Hey guys,

The LA Women’s Tennis Championship was amazing, wasn’t it? There was some amazing tennis being played!

There were tie-breakers, match points saved, break points saved, ball crunching serves, and wonderful fans all over. It was quite amazing, and I had a lot of fun.

Now if you watched it (…I know you did b/c we just talked about immersing yourself in the sport and watching professional competition just last week :wink:), you should have picked up some very valuable tips. I sure did.

There was strategy being used from everywhere you could imagine: on the serve, the return, behind the baseline, at the net, and even in the chairs during change overs.

But, you know what the funny part was, with all that great stuff happening, what stuck with me the most didn’t happen while the players were on the court.

It was what was said in the reporter-filled interview session after the very entertaining semi-final battle between Flavia Pennetta and Maria Sharapova.

When asked about how the tempo was being dictated and controlled during the match, Pennetta replied “I was 3-1 down and I was thinking it was over, but I just tried to fight.” “It was a little bit difficult for me. I started to feel a little pressure. She’s a great champion, it was not easy to beat her.”

She was describing a situation that all of us tennis players face no matter the skill level, being behind in a match. And the powerful part was  that she didn’t crumble. She fought back hard! It wasn’t easy. But I can tell you, the  “hard” work paid off, and since then she defeated Sam Stosur in the finals and is now the 2009 women’s champ here in LA.

See, it doesn’t matter if you’re the #1 player in the world or just purchased your first racket this morning, you eventually will find yourself down in a match. But the key is to not let that defeat you. And the first step towards that is understanding what’s happening to you. Then, and only then, will you be able to keep a horrible let down from happening. 

The problem is that you sometimes, don’t have that Pennetta “fight to the end” mindset. On occasion, when things aren’t going your way, you may start to mentally break down.  You allow the defeated thought process to slither into your mind and get you frustrated and even embarrassed.

Some things that’ll probably be swimming around in your head sound like this, “Well, she’s already beating me, she’s probably going to win it anyway,” “I can’t hang with her (…she’s just better than me),” or “Look at all these people watching me make a fool of myself !”  Heck, you even start questioning if you should be on the same court with them period.

All these elements are a product of mental killers like doubt and lack of confidence.  But the funny part is that the reason for that mental error is actually created by very good intentions. Oh yea! It’s because you’re so darn competitive when you’re playing.  You want to win so bad, you try your absolute hardest, and if the things you try don’t work right away, all that negative stuff starts to happen almost instantly.

The important things are:

1. Stay confident. Remind yourself that you deserve to be there just as much as your opponent.  Know that you’re not down and out, until the last point is played.

2. Recall when you’ve been in similar situations and you’ve made a great come back.  That will immediately fill you with life again and you’ll get that “second win” that you’re so desperately looking for.

3. Think Positively: Visualize yourself making good strokes and executing excellent court movement.  See yourself exploiting your opponents weakness and really making him pay for it. It sounds cliche, but it’s true.  Sometimes, you have to “see it to believe it.” If you visualize the opposite, you will only see negative results.

4. Don’t be afraid to change: Yes, using strategy, and having a top-notch game plan is ultra important if you want to win.  But if it’s not working, continuing with the same plan is flat out crazy haha. It’s actually the definition of insanity.  If you keep doing the same thing and looking for different results, that’s insane.

So, you never want to stick with a plan that’s ineffective (…something my coach always told me, and it’s true). If you see something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to alter it or “tweak” it a little. You may just find your opponent’s silver bullet or the kryponite that’ll slay your adversary easier that you thought possible.

5. Realize that the match is a marathon not sprint: There will be ups and downs. So, don’t go ballistic if you lose a game or you miss 1 break-point chance.  There will be opportunities to get it back, trust me.  Just breathe, and head over to the other side to continue the match, because if you let those things get to you, you’ll be digging yourself a deeper and deeper hole that you may not be able to crawl out of.

-

You’re NEVER out of a match until the final applause. So you have to play that way. And I’m telling you, when you make that thunderous comeback to take the victory, that win is 10 times as sweet and feels 10 times as good. I mean, when I was down in the final set at the UCLA Tennis  Academy 5-1 (…0-30), and came back to take it 7-5. You can only imagine the rush I felt. And I became a much better player because of it, and so will you!

