Keeping Confidence After Losing Matches

Welcome to session number sixty three 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 boost your self-confidence in matches. Many tennis players lose self-confidence after playing poorly or losing matches. Listen to this mental game of tennis podcast to learn how to maintain your self-confidence after losing matches.

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*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #63 (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!

Tennis Juniors Who Play Cautiously

Welcome to session number sixty two 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 game in matches. Many tennis players revert to a style of play that isn’t as effective in matches. Listen to this mental game of tennis podcast to learn how to play your most effective style of play in matches.

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*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #62 (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!

Dementieva Finds ‘A Winning Way’

Elena Dementieva’s success at the Rogers Cup in Toronto hadn’t been great – until now. Dementieva hadn’t made it past the second round (besides her semi final loss in 2003) since playing on the professional tour. Putting her record aside, Dementieva was able to come out with a win against Sharapova, 6-4, 6-3.

Dementieva almost let the first set slip away with a 4-1 lead, where she was broken twice. Dementieva broke back to take the lead and the set 6-4.

“Sometimes you have to find a winning way when something goes wrong, and that’s what happened today. I was not playing at my best, but I was able to find a winning way.”

When something goes wrong, some players panic, lose confidence, or fix their stroke or fold under pressure. What can go wrong during a match? You might have a string of unforced errors on your backhand side. You might think your opponent made a bad line call. You might have trouble executing your game plan for the match. No matter what goes wrong in a match, you can make adjustments, or find a winning way.

How can you find a winning way?

You do what you have to win. You might play inside the baseline and take the ball early. You might find that you’re winning points on your slice backhand. Whatever your strategy is, stay committed to it! You’ll have to make adjustments to your game to get the job done.

Dementieva made some adjustments to her game:

“I just feel I played a huge day. I was fighting for every point, so many long rallies. It was not the way I like to play – it was a more defensive game today – but against her, it’s very hard to be aggressive because she puts a lot of pressure on the first two shots, so you need to work on defense before you have your chances to go for your shots,” said Dementieva.

Your tennis psychology tip today is to have a plan b (and c). You’re not going to be on your game each time. Your ability to make adjustments and grind out when you’re not playing your best can help you come out with a win. Once you find a way to win, stick to your game plan and let the rest take care of itself.

Tennis Podcast: How To Improve Consistency

Welcome to session number thirty one 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 with Ian Westmann of www.essentialtennis.com about improving consistency both physically and mentally. Many tennis players have trouble transferring their consistency from practice to matches. Listen to the podcast to learn more about how to improve your consistency in matches!

Ian Westmann is a graduate of the Professional Tennis Management Program at Ferris State University and played Division II tennis at Ferris. Ian is USPTA certifed tennis pro and teaches full time at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD. The Essential Tennis Podcast focuses on fitness, technique, mental game and strategy.

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* Subscribe to Ian’s Essential Tennis Podcast at iTunes

*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #31  (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!

Jankovic: How to Improve After Losses

Jelena Jankovic fell to American qualifier, Melanie Oudin in the third round of Wimbledon 6-7, 7-5, 6-2. Jankovic attributed her unexpected loss to the heat, making her feel exhausted and dizzy.

No matter if you are playing under tough conditions or aren’t playing your best tennis, losing can be hard to accept. No tennis player likes to lose. After losing a match, you might become frustrated, which can cause you to lose confidence and motivation.

You won’t play every match perfectly. And you won’t win every match either. Losing is part of the game. For Jankovic, losing becomes an opportunity to improve her game.

“But, you know, every time you lose, it’s of course disappointing. Nobody likes to lose. It’s tough to accept losses, but you just have to try to learn, you know, from the losses. And I think from losses you learn much more be when you’re winning,” said Jankovic.

Losing can give you an opportunity to find out which parts of your game needs improvement. If you win a match, you might not look at why you won or what you need to work on. If you lose, you’ll want to get better, which may mean working on your weaknesses.

It’s easy for you to beat yourself up after a loss or be overly-critical of your performance. This doesn’t help your confidence. You should wait until your negative emotions about the match subside, which could be 20 minutes later or the next day.

Then, look at your performance objectively. You’ll want to think about what you did well during your match. You might notice that your forehand down the line got you out of trouble or that you executed your strategy well. You’ll also want to assess parts of your game you have improved such as your backhand slice or the placement of your second serve. When you think about what you did well, this can help boost your confidence.

