Tennis Mental Toughness

Our 15 top tips to get tennis tough

Over the following modules, we will explore sixteen different strategies/skills/thought processes that will help your tennis psychology. Some of the items overlap with others, some will serve you better at certain times than others. What is certain and proven is that if you use a combination, and if not most of these skills, you will develop a much stronger mindset leading to greater resilience and confidence, and less anxiety along the way. We hope you enjoy the journey.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 1- Accept you don’t always play your best tennis

Acceptance is a part of sport and performers who find it difficult to accept that things happen that they don’t like will find it difficult to progress to their full potential.

Acceptance is needed everywhere in tennis. You accept your physical shape (you might not be as tall as you like), or your fitness limitations, you need to accept decisions and things out of your control. You need to accept that you won’t always play at your best! A nice way to think about this particular aspect is to tell yourself that you’ll play today’s match with the ‘best game’ you bring along today (or even better say the same for each set and ideally game).

Things will go wrong

Have an attitude that things might go wrong or even better things will go wrong! That’s not negative thinking that is positive preparation. This is the sport and the very fact you’re doing this course is you take your sport seriously. Things go wrong – accept it, deal with it and move on.

Challenge poor calls calmly and without expecting a change.

One thing that can really frustrate a player is poor decisions, either from an umpire or opponent. Again, these are things you’re going to have to learn to accept will happen. Be ready and challenge decisions and cals you feel are unfair – BUT – a challenge from a perspective that you’re not trying to overall the decision (you’ll probably fail if you did and feel even worse), but from a perspective of ‘marking their card’ and acknowledging you’re fully aware. Doing this from a calm perspective with the intention of influencing your opponent/umpire not to make too many of these calls going forward could prove a useful strategy.

MYND Activity

Watch the video and answer the question at the end of this module

“Play Average Well“

Whilst in my role as National Performance Manager at the Lawn Tennis Asociation, I had the pleasure to work with two of the best coaches in the world, Paul Annecone (Roger Federer & Pete Sampras) and Brad Gilbert (Andre Agassi & Andy Murray). Both had excellent views on the mental side of the game and one of Paul’s favourites was ‘Play average well”. This was a great mantra as it took the pressure off players to think they had to play exceptionally well every time. They didn’t.

Learn to accept that you are not always going to be playing your 100 percent best. Out of 20 matches played, two may be deemed 100 percent and great, two might be deemed not very good or even ‘rubbish’, but it is how you perform in the other 16 that’s likely to determine your level of success – so have that in mind for 80 percent of the matches you play. It is worth noting too that playing at your 100 percent best does not guarantee to win, just as playing your worst tennis ever does not mean you will lose. Accept that you can do well even when playing below your best.

MYND Take-Away

Accept the things that happen in your tennis game. Learn from them and understand the difference between the things you can improve and the things you cannot change.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 2 – Prepare Excellently

‘Confidence comes from preparation‘

Prepare excellently. When players say to me “I’m anxious about playing today” it normally hides what they are really thinking (even if they don’t realise it). An alternative and the equally true statement would be – “I’m not prepared for this”.

There is no reason not to be the best prepared team in the world

Sir Clive Woodward

There is absolutely no excuse not to be the best-prepared player. Confidence comes from preparation. A lack of confidence comes partly from a feeling of not being sure you’re ready; an uncertainty in how you are going to play or specifically respond to adversity and problems. By being well prepared (technically, tactically, physically and psychologically)

MYND Activity

Watch the video and answer the question at the end of this module

When Sir Clive Woodward was preparing the England team to win the World Cup he gave a challenge to the players. He said they may not necessarily be the best in the world in their position, but there was no excuse not to be the best prepared. A great way to look at it.

MYND Take-Away

Whatever level you are playing at, and whatever time you have to prepare, make sure you use that time wisely and prepare the best you can – physically, technically, tactically and psychologically.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 3 – Never Give Up

Never give up the fight

This Law may sound obvious but it’s not always. Working in many different sports, tennis seemed quite unique in the way the coaches and some players would talk about ‘tanking’ a match – giving up when a player thought they could not win. I do not understand this attitude at any level of sport and it typifies what we call the ego-oriented player – or the player with a fixed mindset. Its win or nothing. If I don’t feel I can beat my opponent I may as well give up – or just as bad feign injury or start blaming others (coach/parent, etc).

