the mental edge

by: Mike Sprouse / TennisCT

On this website, and several other places across the web, there are articles about the mental health benefits the sport of tennis provides. You can read about some of them here.

But what happens when you’re on the court, in the heat of competition? During those times, you’re expected to make hundreds of decisions, factor in court conditions, adjust to what your opponent is doing, and maintain your own sense of calm and clarity of thinking. To most, this sounds like a recipe for going crazy!

In reality, it’s the ability to balance dozens of factors in your mind at any given point in time that makes the sport so challenging and fascinating. It also tends to separate the competition, and more often determines who wins a given match. Hardly ever does a match get decided based on talent or physical prowess alone: I can think of only a handful of those instances in my dozens of years competing.

Sports pundits say that tennis is the most “mental” of sports. I agree - why is that, and what are some things you can do to become mentally tougher on the court and off the court? What are some lessons you can learn on the court that you can take with you in life (i.e. “life hacks”)?

First, realize that success in tennis is based greatly on self-belief and determination. Second, realize that your success on-court directly ties to how well your mind is able to process tons of information simultaneously. So the trademarks of a mentally tough tennis player are simple: they tend to have a great amount of desire and determination, they tend to believe in themselves and their ability to hit big shots at the biggest moments, and they tend to be able to get their mind into a proper state (based on their own personalities) to clearly think and make split-second decisions.

There are a few specific things you can do to help you create a Mental Edge when you’re competing:

1) Visualization & Imagery

Most of the time, especially in a tightly-contested match, elite tennis players will take a picture in their mind’s eye of what they WANT to happen in a given point before the point is played. When they step up to serve, they picture themselves hitting a powerful, dominant serve in the exact spot they’re aiming. Then they picture their opponent’s response, and then they picture the point being played on their terms. It sounds a little “out of body”, and I suppose it is. If they are receiving, they envision returning a powerful serve with equal or more force, and then turning the point from defense to offense. No matter what happened on the prior point, the best competitors always practice positive visualization for the next point being played. They have very short memories.

2) Routine & Repetition

Have you ever noticed that certain players bounce the ball a certain number of times before they serve? Have you seen players who exhibit the same little quirks prior to serving or returning (I’m looking at you, Rafa)? What about players who hit an exact number of forehands, backhands, volleys and serves during their warm-up?

There’s a reason for all of this. Fundamentally, it is because it is the exact routine that they have practiced a million times. They are taking what they know and are comfortable with in practice to competition. Psychologists say that this relates directly to a feeling of comfort when things get highly pressurized in competition. It’s a go-to, or a crutch, for players to find levels of comfort in their mind when called to perform under pressure.

Again, this works for most players. It’s why you see so…much…routine on a tennis court. It’s not superstition per se, but it’s much more about doing things the same way every time that makes the situation seem familiar and therefore comfortable. Anything to put your mind at ease under pressure, right?

Adopt a routine and start it today. Bounce the ball a certain number of times prior to your serve. Straighten your strings after every point. Take a certain number of deep, deep breaths before each point. Create a catch-phrase and repeat it to yourself after each point.

Anything that breeds familiarity and comfort will help you compete and provide a mental edge to you.

3) Verbal Cues

We talked about visualization and being able to positively “picture” certain outcomes on the tennis court. How about verbal ones? The answer is yes, absolutely. Reciting verbal words, phrases or cues will make you mentally tougher - as long as they’re positive ones.

We definitely don’t recommend repeating to yourself on a tennis court that your forehand is really bad or that your second serve is shaky.

No, it’s much more about repeating words or phrases to yourself like “poise”, “stay calm”, “you can do this”, “keep it going”, “fight”, “believe”, and so on. The more you tell yourself positive words and phrases, the more mentally strong you will get. The repetition will cause you to believe what you are telling yourself!

There’s a catch that many people don’t follow, though: in your verbal cues, make sure you aren’t using ANY negative words. Something like “don’t give up” will not be as strong as “keep fighting” because the phrase “don’t ___” is still a negative (even in a positive context). Only use positive words and phrases at all times - no negatives ever.

4) Eye Contact

I can almost guarantee you that this is not something you think about when you’re competing. But it matters. A lot.

When you’re returning serve, you want to make continuous eye contact with the server. Don’t blink. Stand strong and firm and show the server that you’re ready for whatever is coming your way.

Often, we see players getting ready to receive serve with their eyes dancing around all over the place unable to look at the server. This creates a level of uncertainty which is often subconscious (you don’t realize it). Being able to look your opponent directly in the eyes during pressure situations signifies to them that you are ready.

Likewise, before you step up to serve, make sure you make direct eye contact with the returner at least for a second prior to getting into your pre-serve routine. In fact, even better, make it a part of your pre-serve routine. Eye contact during pressure situations is an overlooked part of creating a mental edge for yourself.

5) Embrace Failure

Don’t try to fail (lose the match), but be okay with what tennis players deem as “little failures” (missing shots or losing points). In order to win any given tennis match, tennis players will fail (miss or lose points) a LOT. You have to be okay with taking calculated risks, having it work sometimes but not all the time, and you have to be able to positively turn the page after losing a point. A good motto is “onto the next point”.

One way to think of it is: the flow of a match, or the overall tone of a match based on the pattern of points being won or lost, can change frequently and suddenly. No matter what kind of roll you’re on or rut you seem to be in has to last for long. The prior point is done. The next point hasn’t happened yet. Remember what you control - your mindset at that current moment and your strategy for the next point - and what you don’t control, which is the outcome of the prior point or the outcome of the next point (yet).

As with most of our advice on this blog, this isn’t an exhaustive list by any means. There are other tactics that can be used and we’ll discuss them more in the future. The ones listed here are starting points for you along your path to creating a mental edge not just on the tennis court, but in life.