Mental Game of Collegiate Tennis

Welcome to session number sixty of The Tennis Psychology Podcast. Dr. Patrick Cohn at Sports Psychology for Tennis, is a mental game of tennis expert and helps tournament players, tennis coaches and parents improve confidence, focus, and composure using sports psychology strategies.

In this week’s tennis psychology session, Dr. Cohn talks to Kathy Toon  from www.coachtoon.com about the mental game of tennis. You’ll learn more how to improve your between point routines. Kathy Toon was the head women’s tennis coach at University of California Berkley where she helped three doubles teams win NCAA championship titles.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #60 (right click and “save as” to your computer)

Subscribe to The Tennis Psychology Podcast via iTunes

*Submit your mental game of tennis question to Dr. Cohn at Peak Performance Sports

*Download a free tennis psychology report to improve your mindset between points

Improve Your Mental Toughness for Tennis Quickly with Dr. Cohn’s new Tennis Confidence CD and Workbook program!

Develop a Game Plan and Prematch Routine

Welcome to session number forty four of The Tennis Psychology Podcast. Dr. Patrick Cohn at Sports Psychology for Tennis, is a mental game of tennis expert and helps tournament players, tennis coaches and parents improve confidence, focus, and composure using sports psychology strategies.

In this week’s tennis psychology session, Dr. Cohn teaches you how to develop a game plan for your matches. Some tennis players don’t have a game plan or go through a prematch routine before they step out on the court. Listen to the podcast to learn how to create a game plan and mentally prepare for your matches.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #44 (right click and “save as” to your computer)

Subscribe to The Tennis Psychology Podcast via iTunes

*Submit your mental game of tennis question to Dr. Cohn at Peak Performance Sports

*Download a free tennis psychology report to improve your mindset between points

Improve Your Mental Toughness for Tennis Quickly with Dr. Cohn’s new Tennis Confidence audio program!

Mental Game of Tennis Tune Up or Overhaul?

Do you need a mental game tune up or complete overhaul? Today, I’ll explain how you know this.

A powerful mental game is critical to your success on the court….

In fact, many of the top players in the world believe that a strong mental game allows their physical talent to prosper:

“Confidence means a lot. It’s a very mental game. So if you’re winning a lot of matches, then things are going smoother on the court.”

~Novak Djovkovic

“I think more than anything, tennis is a mental game. If you tell yourself you’re not tired, lo and behold, you aren’t.”

~Venus Williams

How do you know if you can benefit from a mental game overhaul or just a tune up?

In my opinion, you need to stay on top of your mental game all the time. The sharper your mental game, the more consistent your physical game.

However, some players need more… They need a complete mental game overhaul.

Some signs you need a mental game “overhaul” are when:

• You consistently under perform in matches compared to practice
• Fear of failure has you paralyzed with tension on the court
• Your perfectionism gets in the way of closing out matches
• You worry so much about what others think you can’t focus on
  the court
• You feel terrible about yourself when you lose
• Your strokes are so controlled you miss easy shots
• You’re so frustrated with mistakes that you throw away sets
• You can’t comeback when losing because you lack composure

Truth be told, most tennis players know the mental game is important to their success, but do not understand how to use or apply it.

Until now….

My brand new “Tennis Confidence” audio and workbook program
teaches you, in simple terms, how to apply mental game strategies to your game.

From pregame mental preparation to between point mental routines to post-match mental toughness assessments, you learn my top strategies step-by-step.

************************************************

Only five days left to grab my entire “Tennis Confidence” Audio
and Workbook system for half-off! Special ends May 20 at midnight!

Tennis Confidence Audio and Workbook Program

 ************************************************

If you are in need to complete overhaul or a minor tune up, jump over to peaksports.com and see how my new program can do this:

Tennis Confidence Audio and Workbook Program

Your Tennis Confidence Coach,

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

p.s. Lots of folks are already taking advantage of my special half-off sale, which ends at midnight next Wednesday. Don’t let less talented players beat you anymore… Take action with your mental game today:

Tennis Confidence Audio and Workbook Program

Tennis Mind Game: A Clear Mind for Serving

How many times have you stepped up to the service line without a target or type of serve in your mind? Maybe you were frustrated with your play on the prior point and rushed through your service routine. Or maybe you were too worried about losing the game or set that you forgot to focus on the current serve.

Likewise many players “go through the motions” of the tennis serve without mental focus or intensity. If you do this, you lose a good opportunity to get your mind clear before you serve. When you go through the motions of the serve without mental focus, you skip some very important steps you need to prepare yourself for the serve.

“When I bounce the ball more times because I am not clear of the option to do; serving to the T, serving outside, or serving to the body, I’m not thinking a lot of times. So when I decide, I serve.”
~Rafael Nadal

The mental aspects of the routine as just as critical as the physical steps you take to prepare for a serve such as you set up. Mentally, you have to get clear in your own mind about the plan and type of serve you want to hit. Indecision about the serve you want to hit will undermine your confidence to hit a good serve.

Most good tennis players use a routine to help them prepare and plan for the serve. Your routine should include the basics such as picking a location, a type of serve, and committing to your plan of action. I call this the planning stage of the routine.

