Mind
Training for Tennis -
Tip 16
The
Secret That Turned Federer's
Career Around
http://www.tennispsychology.com / Email
this page
During
his press conferences in the end
of year Masters in Shanghai in 2006,
Roger Federer finally explained
the one major thing which turned
his career around, from
the early years when he regularly
lost to the top players such as Lleyton
Hewitt, who at the time was the number
one player in the world.
This
aspect was clearly evident when
Federer played a match against
Andy Roddick at Shanghai, saving
3 match points to eventually win
(including being down a set and
4-1 in the second set tie-break,
with Roddick to serve).
His
secret sounds so simple yet it made
all the difference to his career.
Federer
said his career finally went golden
when he learned not to panic on
the court when he was down or under
pressure - and that rather than giving
up, he now "hangs in there and hopes
for the best whenever things are
down".
Federer
attributes his success to this
one simple decision, and said
it has been the best choice that he
has ever made in tennis.
Federer
indicated this again after the Roddick
match, when he mentioned that it appeared
that he was going to lose the match
for sure - and that he just
decided to "keep playing and see what
happened", just in case Roddick
got nervous or something dramatic should
happen that might change the match.
And
as is so often the case, Federer
escaped from a seemingly impossible
situation to register another victory.
One
could say that Federer wins these matches
because of the amount of inner belief
he has from the incredible win/loss
record he amassed from 2003-2006,
but the fact is that he did not begin
to amass this record until
he first began believing in
himself.
Federer
realized that, in order to become
a champion, he had to first begin thinking
like one - and
this made all the difference to his
career. This
is actually the opposite of how most
players think - as most believe that
once they start winning lots of matches, "the
belief will come", which will
help them win more matches.
But
this is not how it works - because
as Federer discovered, it's actually
the other way around. The
secret is that you have to first
create the belief, before you will
begin winning lots of matches.
So
how do you increase your belief? The
same way as you master anything else
- you develop your belief by practicing it
regularly. Here's
a few things that help increase belief:
