After working with several junior tennis players on their mental game, I’ve noticed that players limit their success when they focus on opponent rankings or tournament seeding. As you might already know, comparing your tennis skills to an opponent is a mental game no-no in my book.
When you make comparisons to your opponents, you are essentially saying to yourself that they are better than you! When you look at the draws to find out who you are playing, do you focus on seeding or player ranking?
What’s the mental game of tennis danger in comparing your ranking to your opponents’ ranking? You make too many assumptions (or generalizations) about who should win and who should lose the match. It may seem logical that the number one seed should beat the number two seed right? You know this is not always the case and this type of thinking can cause a poor mind game for tennis.
Why? If you are losing the match to a higher seeded player (that you think should win the match), how will you react? Yes, you’ll confirm your pre-determined expectations about who should win the match and then tank it. You won’t be willing to fight back after losing the first set. You’ll engage with the “here I go again…” syndrome.
I know it’s hard to not pay attention to who you are playing and your opponent’s ranking or number of wins. I also realize that you can prepare your game depending on the style of your opponent’s game. So you could argue that knowing who you are playing can be an advantage. However, in most cases it’s not helpful to your mental game when you compare your ranking to other players in the tournament.
Then to compound the matter, players feel expectations from others to win if they are the better player or have a higher ranking. Your expectations about winning can turn into added pressure to win and fear of failure about losing.
You’re tennis psychology tip for today: Don’t focus on your opponent’s ranking or the tournament seeding. Focus on your strengths instead of comparing yourself to other players. Think about how you can perform your best no matter the level of the opposition.
Tennis Confidence: How to Ride the Momentum Wave
Confidence and momentum in tennis are close cousins. When you have momentum, you have confidence squared. Yes, momentum is a huge psychological advantage in any sport especially tennis. Players feel a sense of exhilaration when they have momentum on their side – it’s a huge boost to your mental game of tennis.
Tennis Mind Game: Tennis Confidence Checklist for Big Matches
What does it truly mean to believe in yourself? When you believe in yourself, you have full confidence in your physical skills and ability to execute shots in tennis. My definition of self-confidence for tennis is how strongly you believe in your ability to execute a successful shot or win a match. Don’t confuse believe in yourself (self-confidence) with self-esteem. Self-esteem is all about how you view yourself and how you appraise your self-concept (how you see yourself), also called self-worth.
Tennis Psychology: Practice Confidence vs. Match Confidence
Do you play tennis with a ton of confidence in practice, but have trouble taking your practice game to matches? If so, you are not alone. Many of my players are more comfortable in their practice routines than in matches. They lose trust in their strokes that worked well in practice.
