Tennis Parents with High Expectations

Welcome to session number fifty nine 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 answers a question from a sport parent about putting high expectations on young tennis players. Young tennis players feel pressure with they have high expectations for their performance. Listen to this mental game of tennis podcast to learn how keep your parental expectations in check. 

 

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*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #59 (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!

Mental Game of College Tennis

Dr. Patrick Cohn, author of Tennis Confidence: Mental Toughness for Tournament Players, and Stephanie Nickitas, Head Coach of the Women’s Tennis Team at the University of Central Florida, discuss the mental game challenges college tennis players face. Listen to the interview to learn more about improving your mental game of tennis.

Stephanie was a standout player at Florida from 1996-99, earning All-America recognition six times for the Gators. A member of the Gators’ 1996 and 1998 NCAA national championship squads, Nickitas won 128 singles matches during her career and four collegiate Grand Slam titles.

Use the player below to listen to the interview with Stephanie Nickitas and Dr. Cohn:

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To listen to the entire interview with Dr. Cohn and Coach Nickitas or for more interviews on the mental game, visit Peaksports Network:

Peaksports Network Online Mental Training Program

Tennis Podcast: Play Consistent Tennis

Welcome to session number fifty eight 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 play your best tennis with consistency.  Many tennis players don’t perform their best consistently. Listen to this mental game of tennis podcast to learn how to improve your consistency in 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 #58 (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!

Melzer Enjoys the Mental Battle

How do you react when you’re down in a match? Do you try harder, tighten up and try to avoid making mistakes? Do you get frustrated and try to end the point as quick as you can by trying to hit a winner on every shot?. Or do you give up, tank the match, and want the match to be over–fast. If you said yes, you must learn how to comeback after losing a game or set and fight to win the match. Let’s examine a resent example at the French Open…

Jurgen Melzer is one of those players who can mount a comeback. Melzer upset number 3 seed Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the French Open. He was down two sets and 2-0 in the third before he started to change the momentum in the match. Melzer went on to win the match 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4.

When he was down two sets and 2-0 in the third, Melzer commented on how he was able to stay in the match mentally.

“I changed the match. Well, the only thing I told myself, It’s my first quarterfinals in my life in a Grand Slam. Just don’t go away. Just don’t make it easy for him. Fight as much as you can, and I was I wasn’t playing so bad. I just missed a lot of easy shots when I had the chance and the opportunity to finish the point. And after that, I mean, I got back in, and at 2 All in the third it was an open match,” said Melzer.

“Well, at the end, it’s just like getting to another chance and just believing you’re gonna win. I think all those break points I played good points. I came in and won. And then at the end, it’s just a battle. You just I mean, of course we were both tired and everything hurt. I just got through.”

Melzer also believed that he could win the match. When asked what keeps him going, he said,

“That I’m a good tennis player. It was just a few links here and there were missing. As long as you believe in yourself I had enough as I said earlier, I have enough game or I had enough game all the time. I played good matches.

It’s just the more matches you win on a high level, the more confidence you get. For me, it was never a question of talent. It was more in the head.”

Do you lose confidence when you are down or enjoy the battle of making a comeback? First, you have to believe you can’t win a tight match or comeback when down early, so you don’t tank the match and give up. You will learn to win more matches when you can enjoy the battle instead of be frustrated with losing. You must embrace these moments when you can, which will make you a better player.

Your tennis psychology tip for today is to love the challenge of coming from behind. Stay confident in your ability to make a comeback instead of tanking the match.

Samantha Stosur’s Match Toughness

Tennis players constantly work on improving their strokes. While that’s important, many players lose sight of the importance of match play. Players can gain experience and confidence from playing lots of matches. Match play allows you to work on your between point routines, battle back when you’re down, and strive to keep your momentum going when you’re playing well. Without match play, it becomes difficult for players to transfer their practice to matches.

Sam Stosur won her first round match at the French Open. Stosur has now reached the French Open final where she will meet Francesca Schiavone. In her first round match, Stosur beat Simona Halep 7-5, 6-1. She attributes her first round victory to playing lots of matches and building her confidence. Stosur was down 2-4 the first set, but was able to bounce back from the deficit.

“Confidence is a good thing. When you play a lot and win a lot of matches, you’re feeling good, and that being 4-2 down doesn’t make you panic. You still feel like you’re in the match and all that kind of thing. You know, like I said before, I didn’t think it was a big deal, and broke back and was 5-4 up. So then, you know, it totally swings back around,” said Stosur.

Match play is important to your mental game. During matches, you may experience frustration after mistakes. You may tighten up during critical points. Think of playing matches not only to improve your skills and strategy, but also your mental game. You can find out what your mental game challenges are during match play. These same mental challenges might not be as noticeable in practice.

“I think my preparation going into this year’s tournament is a lot better than last year. I’ve played a lot more matches, won a lot more matches, so I’m feeling a lot more confident than what I was last year. Obviously last year, as the week went on, all that kind of was erased. It didn’t really matter what happened before the French. It was right there, which is kind of the same this year. But going into it, I feel like I’m playing better and probably more confident now than what I was this time last year,” said Stosur.

Your tennis psychology tip is to play practice matches and not just work to perfect your strokes! There is no substitute to match play. Playing matches can help you improve your mental toughness as well as your tennis skills. Use your matches to help build your confidence for future matches.