The Power of ‘YET’

Watch the video and answer the question at the end of this module

“You might beat me today – but you won’t look forward to playing me again”

Consider you might be playing the same opponent again soon and think about the last message you want to leave them with. Develop this mindset: “If I’m going to lose I’m going to lose trying to win,” or “You might beat me today but you’re never going to want to play me again!”

The game is full of examples who, because of the scoreline and the way the match had been going, believed a loss was in sight, only to see an incredible turn around due to persistence and a strong mindset. Remember tennis is one of the few games where there is no clock – you won’t run out of time, just psychological will.

MYND Take-Away

Always work hard until the very last point. No matter how the score is going, there will be things you can work on during those tough times to make small changes. Keep in there and you’ ll never know what might happen. give up and you will.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 4 – No outcome ‘musts’

Have no outcome ‘musts’ or ‘shoulds’ in competition

Having outcome ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’ is a sure way to add pressure to your play (unless you are 100 per cent confident in achieving your targets). It makes sense to stop having ‘must-win’ points when they are not. Likewise, a ‘must-win’ match could add unnecessary pressure. Putting a ‘must’ in adds potential pressure and at a guess, the times you use ‘must’ are not must situations at all. The downside is that losing a MUST point leads to a bigger MUST point and thus even more pressure.

When training, however, the situation is different. Make your training ‘shoulds’ into ‘musts’! Most players know what they ‘should’ do, and how they ‘should’ train. They know what they ‘should’ eat and when they ‘should’ rest. But players don’t always do what they should do!

MYND Take-Away

Rather than focussing on ‘musts’ during the competition, focus on what you’ve been working on in training and your game strategy exclusively. It will be a much better use of your energy and will help you achieve the best game at that particular time.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 5 – Develop a ‘No Excuse’ attitude

One thing that really stood out for me when I was working with the gold medal-winning Great Britain boxing team was their no-excuse attitude. Whenever they stepped into the ring they agreed that they were fit enough to fight and had prepared the best they could, so there would be no excuse if they lost. The message is clear: stop making excuses for defeats. Accept they are part of the journey. Plan for things that can go wrong and stick to your plan. Be realistic and honest. Accept personal responsibility for improving every day. If you lose, lose because on the day your opponent played better tennis and not that they were mentally stronger or physically fitter, for example.

Self Handicapping Behaviour

Some players resort to looking for reasons to fail – or more specifically, looking for reasons during tough matches that they can tell everyone afterwards that is why they lost. An example of this is a player continually rubbing is thigh during a tough match to indicate to his opponent and anyone else who is watching – I’m losing because of my thigh injury everyone – have you noticed”. The excuses could extend to any other external factor and ends up being debilitating for any performer. This type of activity and behaviour is referred to as self-handicapping as it will immediately put you in a disadvantaged position. The sooner you realise that no one really cares why you lose you could turn your attention to getting the most out of your performance irrespective of any niggles or frustrations you are feeling.

MYND Take-Away

Leave the excuses for others. Even if you believe you have one no one wants to hear it. Work hard, prepare well and accept the outcome.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 6 – Expect the best and prepare for the worst

Look at every ‘what if?’ scenario & have a plan to deal with it

Many performers will come unstuck under adversity when they fail to prepare for those ‘unexpected’ moments, They will always come so prepare for worst-case scenarios. Some of the most successful athletes and coaches I have worked with have sessions specifically to talk about the “What-ifs”. They discuss all the potential things that could go wrong and equip themselves with the mindset and strategy to deal with that issue. It’s not being negative it’s positive preparation. Preparing for predictable problems. You won’t face something that has never happened to someone else before!

Many players and coaches do not discuss adverse scenarios because they believe this can be deemed to chip away at a player’s confidence. But discussing dealing with adversity can have a really positive effect. I’ve worked with players who are open enough to look at different match scenarios and can calmly envisage what they would do in a certain (stressful) situation, only to find themselves in precisely that situation, where they feel a calmness and expectancy to cope well. The fact that the adversity may not occur is no reason not to talk about it as a possibility.

