Tennis Podcast: Take Practice to Matches
July 5, 2009 by PatrickCohn
Welcome to session number twenty 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, you’ll learn how to take your practice game to matches. Many tennis players play tenatively and try to avoid mistakes. Dr. Cohn teaches you the top mental strategies to perform freely and improve trust in your game.
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One of the causes for playing tentatively may be because of the different context of the mistakes.
During a practice session if someone makes a mistake, it usually does not matter since there is less pressure. That could be because the player does not have the same intensity/competitive edge during practice.
I remember that Dr. Cohn’s philosophy towards pressure points was to treat each point with the same intensity and not put any extra emphasis on different points.
Would playing with the same intensity and putting as much importance on practice as matches help?
Another cause of playing tentatively may be because during a match there is only a 15 minute or less warm up. During practice there usually is a warm up and with many drills. As practice goes on the player is able to find the timing and range.
With a match there is less time to find one’s rhythm with the short warm up. One solution would be to warm up before the match and get in strokes and dynamic movements.
If you see any professional player play their first point during a match they are ready to go. Many practice or do some kind of warm up before even stepping on the match court.
Players also have to adapt to their opponent during a match to find their rhythm and timing. Trust and confidence in one’s ability to find a rhythm as the match progresses is key here since mistakes are unavoidable.
-Nick
Nick:
Excellent points, especially about the short warm-up for matches. But yes, I agree, your focus/intensity in practice should mimic what happens in matches, but it’s hard to do for many players to do. That’s why practice matches/sets are critical.
Thanks,
Patrick