A tennis player spends approximately 80% of a match WALKING around. Not running and playing. Walking. 

And when they’re walking, they’re thinking. Consciously or unconsciously, they’re thinking. 

That thinking can either be a powerful tool, or a dangerous tool. The job of a tennis player is to obviously make it a powerful tool. A powerful tool that puts themselves in the best state of mind to perform well during the next point.

When that point is done, they need to use the alone time wisely again, and prepare for the next point.

And over and over it goes……until the match is done.

The problem is, most human beings do not do well when left alone with their thoughts, without any distractions. It’s why solitary confinement is considered by most to be a public health issue. It’s also why prisons use it as a form of punishment for inmates. Most humans do not do well when left completely alone.

At least untrained humans don’t.

And that’s what kids are. Untrained humans. Learning and experiencing life, without enough training to handle difficult situations appropriately. But they’re trying, and here they are, in the middle of a match, spending 80% of the time walking around, while someone is trying to make their tennis day miserable. The potential for some negative thoughts to occur is very high.

To limit those negative thoughts (because we’ll never able to fully get rid of them), we have to occupy our mind. We have to distract ourselves. We have to keep our mind busy, and keep it busy and focused on the situation at hand.

To be able to do this effectively, we need to create a very specific and consistent routine.

To tell a player to simply be positive or go to the towel or touch the fence is too basic. It’s too general. What do they say? Is that all they do? Once they touch the fence or grab the towel, then what? 

Every second of the time in-between points needs to have a purpose. If not, we’ll be left to our thoughts, and that is dangerous. 

The following routine is what I used to as a player, and what I now teach to the players I work with. It’s derived from the “16 Second Cure”, a routine created by one of the world’s best sports psychologists, Dr. Jim Loehr. I use different words to describe my routine, but it’s 100% based off his process, and the success he had working with Pete Sampras, Monica Seles, Jim Courier, Gabriela Sabatini, and many more. His process has been the most successful one created to date, and I suggest you check it out through the following link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AviGTb3GKhQ&t=834s

The Routine

1. As soon as the point finishes, turn away from the net, switch your racket to your non-hitting hand, and walk around with strong body posture.

2. Look at your strings and straighten any that have moved around.

3. Take one deep breath in through your nose slowly for 5 seconds, then breathe out through your mouth slowly for 5 seconds.

4. As you’re grabbing your towel or the ball, decide how you want to play the next point.

5. When arriving to the baseline to serve or return, give yourself a positive comment (verbal preferred) such as “let’s go” or “lock in” or “come on”, and play.

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1. As soon as the point finishes, turn away from the net, switch your racket to your non-hitting hand, and walk around with strong body posture.

The non-hitting hand is the weakest hand. Players for the most part only throw or break rackets or smack balls to the fence when the racket is in their hitting hand. Placing the racket in the non-hitting hand immediately diffuses some amount of frustration that might have occurred with the previous points.

2. Look at your strings and straighten any that have moved around.

Even though having straighter straights ensures a more consistent tension throughout the racket, this isn’t the goal here. The goal is to have your mind move on from the previous point. When things are going wrong, we have a tendency to look around and vent to our friends or parents. Having ourselves fix our strings takes our mind away from what happened, giving us another step towards staying calm, and moving forward.

3. Take one deep breath in slowly for 5 seconds, then breathe out for 5 seconds.

Take one deep breath in through your nose slowly for 5 seconds, then breathe out through your mouth slowly for 5 seconds.

4. As you’re grabbing your towel or the ball, decide how you want to play the next point.

This is where you decide how to play the next point. Not when you’re at the baseline. It’s before. This gives you ample time to provide clarity on your strategy, and make any changes in case you second guess yourself. Many player (myself included when I was young), think about how to play the point as they’re tossing the ball for their serve, or as they’re opponent is already about to hit the serve. That’s too late. Clarity cannot be achieved there, and doubt is more likely to occur. We then leave things up to our reactions and instincts, but when we’re young, those things are out of whack! And that’s when whacky things occur. When you think about 5 different strategies as the ball is speeding towards you, and you end up doing something so atrocious, you’re left stunned. Add on a 20 lbs bag of nerves during an important point, and it can get worse. So decide before you even make you arrive to play the next point.

5. When arriving to the baseline to serve or return, give yourself a positive comment (verbal preferred) such as “let’s go” or “lock in” or “come on”, and play.

These are your last few seconds before the point starts. If you haven’t decided the strategy you want to use to play the next point, turn around and walk away. You’re not ready to play. But if you’re decided and ready to go, use these last few seconds to give yourself a positive and uplifting thought. If you’re comfortable saying it out loud, even if it’s a whisper, it’s better. One thing is to think something, another is to hear it as well. It has a more powerful effect.

Once that is done, trust yourself, and let the world take you where it may. Even if you picked the wrong strategy, it’s too late. It’s better to go after the wrong shot with 100% conviction, than the right shot with 50% conviction.

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Feel free to add your own little spin on the routine, but whatever you do, make sure you have a consistent routine that uses a breathing technique to slow your heart rate down, includes positive words, and helps you define a clear strategy for the next point. The key word there is being consistent! That is the only way it works. Inconsistent and undisciplined minds break down under pressure. If you want to succeed during crunch time, you need an automatic routine so you’re not left alone with your emotional thoughts.