MYND Activity

Watch the video below and answer the question at the end of this module

Working with a world-class performer one time, I asked how he would cope if X happened and he said “You’re supposed to be making me feel good and positive – that won’t happen so can we talk about good stuff’. We didn’t. It did and he was ready.

MYND Take-Away

When you’re well-prepared you feel much more confident. Look at different what-if scenarios you may encounter and work out in advance what you will do for each. Now expect the best to happen and play the age you do I training.

In the next module, we’ll explore mistakes and how you can reframe them

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 7- Be ready for the mistakes

One mistake doesn’t lose you the match

Earlier we spoke about accepting things that happen during a match and moving on; this could relate to things that are going well, in addition to these things not going so well, momentum swings and decisions outside of your control. In this module, we specifically focus on mistake management.

Many players not only berate themselves profusely when they make a mistake, but they also allow that one mistake to start a period of further mistakes (because they do not ‘let go’ or focus on the present). These players believe that mistake was so significant it will cost them the match. Invariably it doesn’t, but what ensues does.

Remember, mistakes happen. A lot. It is OK to make mistakes… they are part of the game. Remember also that the impact of one mistake on the result of the match is generally minimal – unless it is the last shot!

By studying and analysing matches you will quickly come to realise that you might play well over 100 shots, and possibly over 150. If the game is tight that means you will have lost around half of the shots (50), as too would your opponent. Many of those 50 lost points would have been your mistakes. Allow yourself 50 mistakes in a tough game before you start getting or get concerned!

A detailed analysis may show that it wasn’t those mistakes that happened that cost you matches or sets, but your response to them. As an example take a look at the 6 points following an error; how did you respond? Could you have done better? This simple exercise has proved invaluable to many clients in the past.

MYND Take-Away

Get your focus on your game plan and your good play, not your mistakes.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 8 – Check the meaning

This module is closely linked to the previous one, mistakes and mistake management, and will help you understand the resons mistakes can play havoc with your mind.

Attributions

Attributions are crucial in sport in terms of motivation and confidence. If you attribute a good shot down to luck rather than all the hard work you put into training, you’ll be less likely to persevere to repeat it. Likewise, if you attribute an opponent winning shot down to the fact they are better than you, as opposed to the easy set up you gave, you’re more likely to repeat the mistake. Correct attribution is critical to success.

It is not a mistake that makes you angry or frustrated, it is the meaning you put on that mistake. Making a double fault doesn’t cause any stress per se – but if you think this means you are playing badly and will lose, or it means your opponent will think you’re no good, or it means your coach will think you are a poor player, and so on, then it is this meaning attached to the mistake that can cause anxiety and stress. Check what meaning you attach to mistakes and try to rationalise the truth behind.

Why did that happen? Why did it really happen?

Always ask yourself – was that really why that happened, when you find yourself putting debilitating meanings to actions. Then come up with other reasons that are perhaps closer to the truth and easier to help you move forward.

MYND Take-Away

When you find yourself putting an unreasonable reason against a mistake you make or opponent success, dispute the reason and find alternative answers.

Compartmentalise your shots

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 9 – Compartmentalise Your Shots

Check your thinking.

We indulge in many strange and debilitating thinking errors and often tell ourselves stories that are not entirely true. These stories then become our beliefs which in turn become our behaviours. In sport, these behaviours can have a catastrophic impact on performance. One such think error is over generalising. This is where, when one small thing is going wrong (e.g., your backhand cross-court) then it becomes ‘I’m playing rubbish today” and everything deteriorates. You might alternatively say “My backhand is not going as well today as it could” or better still only “my cross-court backhand isn’t going as well as I would like” – leaving more space to hit other shots well, including backhands down the line!

If you start a match at a confidence level of 8/10 and you play a few poor forehands, your entire game can, if you’re not careful, deteriorate into a 5/10 game, or worse. To prevent this happening, grade all your shots, for example, forehand 8/10; backhand 7/10; serve 9/10. When one-shot is not going great (which WILL HAPPEN), then you are less likely to transfer this to all your other shots. Your game may then go from an 8/10 to 7/10 for a period of time. This way of thinking (that poor form on one shot is temporary) is optimistic thinking and will help avoid dragging your whole game down.

