to practice the way they play and how to cope with changing rhythms. That can be affected not only by the opponent's ball, but it can also be affected whether the opponent is left handed or right handed. It can be affected by whether the temperature that day is colder or warmer because it affects affects the bounce of the ball and also by the wind, location of the sun, factors of fatigue. There are all these things that go into it. So I think if people tap into the, you know, you can correct me if I need correction on this, but onto the left side or logical sequential side of the brain and understand what is going on in practice and what is going on in matches, that they will do better. Now, the second thing, which Patrick, I think is key, and most players think they know what's going on. You know, listening to your question, it was the player said, in practice, I have all the right ground strokes. They work out wonderfully and I can execute them over and over. The insinuation is they know what they're doing, but they were in a match, the player wrote right. They have no idea what's wrong with their strokes. And the reason is most players do not understand what are the basic mistakes in tennis and how to correct them. And if you'd like, I can cover that because that is one of the keys here as well. Would you like me to go through that?

Well, what I really pick up, Joe, and I think you're right, but I really want to focus on this idea that all of a sudden he's in a match and there's something wrong with the strokes and you Might go in the same direction. But for me it sounds like a little bit of tension, a little bit of lack of trust, a little bit of tentativeness, I think can all of a sudden change the dynamic of the stroke. So from a mental game perspective, if you're tight, if you're tense, if you're afraid to miss, if you're tentative, if you're playing safe, now the strokes have changed dynamically. And so he's thinking, well, what's wrong with my strokes? And to me it's not an issue of what's wrong with the strokes, it's what's changing the strokes. Would you agree with that?

I would 100% agree, but I would add that just like people, the top players in the world who have sports psychologists by their side, because it's such an important role in the game, as players get better and they get their basic strokes down, as you and I both know, you ask them what part of their success is the mental component. They'll always say it's almost 100%, because the basic strokes for better players are all in place pretty much. But for the average recreational player, I think that simultaneous to that, they have to understand two things. Number one is that yes, it's natural to tighten up, it's natural for their breathing to shorten, it's natural for their grip tension to increase, which does change the mechanics of the stroke. But let me give you one example, because most players in the heat of the moment, they need some kind of indicators. For example, if they hit their forehands with a certain level of topspin and they're intermediate or above level players and they can recognize what is a normal forehand for them in terms of revolutions per minute, just what it looks like and what it feels like. If all of a sudden they get less rotation, they'll be able to notice that. Because they'll be noticing that on the bounce of the ball, how it impacts their opponent, the speed of the flight of the ball, all that lack of rotation or decreased rotation in the ball represents tension. So I guess my point as more of a technique based coach rather than a sports psychologist would be that both things are there and one can indicate the other. Let me go into your side of the court with your specialty. If someone all of a sudden feels like they're out of breath when they feel, why am I out of breath? I shouldn't be, I'm not running that hard. Well, they may not be breathing deeply or in through their nose and out through their mouth. Right. That would be another indicator. Of tension. So different things are, you know, that player with the topspin forehand, they would be, because they're hitting less spin. When they get tight, their ball, chances are, is going to go long because they're going to decrease the amount of spin, therefore they're going to decrease their amount of control. The ball's not going to drop in as much so. And then obviously they have to go through their checkpoints technique wise, loosen the grip, breathe, don't worry about the outcome, get into that place that some people try to get into that place, some people call the zone, which would allow them to replicate what they know they can do, whether they're shadow swinging or doing it in practice. Does that make sense? I just think it's. I like to take a little bit of a holistic approach. The mental component is essential. Without it, no one's going anywhere. But I think there are some physical and technical indicators that can help them alongside that.

Yeah, very interesting, Joe, that you say you look at what's happening with the stroke and then make the decision, well, there's some additional tension. And then my response, you know, from the mental game side, I would say, how are you feeling? How are you playing? Are you playing aggressively? Are you tentative? Are you afraid of making mistakes? So often I would go off of the report from the athlete of the level of trust that they have in that stroke because to me the real issue is when they go from practice to matches, the trust breaks down. Why does the trust break down? Why? Well, many reasons from a mental game standpoint, right? There's fear of failure, fear of embarrassment. They've got that tension and anxiety. They don't want to miss, so they don't hit out on the ball and thus the strokes feel completely different for them. So from my perspective, I want them to tune into what are you doing differently? Are you holding back in some way? Are you tentative? Are you tight? And it's interesting how you look at, well, if you, the spin rate isn't there, then that's an indication that there's some tension. So you just approach from a different way. You look at more or less what's happening with the performance and have your student want to take a look at, well, that means there's tension. Whereas I rely more on the report, the self report of the athlete, him or herself.

And arguably, I mean, as you were speaking, this is an interesting topic because arguably one would say that the mind is the initiator in everything, right? Because obviously the tension and the indicators that I was referring to, which are More physical or kinesthetic indicators are reflecting what the mind is creating or initiating. So it is very interesting. I think it may be, and I don't know the answer here, and it may vary athlete to athlete, is whether or not it's easier for a certain athlete to identify a ball going long or having less rotation and then backtracking to the tension issue versus the mood or feeling in which they're playing. Are they playing aggressively? Are they falling backwards away from the ball versus stepping in? If that's their style of play, when they're, as you say, trusting themselves. This is what makes it all so interesting, isn't it?

Yes. And I think earlier you said that my takeaway was get away from just doing drills that are too predictable and get into playing practice sets, practice points. That's another important part of being able to take that practice game to competition.

Absolutely. And, you know, building pressure. Like, may I share one drill?

Absolutely.

One of my favorite ones, like, let's say that a player is working on unforced errors, cutting them down. All right. And they're trying to work on their shot tolerance. They're working on hanging in there. So you have two players do either just play a set, or they can do bounce hit drills. I always like including the serves, since the serve is such a key part to the server. And they take. What they do is every time they make an unforced error, they both start with their rackets in the corner of one side of the back fence. And what they do is they move their racket with every unforced error. They both start with their rackets together. Right. And every time player A makes an unforced error, they move their racket to the next fence pole. So it's like you can picture during the course of a set, if one of them makes five unforced errors and the other eight, the player with eight would have moved their racket, eight fence locations. So it's kind of like a little bit of a turtle race going around the court. Obviously, the race of the rackets around the court fence. You do not want to win because you do not want to make more unforced errors. But it brings home one focus issue when they're practicing that can then become a baseline for them in a match. If for that particular player, cutting down on unforced errors is a key issue, which is obviously, that's one of the most common issues there is in tennis.

Yeah, Great drill. I totally believe in that idea of trying to induce that match pressure in practice. I think that's a great idea. I've been talking with Joe Dynefer. He's a master professional in the PTR and USPTA and owner of On Court Off Court. Joe, thanks for helping me answer this question for Mike.

It's a great topic. Thank you, Patrick.

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