Mind
Training for Tennis Tip
2
The
Zone
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One
of the most powerful terms used in
world sport for decades is the mental
state called 'the zone'. This
is the mental state which produces
super-human performances, amazing
shots and winning streaks.
Any
tennis player who is in this mental
state is virtually unbeatable at
their respective level of competition
- and at the elite level, you
witness some unbelievable shotmaking.
A
player who is in the zone experiences
an unusual feeling of effortless power, allowing them to feel as if their racquet
and body are powered by a turbo-charged
engine, and they find their body gliding
across the court and hitting with awesome
power and minimum effort.
The
strange part about this is - this
powerful performance does not feel
as if it is being controlled by the
actual player!
In fact, they'll often report feeling
as if they weren't responsible for
some of the amazing shots at all -
as if their body was being guided and
directed by a more powerful force (and
this is exactly what is happening).
Almost
every player at some stage in their
career has experienced this feeling
to some extent, and then wondered
afterwards "how did I do that?"
This
is the mystery that surrounds the
zone - why does it appear so fleetingly,
and then disappear just as quickly
as it came? And most of all - why
can't we access it all the time?
What
is the powerful force which is guiding
the body when you hit an unbelievable
shot? The answer is the sleeping giant
that resides inside all human beings
- the subconscious mind, the source
of all bodily movement which also stores
all past tennis memories and experience.
When
a player is 'zoning', their conscious
mind becomes quiet (the normally busy,
chattering mind we use all the time),
and this allows their more powerful
subconscious to run their performance
on 'automatic pilot', in the way a
computer runs software.
This
allows their strokes to flow with effortless
reflexes and power in a way that could
never be matched by conscious thought.
This
means that when you are in the zone,
you have virtually no thought going
through your mind whatsoever, your
body is just playing on automatic-pilot,
powered directly by your subconscious
mind.
This
is not to say that your body
is playing without instruction, on
the contrary, it is simply getting
its instructions from a more powerful
and reliable source.
So
how do we get into the zone? Everyone
must find the method that best suits
their needs, but one of the main
ways is to simply practice (in your
daily training) thinking absolutely
nothing while you are hitting!
This
prevents the weaker conscious mind
from giving your body incorrect instructions,
and allows your powerful
subconscious (the sleeping giant
within you, and control center of
all bodily movement) to run your tennis on auto-pilot, as
it is meant to.
Of
course, if you are having a lesson,
doing this is not possible, as your
coach will be asking you to consciously
try different things on court. But
once you are practicing away from your
lesson, allow some time where your
mind goes completely quiet and
see if your standard or level increases. It almost always will.
A
classic example of the Zone is where
someone serves a rocket at you at
200 km/hr - and you reflex back
an amazing return for a screaming
winner down the line. This is the
subconscious at work!
Yet if someone hits
a slow second serve to you,
where you have all the time in
the world, these are often the
returns a player will miss, because
they have too much time to think!
These are the times when the weaker
conscious mind gets involved, and
it's never very pretty when this
happens!
The
zone is a very powerful state that
can help you reach beyond your limitations
to achievements you may have never
realized were possible. Try it, explore
it, master it, and then show the world
what you can do!