You’ll also want to look at what you didn’t do well. Where did you lose most of your points? What was your opponent’s strategy? For example, you might notice that your opponent’s strategy was to bring you into the net and lob over your head. You’ll want to find the weak areas of your game and structure your practice to work on those weaknesses.

The bottom line is that losing is part of sports. Instead of getting upset and losing confidence, you can look at your losses as opportunities to learn and improve your game.

Five Secrets to Tennis Confidence

Tennis is a mental game at any level. Superior talent and hard work alone don’t make champions. The top players in the game, such as Federer and Safina, win championships because they have a strong mental game. And one of the fastest ways to lift your performance and consistency on the court is to play with confidence every match.

The hallmarks of great players in the game – confidence, focus, and composure – lead to consistent performance.

Ask yourself these important questions…. Do you lose self-confidence easily after errors or a tough loss? Does your self-confidence go up and down like a roller coaster during matches? If you don’t “have it” during your prematch warm-up, does your confidence suffer early in the match?

For many tennis players, self-confidence can be fleeting or fragile at best. But fleeting or fragile confidence is not true belief in your ability. If you allow your confidence to crash because of immediate results or errors during the match, you simply can’t perform your best in the match.

Based on 20 plus years of helping athletes improve their mental game, in this article, I’ll share with you five “secrets” to playing tennis with high self-confidence.

The top players in the world work hard, possess physical talent, and push themselves to their physical limit. The difference between losing in the first round and winning the tournament comes down to your ability to harness full self-confidence, cope with errors, and focus well at critical times during the match.

“The bottom line is that tennis is a very mental game. Everybody is strong, everybody is pushing hard. But the difference between the top players is the mental ability to cope with the pressure and hit the right shots at the right time and stay calm in the moments when you need to stay calm.”
~Novak Djokovic

So what are my five secrets to playing with greater self-confidence? Before I share my secrets to playing with confidence, let me define tennis confidence. First, confidence is not arrogance. You may think that confident players are arrogant and use intimidation to scare the competition. But I’m talking about a different kind of self-confidence. Real self-belief is a silent self-confidence within you that’s nothing like arrogance. Second, confidence is a strong, stable belief in your own abilities—a belief that you can execute any shot at any moment of the match.

Tennis Confidence Secret #1: Confidence is Destroyed by High Expectations

Most tennis players, coaches, and parents assume if you have high expectations, you must also have high confidence. The question I often get is: If I expect to win or expect to play well, doesn’t that mean that I am confident that I can win or play well? My answer is a big “NO.” But here’s my conclusion after working with 1000’s of athletes: strict or high expectations can undermine and suck the life out of confidence.

Confidence is based on the strength of the belief in your ability or how strongly you think you can perform well. Expectations, on the other hand, are judgments and demands that you place on your game. Expectations focus on outcomes or the level of your performance. Confidence must precede your shots such as when you know you will hit a good serve before you hit it. But confidence is void of strict expectations or the need to execute a good shot.

Why are expectations so harmful to your confidence? First, you set yourself up for a win/lose proposition. You either achieve your expectations or you fail to achieve your expectations. Second, if you don’t achieve your elevated expectations, it’s easy to question your ability that day and lose hard-earned confidence. Essentially, you set yourself up for failure before you even start. One of your goals to boosting confidence is to weed out harmful expectations and replace with what I call “manageable goals.” Read more about how to rid yourself of expectations that hurt tennis confidence….

Tennis Confidence Secret #2: Real Confidence is Long Lasting, Not Fleeting

Anyone can get an immediate boost of confidence from winning or playing well, but can you keep confidence even after losing to a weaker player? If you ride the confidence roller coaster (confidence goes up and down rapidly), you don’t have real, long-lasting self-confidence. If your confidence is fragile or fleeting with every point, game, or set, you have fragile self-confidence. Fragile self-confidence or letting immediate results or errors dictate how confident you feel in the present moment is NOT true confidence.

Real self-confidence is stable, long-term, and lasting even under adversity or poor results. The most confident athletes in the world, such as Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Michelle Akers, have gained confidence from their practice and positive results, but they also stay confident even after a defeat or poor play because they don’t allow immediate results to rock their confidence.