MYND Take-Away

By developing an ability to compartmentalise your shots, one poor shot does not immediately affect your whole game. It makes so much sense.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 11- Be A Calm Reviewer

When did you last make a great plan when you were totally stressed out?

Train yourself to be able to calmly review what is happening in tough situations and come up with good solutions to problems. The ability to make good decisions depends partly on the ability to be able to remain calm, and review what has happened and what you need to do next.

T-CUP Thinking

A mantra that Sir Clive Woodward developed with his World Cup Winning Rugby squad was to be T-CUP thinkers/reviewers – This meant Thinking Correctly Under Pressure (or you might say calmly) and the quality was taken from training with the army and SAS personnel, whose job is to do exactly that.

Release, review, reset

Having a good post-shot routine (e.g. respond, review, reset) could be ideal in any situation so that your focus knows where to go when it needs to go there.

MYND Take-Away

A good routine will help you reset better for the only important point in the match – the one you’re about to play. Rather than respond emotionally to all mistakes, by all means, be emotional. THEN allow yourself to calm before reviewing and resetting.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 12 – Relish The Opportunity

Pressure is a privilege

Billy Jean King

Be mindful that you do not put loads of pressure on yourself to win every match. Whilst you will strive to do this, in practice it will be unreasonable. Remember this – As there are so many competitions available to show improvements. By having a focus on blocks of time or a number of tournaments in which to achieve specific objectives, you can reduce the ‘pressure to achieve NOW’ mindset that may be holding you back.

Tennis offers great opportunities to ‘put things right’ next time, whether that is the next shot, game, set or match.

Don’t be distracted by what has just happened. Focus on the next opportunity every time.

In matches, even if you are going through a really bad patch, there will always be new opportunities coming up next, that maybe the next match, but equally it may be the next set, game or point. Don’t get distracted by what has just happened focus on the next opportunity every time.

MYND Activity

Watch the video and answer the question at the end of this moduleTennis of the module

Five Life & Tennis Lessons from Roger Federer

5. Learn from loss – “Losses make you stronger and it’s important that you learn from your mistakes and know where you have to improve”

4. Have a Constant Quest to improve “I am always asking myself – what do I need to change?…for me [always doing the same]or staying the same means going backwards

3. Have Targeting Goals: “It’s not enough to love it and do it, you need to have structured goals. Goals for the short-term and goals for the long-term. It doesn’t work without any goals

2. Keep calm under stress: “I screamed, swore and threw my racket…. I was embarrassed. [I changed when] I challenged positive energy into my game and my self…”

1. Play to your strength and believe in yourself: “[Rather than look at my weaknesses…] I like to work on my strengths”….”

MYND Take-Away

At the top of this module is one of my favourite quotes from Billie Jean King. Look at every moment, every match, every shot as a unique opportunity to do something special. Enjoy those moments and opportunities.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 13- Control The Controllables.

What can you control?

Most of what players worry about are the non-controllable factors including opponents, losing, other peoples’ opinions, coach reactions, and mistakes. Instead, train yourself to effect the things you can effect and ignore (as best you can) the rest. Remember, it is not what happens but the ability to respond to what happens that makes a champion. Challenge yourself to be a great ‘responder’.

By taking some time to really consider the things in tennis (and life) that you can control, and those you cannot, you will quickly notice that it is the uncontrollable factors that cause the most stress. Think of it like this – if you cannot control it then why even invest any of your time, energy or thoughts to go there? If you can control it, great. Put all of your attention there to maximise the opportunity of getting what you want!

MYND Take-Away

Decide what the things are you can control and those you can’t and focus on the former. Exclusively.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 14 – Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Get used to it. These feelings can follow you through your whole career.

When I first heard this phrase I couldn’t quite get my own head around it. Be comfortable being uncomfortable? How and why would I want to be uncomfortable? It took some time to think about the concept and see how useful it actually is. Sport is a challenge. Invariably you are competing with an opponent to win. Its competition. The tougher the challenge the more uncomfortable it can become. Think about that discomfort of ‘pressure situations’ (more on these in another course). If you could take that feeling and accept you’ll have it in every, or most, situations when you compete, wouldn’t it be useful to accept that and get used to it? Of course, it would. So actually enjoy those moments of discomfort because they tell you you are where you want to be – competing at the level you are and looking to progress to where it; will be even more uncomfortable!

