Are You Never Satisfied on the Court?
What does the term ‘never satisfied’ mean to you? Is never being satisfied a good or bad thing?
The connotation of ‘never being satisfied’ is a bit confusing.
‘Never being satisfied’ sounds like a positive, motivating philosophy that causes you to dig deep down and improve your game.
For example, you hear stories of tennis players who pushed themselves throughout their careers to eventually become top-ranked players.
These top ranked players are characterized by phrases such as ‘never being satisfied’, ‘hungry for perfection’ or ‘good is never good enough’.
On the surface, it seems that all tennis players should ‘never be satisfied’. After all, that philosophy must work because these players are the top in the world, right?
Not necessarily… listen to the tone of a high school tennis player who commented on her experience of ‘never being satisfied‘ from our Mental Game of Tennis survey:
“I need help with taking it easy on myself. I am very critical about my play in tournaments. Even if I win a match, I beat myself up over any mistakes I made. I never seemed to be satisfied with my game.”
When you are self-critical while you are playing, you emphasize your mistakes over your strengths.
Reminding yourself of everything you do wrong in a match doesn’t help you play any better. In fact, reminding yourself of your mistakes makes you play worse because you are no longer focusing on the present point.
Even when the match is over, reliving your mistakes or reminding yourself of mistakes over and over will hurt confidence.
When elite tennis players talk about ‘never being satisfied’, they are referring to the process of growing their game.
You’ll note a difference between being critical of your performance and critiquing your play to improve.
When you are critical of your performance, you normally list everything you did wrong and conclude that you choked, you stink or you are not as good as the players around you.
On the other hand, critiquing your performance is more objective. When you are critiquing your game, you may still point out some big mistakes you made, but you also recognize your successes. Critiquing your performance is about looking at the big picture and searching for ways to advance your game.
Critiquing your performance is a detailed assessment with a suggested plan of how to improve. Thus, critiquing your game objectively is a useful strategy to motivate you to put in the work.
‘Never being satisfied’ does not mean you can’t enjoy your success or victories. ‘Never being satisfied‘ is a statement that you are a work in progress, evolving, growing and finding ways to build your game mentally and physically.
How to Critique Tennis Matches
Assess your tennis performance instead of be self-critical….
In Column One, write down the positive aspects of your play (strong backhand, good pace on first serve, etc.)
In Column Two, write down 1-2 aspects of your game that you need to improve (staying calm after losing a set, better placement on your second serve, etc.)
In Column Three, write down your plan to improve those aspects of your game (learning relaxation strategies, working with your coach to develop heavy spin on your second serve, etc.)
An objective assessment of your game will keep your confidence high and help you improve your game.
Learn Proven Tennis Mental Game Strategies To Perform Your Best On The Court!
Are you (or your players) performing up to your ability in competition?
Do you bring your best and most confident game to matches?
I often hear players complain about the following problems when they play in matches…
“I get so tight or tense before matches that I can’t think straight or have any rhythm in my game.”
“I get so frustrated with hitting bad shots or with errors and it snowballs.”
“I expect so much when I play that I unravel and lose confidence when the match does not go as planned.”
“My confidence seems to disappear when I go from practice to matches and I don’t know why.”
Successful tennis players have learned how to perform with ultimate confidence in tournaments.
If you are ready to improve your mental toughness and perform with ultimate self-confidence in matches, Tennis Confidence: Mental Toughness For Tournament Players can help you do this!
- Players: Learn how to take control of your confidence, focus your best, and win more close matches.
- Parents: Help boost your junior tennis player’s confidence for tournaments. Just load the program on your player’s IPod!
- Coaches: Boost your team’s confidence using simple, proven mental strategies.
- Instructors: Learn how to give your students the mental game advantage.
Use Tennis Confidence to help boost your mental toughness in tennis and discover powerful and proven mental game strategies that have helped professional athletes win!
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