I ask my students: “How long have you been working on your confidence?” They look at me weird when I ask a follow up question: “How long have you been playing?” They answer, “8 years” or “15 years” or something else. I reply: “That’s how long you have been working on your confidence. Does it make sense to throw away eight years of confidence after a missed shot or dropped game?” My students always answer “no.” Read more about how to get long-lasting tennis confidence…

Tennis Confidence Secret #3: Competitive Self-Confidence Counts the Most

Most tennis players don’t understand the huge divide between practice and competitive self-confidence. I see tennis players that look like stars in practice, but can’t take their practice to matches because of a lack of self-confidence in matches, despite a high level of confidence from practice. Do you gain confidence from your practice routines, but your confidence disappears when you enter a match situation?

I know of many reasons why players’ confidence dwindles when they go from practice to matches. You might have fear of failure and get too tight on the court to hit shots freely. You might worry about letting others down and focus too much on not disappointing others. You might have a history of choking away matches you should have won. Or it might be for another reason altogether.

What’s the solution? You start by uncovering the mental roadblock (doubt, fear, indecision, intimidation, etc.) that holds back your confidence in matches. Your confidence will not flourish in tournaments until you address what’s holding it back. Read more about how to grow your tennis confidence in matches…

Tennis Confidence Secret #4: Confidence is Still a Mindset

Tennis players and coaches assume that confidence is directly proportional to the amount of time you put into your game during practice and training. Now, I have to agree that confidence depends a lot on the amount and quality of your practice, training, and past success in tournaments. However, do you know players who train and practice a lot, but doubt their ability in matches? Likewise, do you know players who don’t work hard in practice, but have a ton of confidence in matches?

I think you get my point… Confidence is a mindset when it’s time to face your opponent across the net. Sure, practice makes you feel prepared. Past wins can help give you a mental edge. Your fitness training can give you a boost in confidence. However, practice, training, past wins, and fitness don’t add up to confidence if you doubt your ability or can’t trust in your training and practice! If you tighten up for fear of making errors during matches, it’s hard to feel confident in your game.

If you are too modest about your skills, if you hide behind a false persona of confidence, or if you “hope” to play well, your mindset is hindering the growth of your confidence. Read more about how to grow your tennis confidence in matches…

Tennis Confidence Secret #5: Be Proactive, Not Reactive with Confidence

You, and only you, are responsible for your confidence level in tournaments! Remember, you create your own confidence mindset. Too many players don’t take full responsibility for their own confidence prior to playing a match. Confidence takes a back seat to immediate results in matches. They can’t feel confident until they see positive results in their warm up or win the first few points of the match. If this sounds like you, you must see positive results or your game must feel just right, before you can feel confident. Your confidence is too reactive to what’s happening early in the match.

As I stated, your confidence should be based on years of practice and competition, not on immediate performance. You have lots of successes to draw upon even before the competition begins. You want to learn how to be more proactive with your confidence level – take full responsibility for confidence – prior to match time. How can you be proactive with your confidence? First, you want to remind yourself of the reasons why you deserve to play with confidence. Second, you should focus on what you can control during a match such as what you focus on to feel confident. Read more about how to be more proactive with your tennis confidence in matches…

Conclusion

I hope you now understand that growing your confidence is not just about practice, training, fitness, or your equipment. How you harness confidence before, during, and after matches is critical to performing well consistently on the court. Many intangibles in tennis, such as your match mindset, belief, trust, and your ability to be proactive are the keys to playing with stable, long-lasting confidence.

Stop riding the confidence roller-coaster during matches. Learn how to harness your full potential with ultimate self-confidence. If you want to learn all my secrets for growing your tennis confidence AND keeping it high, I suggest check out “Tennis Confidence: Mental Toughness for Tournament Players” Audio and Workbook program!

Is Poor Focus to Blame for All Mental Errors?

Many players have written me to help them improve their concentration on the court. They say things such as….

* “I make an unforced error and lose my focus.”

* “I can’t concentration when I’m down in the match.”

* “I drop a couple games because I lack of focus at the start of match.”

* “I’m missing easy shots because I get distracted.”

But what’s wrong with all these scenarios?

Most players (and coaches) often assume that a lack of focus is the culprit for their mental mistakes on the court!