Have great day, and and even BETTER game,

Brian Hall, Your Tennis Mind Coach

TennisMindCamp

webmaster@tennismindcamp.com

P.S. What did you think about this tip? If this post helped you in anway, I’d love to hear from you and get your feedback, becuase you guys are the reason why I do this. So, just put your ideas and questions in the blanks below when you can.

Confidence - You Have To Have It!

I’m going to get straight to the point with this one, because it’s extremely important.

Confidence is one of those things you MUST have if you want to win. It’s that simple. Deep down inside, you MUST feel that you can take on any opponent at any given time. Oh yes, I said *ANY* opponent, and I mean it :).

A player who isn’t confident in himself has a high probability of losing the match even before the first ball is hit. So how do obtain this feeling? Well, confidence is generated by your complete mastery of your technique. This means practice and more practice. Aren’t you excited? Before you ask… Nope, there are no shortcuts.

You have to master your strategy and technique. Why? The biggest reason for your lack of confidence is due to your uncertainty. You’re very unsure, and many times, outright lost out there on the court. If you had your strategy down pat, you’d have the necessary tools to guide you in making the right decisions throughout each match you play.

But when you’re clueless and very uncertain, your muscles tense up, your brain cramps up, and fear and frustration set in. Because let’s face it, no one likes to look like they don’t know what they’re doing out there. It’s a part of human nature.

Now, the only way to cure that bug is practice and repetition. And repetition is the mother of skill. But I’m going to be honest with you, getting the motions, movements, and techniques that work best for YOUR individual game plan is going to take some time.

But once you’ve done this, you’ll be prepared for anything. No more uncertainty, and the possibility of surprises out there during the match will be virtually zero. The only person that’ll be surprised out there is the guy on the other side of the net.

Oh and there’s more, when you have a high level of confidence in what you have learned and practiced, it will not only show in your your results but it’ll also show in your movement and body language as well.

Your poise, coolness and ability to clearly show that feeling on your face and in your posture will cause your opponent to really take a step back and say “Wow, this guy must really be good.”

And even if you don’t have a strong enough skill set just yet to beat your opponent outright, that’s completely fine. He’ll certainly think you do. And either way, you’ve just acquired a tremendous psychological advantage. And we all know, when you have the player’s mind in your hands, the victory should soon follow.

My advice to you is this. If you want to excel in tennis, don’t try to act confident. Instead, be confident by putting a lot of elbow grease in your practice and endurance workouts. And you’ll definitely reap the benefits.

Hi there,

Have you played in a high-level tennis match recently? If so, I’m sure you know that having great confidence when you’re playing can instantly take your game to a whole new level.

However, the problem is that a lot of people don’t have the ability to keep their confidence at an all-time high for every single match.

So if you fall into that category (…as does most of the tennis world) and think your confidence could use a huge boost, the mental strategy below may really do the trick.

Concrete Confidence For Tennis 101:

Always remember, you’re going to hit some low points as well as some high points during a match, everyone does in fact. So don’t get down on yourself if you start to slide a little.

If you get stuck thinking about what you’re doing wrong, you’re never going to get out of that rut. I’m telling you,  these things have a way of balancing themselves out more than 97.9% of the time.

And believe me, I understand if you feel that balancing out often takes a lot longer than you’d like. So, a great way to increase your confidence right away is to play some opponents whose games aren’t quite as developed as your own.

Now, to some that may sound cowardly and counter productive, but that’s not the case at all.  Sometimes you can see real progress until you take a step back a little.

Because what is usually the core around the confidence is in the mind not in the game itself.  You need to start feeling good about yourself ASAP. Otherwise you’re going to keep going deeper and deeper into the hole of negativity. And you may never get out.

So, the faster you rack up a few consecutive wins, you’ll see your demeanor and the way you feel about your own game start to shift in the right direction. And you’ll begin to look forward to playing your matches again because you actually feel like you have a real shot at winning them.

Now, one thing is critical.  Don’t get anxious and agitated if the success doesn’t come as rapidly as you might like. The truth is, it may not happen right away.

It may take a couple to more matches than you may anticipate. Just stick with it, and before you know it your confidence will begin to shoot up, and it will show in your results.

If you do that, you’ll be having a lot more fun out there.

It’s always more fun when you win :)!

Have a great Wednesday and an even BETTER GAME!

All the best,
Brian Hall, Head Coach
Tennis Mind Camp
http://www.Myspace.com/TennisMindCamp
webmaster@TennisMindCamp.com

P.S. If you have any suggestions for future tips of the
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reply to this post.