Mind
Training for Tennis
- Tip 19
Building
Belief and Momentum +
2008 World Tennis Observations
http://www.tennispsychology.com
There
is a lot of interesting power struggles on the world tour
this year - and as usual, the player's all-important belief
levels accurately mirrored their results on court.
Belief
and results go very much hand-in-hand - they are an excellent gauge
to track a tennis player's progress. Your belief levels show
up in your results, every time - so if you don't like your results,
work on your belief (as well as your game, of course - but that
goes without saying!).
For
instance, Federer's belief levels were severely tested this year,
having a few losses to players he would not normally lose
to. Meanwhile, Nadal's belief (and results) soared to new heights
this year, and Djokovic and Murray, waiting in the wings, broke
through and finally began to believe they can play at the very top
level.
Meanwhile,
a host of top women such as Ivanovic, Jankovic, Williams and Kuznetsova
along with several others are all seeking to establish
dominance - since Justine Henin abdicated her throne earlier in
the year and left a void at the top of the game, which players are
eager to fill.
Belief
levels can either build in momentum or they can lose
momentum - and most players experience both of these
at various times in their tennis career.
Momentum
obviously builds with confidence - and the easiest way to build
both is to win a succession of matches - such as Nadal most of this
year, and Murray in the past couple of months. Though, of
course, its much easier to do this when you already have belief!
(but more on that later).
Otherwise, some great confidence-boosting performances can also
raise your confidence, no matter whether they were winning performances
or not.
On
the other side of things, losing one's momentum and confidence
is one of toughest tests for any player - and every player will
experience this at some stage, and the key is how well you can bounce
back.
Only
the mentally strong players can usually weather the storm
and bounce back from this fairly quickly - such as Federer this
year, who had some early exits but then came storming back to take
the 2008 US Open. This
is no mean feat, as there are plenty of examples of Number 1 players
who lost their momentum and confidence, and simply never got it
back.
Back
in the 70's, the worlds number one player Stan Smith, a powerful
and confident player, found himself in a slump which he never really
ever got out of. And Mats Wilander, after winning 3 Slams in one
year in the 80's, was never a world force again after that.
And
so to avoid this, and bounce back strongly from setbacks, it's important
to:
a)
learn from your losses
b) mentally boost yourself up with visualization or other mental
techiques (such as mentioned below). And last of all.....
b) let them go - and move on
Belief is a funny
thing. Now that Federer has finally shown everyone that he is 'mortal',
by losing some matches to lesser-ranked players this year, he may
never again experience the same domination he once had.
This
is not because he is not as good as before - it is purely because
the rising players are now strengthening their belief that
Federer is now beatable.
In
relation to confidence, a lot of players ask me what
are other effective ways to raise your confidence? (apart from winning
a lot of matches, which makes building confidence and momentum easy-
but that's a bit of a 'chicken or the egg' debate).
As
we mentioned earlier, in order to win a few matches and gain confidence,
one already needs to have some confidence, right at the
beginning. There
are several ways to increase confidence.
The
first is to use visualization
regularly - a highly powerful technique where you vividly imagine,
in your mind, playing at your absolute best, where you simply cannot
do a thing wrong.
You
can even use this technique to bring up real previous 'tennis memories',
of times when you played brilliantly in the past, as well - this
helps create a mindset of success.
Or
you can even imagine yourself being one of your favorite
players - Nadal, Federer, Williams - any champion player you 'identify'
with, style-wise. It won't make them play any better, but
it will help you! if you need more information on the power
of visualization, go to the homepage
for more info.
Secondly,
make a Success List
- write down all the great matches you have played, shots
you have made, comments you have heard about your tennis, etc -
absolutely anything that boosts your confidence and makes you feel
good about your game. Focusing on all the good things about your
tennis makes these expand in your game, and strengthens
your confidence at the deepest subconscious level.
Last
but not least - examine your beliefs
and find any limiting beliefs that are not serving you, and
which might be holding you back.
How
do you find out what these are? Easy - just look for any recurring
patterns that occur in your results or matches again and again,
that you would prefer did not happen - these are likely
to have a limiting belief behind them, which is making them recur.
For
instance, if you lost a string of matches against higher-ranked
players, where each time you were within grasp of winning, but let
it slip through your fingers - this might suggest that at the very
deepest subconscious level, you have a limiting belief that "I'm
just not good enough, I don't deserve to beat those guys".
Once
you know what the limiting belief is, you need to change
it. You can do this with visualizaiton, plus you would then also
create a 'Reasons List'.
You
get a piece of paper where you write at the top a line that counters
the limiting belief. eg. "I deserve to win close matches
against good players because...." - and then you simply
write down every single reason on Earth you can
think of, to prove why the line at the top of the page is absolutely
true.
Write
down things like all the hours of practice you have put in, your
lessons with the pro, your fitness training, your mental training,
what the coach said about your game, etc etc etc.
Write
it all down, and keep writing until you are exhausted and simply
cannot think of any other reasons.
Then
go back over the list, spending 20 seconds on each point, taking
it in and mentally contemplating it. That is the exercise - and
repeat this exercise every day for a month.
Negative
beliefs are not created overnight, so it may take longer than overnight
to remove them. Then begin working on the next one, if
there are more!
And
just another reminder - always remember to visualize overcoming
any limiting beliefs as well, as this accelerates the process
- and builds belief, confidence, momentum and strong results.
Now - go forth and conquer!
