Mind
Training for Tennis Tip
3
You
Are Always Talking To
Yourself On Court
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What
thoughts and emotions go through
your mind during a match? Actually, thousands of
thoughts and plenty of emotions -
and these have a huge effect upon
your match results on court.
Not
only that, but even words you say during
a match can have a major effect upon
your results!
Humans
think approximately 60,000 thoughts
a day, and on court is no different
- you talk to yourself constantly on
court.
It is the quality of
these thoughts which is important
however - as it is now well-known
that negative thoughts
lead to classic problems such as
fear, extreme nervousness, intimidation,
lack of belief, worrying about
'uncontrollables' (ie. things out of our control),
uncharacteristic errors, anger, frustration
...and so on.
This
is not surprising when you discover
that all of your tennis experience (ie.
every stroke you have made in your
lifetime) is recorded in the archives
of your memory bank, and this entire
'computer file of your tennis experience'
lies within your subconscious mind,
right now.
Your
subconscious happens to be the control-center
of all movement (which makes it pretty
important to your level of tournament
play), and it functions just
like a computer. In fact, computers
were originally modelled upon the
subconscious, and this mental computer
is being constantly programmed by
the thoughts, words, statements and
emotions you use regularly on (and
off) the court.
What
this all means is this: Think negative
thoughts during a match, and you
will (generally) get a negative result.
No question.
Likewise,
program your mind positively
with powerful words, images and emotions (and get
rid of any mental roadblocks which
may have been holding you back), and
you will get vastly improved results.
Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.
This
is all now common everyday knowledge,
tested many times in university experiments
- so this is no longer theory, it
is simple truth!
Simply
by changing the thoughts you think during a
match may help you to transform your
results in future tournaments.
So
how can you do this? One of the best
ways to overcome negative thoughts
directly before and during a
match is to use a mantra.
This
is an ancient and world-renowned technique,
where you simply repeat (in your mind)
a few positive, powerful words - over
and over again between points. This
does two things; it focuses the mind
onto the positive, and it prevents
your mind from focusing up negative
thoughts.
An
example of this would be where you
repeat a mantra such as 'power and
control' several times in between
points during your match, which
keeps your mind focused and
thinking positively - regardless
of the point.
Then
the point begins and your mind instantly
goes blank again (as this is the
mental state which puts you in 'the
zone') - but when the point finishes,
you go back into your mantra again
until the next point begins.
This
also helps ensure your emotions remain
under control - which is essential,
as frustration is one of the
main reasons why players often lose
the second set 6-1 after they have
lost the first set 7-6! If you keep
yourself mentally under control, you
can wear down your opponent
relentlessly, even if you lose the
first set. How often do you see a score
like 6-7 6-4 6-1 - pretty common!
The
greatest boxer of all-time, Muhammad
Ali, used "I am the greatest" as
his mantra to great effect - he became
the greatest boxer who ever lived.
You
can just as easily make up your own mantra
using your own words, but ensure you
keep them short, positive (ie.
no words such as 'lose'), and present-tense (eg.
'powerful and steady', not 'I will
be powerful and steady'). This
is very important for them to work
properly (for reasons I do not have
time to go into here).
So
try a mantra in between points and
see if it makes a difference to your
results - my guess is that it will
create massive improvements in your
results.