Once you are clear of the plan and committed to the plan, it will help you execute your best serve without doubt or hesitation. So take just five seconds to get your mind clear on the plan for each serve.

Tennis Psychology and Your Focus in Matches

Do you have trouble transferring what you learned from one sport to another? One golfer wanted to know how to transfer what he learned about the mental game of golf to tennis. As long as you understand the mental game demands in tennis, the concepts are very similar…

Here’s the new tennis psychology question:

“I came from a golfing background where I felt I had a decent mental game with a preshot routine and focused on the target. I have trouble translating that to tennis. In other words, where should my focus be in a particular situation?”

The concepts I teach in the mental game of golf are very similar to tennis psychology concepts. If you played well focusing on the target in golf, you are most likely a visual learner and performer, which is very common. If you are a visual performer in golf, you like to see images in your mind, such as shots and targets) to help trigger your swing.

You can still use routines between points. In fact, I encourage players to use a routine prior to each point and to help process the last point. I won’t talk about the details of a good pre-serve routine in this article, but I do want to help you with your tennis psychology question….

Your challenge with focus in matches may have to do with focusing on too many details of your technique and not enough on targets, especially if you are taking a lot of instruction in tennis. Most academy players work a ton on their forehand and backhand and very little on playing the game.

I see this with my daughter in tennis. Her coaches’ mentality is you have to learn how to hit the shots properly before you can learn how to play and hit targets, which I don’t buy into. I believe this causes players to focus too much on how to hit shots perfectly and not enough on targets and strategy, which you must also master to play well in matches.

Let me first say that your focus for practice should be different from your focus in matches. In practice, you want to focus on improving your shots and game. In matches, you should focus on strategy and hitting to targets. For example, if you have an open court down the line (during a match), should you focus on how to make a good stroke down the line or focus on hitting a spot down the line?

The answer to this question depends on who you ask…. Tennis coaches might argue you have to focus on the mechanics of a good stroke. My philosophy is that you have to focus on the target and trust in your skills (developed in practice) to hit a good shot.

As for your focus, the less you have to think about the better. You want to have a clear, calm mind, which allows you to react on the court, a similar concept I teach in golf too. If you over think your game or strokes, you don’t have time to react and focus on strategy!

The ABC’s of a Tennis Pre-service Routine

A pre-serve routine can help tennis players improve consistency. A pre-serve routine combines both mental and physical strategies prior to the execution of a task such as a serve or return of serve. The preparatory behaviors of a routine are excellent tools to help you focus on one shot point at a time is extremely useful tool to refocus attention when distracted.

The pre-serve routine is a merging of mental and physical preparatory behaviors that blend into one long behavior, (such as planning and focusing skills) at the same time you physically set up for a motor task, which helps athletes analyze, plan, prepare, and confidently execute motor skills.

Whether you are a recreational or professional player, to get the most out of your serve you must develop a systematic method of mentally and physically preparing yourself. This means using a pre-service routine. All great players have a routine when they approach the service line. A routine may includes physical things like aligning to the target, bouncing a ball and looking at a target. It also includes mental activities like “seeing” and “feeling” the serve you want to hit. The purpose of a routine is to warm-up your muscles and mind for the upcoming serve. It sets your focus for the serve and helps you develop rhythm.

The physical parts of a preserve routine vary from person to person but include some important fundamentals such as:

(1) Warming-up the muscles used in the serve by taking a practice swing or practice ball toss.
(2) Taking your stance and aligning to the target.
(3) Setting the tempo for the shot by bouncing a ball or rocking back and forth.
(4) Visually engaging with a specific target you want to hit to.

To prepare yourself mentally, you want to be confident with your actions, trust your stroke, and focus in the present moment and where you want to hit your serve. Some important elements of the mental part of the routine include:

1. Make a decision about where you want to serve to and the type of serve you want to hit. Be decisive with what you want to do.
2. Program yourself for success by “seeing” in your mind’s eye the flight of the ball with the proper trajectory.
3. Believe in your skills and be your own coach by using positive self-talk like “this is going to the target”.
4. Let you natural swing out. Trust the swing that you have practiced–put yourself on auto pilot and don’t guide your swing.

A routine should be tailored to your style of play and personality. If you are a fast player, then you should adopt a faster routine. If you are a deliberate player and need more time, you should adopt a slower routine. In addition, the mental part of the routine depends on how you learn best. Some players learn and perform better with visual images than others.

Some players are better off rehearsing the shot with the feeling of the movement. If you think primarily in visual images, then you want to program yourself by seeing the ball fly to the target and seeing yourself hitting it to the target. If you think primarily with feeling images (kinesthetic), then you want rehearse the feeling of the swing that will produce the desires outcome. Of course, you can program yourself by both “seeing” and “feeling” the shot if you use both visual and kinesthetic modes.

Dr. Patrick J. Cohn is a master mental game coach who works with athletes of all levels from junior to professional athletes. Visit Peaksports.com to gain access to over 500 exclusive mental game articles, audio programs, and interviews with athletes and coaches to enhance your tennis potential: Online Mental Training for Athletes or call 888-742-7225.