But I disagree. In most cases, concentration errors are usually triggered by another mental game no-no…

Here’s the proof:

1. Frustration causes a lack of focus because you are upset with something that just happened and can’t focus in the present.
2. Lack of motivation or intensity cause poor focus because you are not up enough to focus at your peak.
3. Tension, anxiety, or fear can reap your power to concentrate early in the match when not confident.
4.  A lack of trust in your strokes can lead to missing easy shots and you assume that you just didn’t focus enough.

Too many times I see players assume their concentration is causing mistakes. In reality, a poor focus results from other things such as frustration, lack of confidence, and low trust in your strokes.

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Less than 2 day left to grab my entire “Tennis Confidence” Audio and
Workbook system  for half-off! Special ends May 20 at midnight! Get it here:

“Tennis Confidence” Audio and Workbook system

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Want to understand your mental game better? Want to find solutions to the real culprits of mental mistakes? I suggest you grab your copy of my brand new “Tennis Confidence” program.

“Tennis Confidence: Mental Toughness for Tournament Players” is a complete step-by-step solution to boosting your mental toughness.

Jump over to peaksports.com and learn how my new program can rocket your mental game:

“Tennis Confidence: Mental Toughness for Tournament Players”

Your Tennis Confidence Coach,

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

p.s. Don’t assume that your focus is to blame for mental errors. Sometimes it is, but in most cases, doubt, intimidation, fear, frustration and lack of trust are to blame. Take advantage of my special half-off sale, which ends this Wednesday:

“Tennis Confidence” Audio and Workbook Program

Tennis Confidence: A Formula for Success

Last week I posted about how to know when you need a mental game overhaul or just a tune up…

I wanted to answer a few questions players have about improving their mental game of tennis with my new “Tennis Confidence” Program…

Why is tennis confidence so important? Doesn’t practice alone improve confidence?

Yes, practice should and does improve confidence. But despite a hours of practice each week, why do so many tournament players not bring practice confidence to matches?

This is why your match confidence is so important. To bring your top game to matches, you must carry practice confidence into matches instead of hoping to play well.

What theories do you use to help players improve their inner game of tennis?

One of my basic theories is this: (1) Identify and discard expectations, (2) perform with high confidence, and (3) set manageable goals. I call this my formula for success.

Based on my work with athletes for over 20 years, I’ve discovered a “confidence-expectation connection.” High expectations (demands) undermine your confidence.

Do you give specific steps to improve my mental game in your new program?

My new audio and workbook program does this for you in a big way. I teach you eight steps in eight mental game sessions that you apply each week to your game…

You learn how to play without expectations, mentally prepare for a match, bring confidence to each match, focus under pressure, and assess and tweak your mental game after each match.

I know what to do, but I can’t take it to matches. Can you help me apply what I learn about the mental game to matches?

I’m all about taking what you learn to match day. This is the most critical step in boosting your mental toughness.

My motto for helping players improve their mental game is: You start with awareness about mental barriers, learn the important mental skills, and then apply what you learn to matches.

What if I need additional help with my mental game after completing your new audio and workbook program?

You have two options here:

(1) I also provide one-on-one phone or onsite mental coaching for players.

(2) You can customize your program and include email coaching as an additional option.

Tennis Confidence: Mental Toughness for Tournament Players is so powerful it’s like having your own mental coach on your computer or IPod.

“Tennis Confidence” teaches you, in easy-to-understand terms, how to bring your most confident game to matches by using your mind to your advantage!

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Only three 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

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Jump over to peaksports.com and see how my new program can jumpstart or completely overhaul your mental game:

Tennis Confidence Audio and Workbook Program

Your Tennis Confidence Coach,

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

p.s. Are you beating yourself on the court with doubt, intimidation, fear, indecision, or lack of trust in your game? If so, take advantage of my special half-off sale, which ends at midnight next Wednesday. Take action with your mental game today:

Tennis Confidence Audio and Workbook 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 Podcast: Boost Confidence in Juniors

Many young tennis players lack self-confidence in their game. In thnis psychology session, Dr. Cohn helps sports parents and coaches improve their tennis players’ confidence.   

Dr. Cohn teaches you how to boost tennis confidence in your young athletes. You’ll have to help them discard strict expectations to play with more confidence.

The Tennis Psychology Podcast by 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.

Use the audio player to listen to The Tennis Psychology Podcast or download the file to your computer below:

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*Download The Tennis Psychology Podcast #6  (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

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