Article 1:

 

Djokovic’s Toughest Opponent: Himself

 

 

 

Many tennis players are their own worst enemy when it comes to the mental game of tennis. When you’re your own worst enemy, you beat yourself and critisize yourself for making too many unforced errors or mistakes on easy shots. You’re impatient about success, going for too much, too quickly. You try too hard to make it happen, rather than just letting it happen.

You might beat yourself up after mistakes and put too much pressure on yourself. In essence, you sell yourself short and don’t give yourself a chance to succeed. You show signs of fragile confidence and question whether or not you deserve to succeed.

Novak Djokovic said that he was his own worst enemy during the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Djokovic lost to Andy Murray in straight sets.

“Yet again, I was, I think, the biggest enemy to myself. I was struggling again and adjusting to the heat. But I was really impatient on the start. Made a huge number of unforced errors, and he [Murray] was just playing very solid and waiting for his chances and serving quite well, moving all over the court quite good” said Novak Djokovic.

In order to become your own best friend, you must be patient and believe in your tennis skills. The top players in the world make adjustments in their strategy based on the weather or court conditions.

The key to a strong mind game is to prepare mentally for any challenge you’ll face during a match. If you anticipate a long match, you’ll want to know how to stay patient and react your best in that situation. You might think about what happens to your game when you start doubting yourself and how to shore up your confidence.

If you prepare mentally for any mental or physical game challenge such as heat or fatigue, you’ll feel confident that you can cope with it. I want my students to be proactive with the mental game. If you’re not thinking positively on the court and are your own best friend, you give your opponent the advantage before you even begin the match.

 

 

 

Article 2:

Emotional Control Leads Azarenka to Win

 

 

Tennis players can experience strong emotions during match play. Positive emotions, such as experiencing the thrill of hitting a winner can have a powerful effect on your mental game and thus boost your confidence and focus during the match. Feeling positive emotions, such as momentum, can help keep your run going strong.

Negative emotions, such as frustration or anger, can hurt your game. Tennis players feel upset, frustrated or angry for several different reasons. You might become upset after missing shots you have no trouble executing in practice. You might feel angry with yourself after making a poor decision on shot selection or strategy. You might even become frustrated with an opponent’s bad line call.

Whatever the cause of your frustration, a process I call “dwelling on the past” happens and causes you to lose focus on the match. You may carry your frustration with you to the next point or shot causing more mistakes and lower confidence in your game.

Staying composed is critical to improving your mental game of tennis. Victoria Azarenka is an excellent example of staying composed on the court. She experienced the biggest win of her career so far, beating Serena Williams in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open last week.

“I was more consistent and more aggressive. I would say I was always trying to put pressure and I was just believing in myself so much. No matter what, I have to play and keep going and I can win. I think I controlled [my emotions] very well for the first big final. I wasn’t getting upset on any ball. I was just happy to play every point,” said Victoria Azarenka.

Often in my work as a mental game coach to athletes, I see athletes become frustrated because they are blocked from reaching their expectations. The solution is to modify your unrealistic or strict expectations. Your expectations might be about stats (number of winners for example) or results (beating someone in two sets). When you don’t achieve those high expectations, you become frustrated easily and might lose confidence.

Here’s you mental game tip for today: Understand that you can’t be perfect in tennis and always play up to your high expectations. Give yourself the luxury of making 3-4 errors per match. This way you can put mistakes behind you and move on to the next point. Learn from your mistakes instead of beat yourself up for a lost chance or opportunity.

 

 

By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D. - Sports Psychology Tennis