“Most of our fears and most of our anxieties don’t exist in the present.” - Steven Kotler

This is a very common practice in junior tennis. Not just for the kids, but for the parents as well. They all say they’re focused on the first round match, but once you see it (the draw), you can’t unsee it. And unfortunately there’s zero upside to looking at the draw, and immense downside.

Your best case scenario is the kid doesn’t care at all about ratings or rankings. They’re confident in themselves and don’t overthink things. They’ll then play the same way they were going to play as if they never saw the draw.

The downside…….

1. They see an opponent they believe they should beat. They’ll add more pressure to win, therefore increasing their stress and nerves. If they starting losing a few games in the first set, they’ll feel even more pressure, play worse, and lose. If they somehow win, they were so miserable and stressed out that they wasted an opportunity to get better. They’re concerned their UTR might go down, and feel like they actually lost.

2. They see an opponent who is ranked significantly higher. They believe the odds of them winning are slim so they feel no pressure. They swing for the fences knowing if they lose their UTR stays the same, but if they keep it close, their UTR goes up. If they win, even better! But as soon as they get down big in the match, they won’t fight any harder. They’ll keep playing the match but they’ve accepted the loss. And with this mindset, they’ll never actually upset anyone who is significantly ranked above them. Therefore, they’ll never make a big jump.

3. They see an opponent with a similar UTR. They’ll be nervouse because believe it will be a tough match but a winnable one. An opportunity for their UTR to go up, but also down. If they get down in the match, they’ll continue fighting because they believe they can win. But if they get down a little too much, they’ll put even more pressure on themselves because they think they’re wasting an opportunity. Then the chances increase that they’ll hit the panic button, and the match will spiral out of control.

4. They have a winnable match, but a potentially easier match in the following round. They put even more pressure on themselves to win because they see an opportunity to make a deep run in the tournament. By adding more pressure to themselves, they increase the chance of playing a nervous match, therefore increasing the chances they’ll play bad and lose.

At best, the draw changes nothing. At worst, everything goes bad.

So stop looking at the draw. Stop looking at who might be next. Focus on the present situation.

“And the deep now has a big impact on performance. Most of our fears and most of our anxieties don’t exist in the present. Either we’re concerned about horrible things that happened long ago - and we’re remembering them in the present so we don’t repeat those mistakes - or there are scary things that might happen in the future and we’re trying to steer around them from the present. But remove past and future from this equation and anxiety levels plummet. Stress hormones are flushed from the system, replaced by mood-boosting chemicals such as dopamine” - Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible