Tennis Mindset to Overcome the Fear of Losing

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Do you want to stop being so anxious in matches? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Comb. Today I'm going to answer a question from a tennis player who who tends to get very uptight and anxious in the matches and thus doesn't perform as well as he can. You're listening to the Tennis Psychology Podcast.

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Here's a question I received from Brandon. Brandon said, how can I learn to get nerves under control when I play matches? I want to stop being so anxious before matches. I'm a high level 3.5 player who competes well against 4.0 but struggles with the pusher, the no pace ball at 3.5, which is very frustrating. I worry about losing to this type of player. Brandon, thanks for your question about feeling nervous out there. Often this is expectation based. You feel like you play well against the 4.0, meaning that you should wipe the 3.5 off the court. So somewhat it is expectation based about not losing to that particular player. It is very, very frustrating to lose to that pusher. That, that moon baller. Absolutely. And many, many players get caught up in that. So obviously what you're doing isn't working. So you need to find a strategy for dealing with those pushers. And most of the time that strategy is going to be about taking time away from them. I find that a lot of tennis players will take the strategy of just trying to hit it past them. So they tend to hit it harder and harder and then eventually miss. And that's what the pusher is looking for, is for you to get frustrated, hit it harder and harder and then eventually miss. So the nerves that you talk about, it's often about the outcome and worrying about playing or losing to that pusher, you have to decide, well, what's so awful about that for you? Why is that issue of losing to that pusher so annoying or so anxiety provoking for you? And there you're going to find your answer about why you become so nervous. You don't become nervous for nervous sake. It's often about that outcome of losing, but more importantly the aftermath of losing. Why is that so gut wrenching for you? Why is that so scary? Most of the time it's because you have standards for yourself about how to play the game, maybe standards for how your opponents should behave out there. And maybe that's part of that, where it's just unacceptable for you the way they play you. But more importantly, what does that mean to you when you lose to that pusher? It could mean, for example, I'm going to be super frustrated with myself that I was not able to beat that pusher, even though I may be a better player than them. It could be you want to play to your level of ability and no, you can't play to your level of ability when you're tight, worried and you get frustrated out on the court with the pushers. So there's many underlying issues about why that's anxiety provoking for you. But first, like I said, start with a strategy or a different strategy to take time away from that particular player. Player. In other words, be able to work on coming in and hitting that volley in the air and taking time away from that or finishing the point at the net. I remember my daughter, when she played in the USTA here in Florida, she struggled mightily with that type of player. Even though she had superior strokes, was more consistent. What had often happened is she got frustrated with that player, started to hit the ball harder and harder. However, she learned that when she finished the point at the net or she came in for a swinging volley and she learned to take that shot away from her opponent and force them into actually giving her like a short ball. Then she realized she could play those pushers much, much better. But it takes players a long time to develop a strategy that works for them. If you don't have a swinging volley or if you can't finish the point at the net, it becomes much more difficult. Next, stop focusing on the outcome of the match and what it's going to mean for you to lose or to win that match. Because that's where the tension and the anxiety is embedded. As I talked about before, play at one game, one point at a time, and try not to get ahead of yourself. Third, you have to deal with the frustration and be able to manage the frustration knowing that you're going to play a pusher, they're going to get a lot of balls back to you and you may get upset with them and being able to mentally Prepare for playing 10, 20, 30 shot points and just have that mindset that I'm going to grind it out and I'm going to be able to hang in there longer than they are. So sometimes that strategy will work or that mindset will work as well because you know you're going to outlast them with your superior strokes. All right, thanks for the question. If you want help with your mental game, jump over to sportspsychologytennis.com our tennis website where you can get videos, articles, and more podcasts. You can also subscribe to the Tennis Psychology Podcast at itunes and we're also on Spotify as well. All right, thanks for your question and good luck with your game.

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