Remember too, if you’re feeling uncomfortable, your opponent may, most likely, be feeling similar. Another way to look at this is to tell yourself that “we’re both feeling uncomfortable, I’m going to handle it better than you and then try and make you even more uncomfortable”. By externalizing the issue toward your opponent, you’ll add another benefit in that it will reduce your own internal feelings of anxiety.

Routines will help you out

This is another situation where solid routines will come in handy for you. Routines get you where you want to be when you want to be there, so develop a routine that includes something you do (e.g. look at your racket strings) and something you think (e.g. “Ok, I’ve trained for this moment, remember the strategy for the next point and focus on my ball toss at the serve”).

MYND Take-Away

Rather than let times of discomfort get to you in tough situations, this is where you can come into your own by expecting the discomfort and having an “I’m okay with this” attitude.

The Laws of Tennis Toughness: Law 15- 2nd Set Challenge

2nd Set Challenge. Why can players win the first

Having worked in many sports where a clock and timing is involved, it was a strange concept that in tennis, some players never kept up their commitment to the end of a match. We saw this in one of the previous modules “Never Give Up”. So it was strange for me to see a player battle really hard in a first set to lose on a tie break or 4-6, the only to go out in the second set and not win a game, it quickly became apparent that the fight of a close-fought first set had drained the player, not so much physically, but psychologically. The thought process would go along the lines of “I put absolutely everything into that set and still lost. I’ve got no chance”. And so the second set becomes a formality for the opponent.

One game can tip the match – and you don’t know which game that will be.

Set yourself a second set challenge forever match to do better in the second set than the first. This applies equally if you win 6-4 or lose 4-6. Your mindset would be to take more games (or set a target that your opponent does not as many games) in the second set as the first set. Whilst this is an outcome goal and so not totally in your control, the mindset is very useful and I have seen matches turned on their head when players I work with go into matches with this attitude. Sometimes winning one game can be a tipping point – and you never know what game that is going to be – so imagine it’s the one your playing now.

MYND Take-Away

Develop a belief that if you can win X games in the first set, with a little more effort, focus, and strategy, you could win one more in the second set.

Mind Your Language

By now you will have a really good idea of things you might benefit from focussing on during a challenging match, and maybe even more importantly, things to avoid. The later (avoidance of debilitative thoughts and behaviours) will come simply as a by-product of where you put your focus and attention. In this module, you’re challenged to be conscious of the quality of your self-talk, and specifically, the questions you ask yourself.

We started the course and challenged you to start being more aware of how you speak to yourself, and specifically the questions you ask yourself – sometimes you won’t even be aware until you take the time to listen and think.

“Why do you always make that mistake”

• “Why do I always mess up when////”

• “Why am I such an idiot”

• How can I hit the net on that shot!”

• “Why did I hit it there?”

These are examples of stupid questions that reinforce mistakes and behaviours that are detrimental to your performance. Instead, train yourself to ask much more useful, present ad future directive questions:”

• “How can I improve that shot next time?

• “What do I need to do now in order to…?”

You can see how much more useful these questions would be in order to both direct your thought processes and stop you dwelling on an error.

Well Done You! – almost there….

Congratulations on almost finishing this short course. We hope you enjoyed it and learned some new skills (or refreshed some you already had), and are able to put these into practice into your game. Doing the steps on a regular and consistent basis over a three month period will help to engrain them as habits – and remember, we all need reminders to train our minds. Look at it like going to the gym – regular, often and from time to time reviewing your progress and looking at fresh ways to stimulate you.

A Summary of the 15-step guide to being tennis tough

• Module T1: The Law of Acceptance

• Module T2: Prepare Excellently

• Module T3: Never Give Up

• Module T4: No ‘musts’ & ‘shoulds’ in competition

• Module T5: No Excuses

• Module T6: Check your expectations

• Module T7: Mistakes Happen

• Module T8: Attributions – Check the Meaning

• Module T9: Compartmentalise Your Shots

• Module T10: No ‘bad days’

• Module T11: Be a calm Reviewer (T-CUP)

• Module T12: Relish the Opportunities

• Module T13: Control the Controllables

• Module T14: Be Comfortable being Uncomfortable

• Module T15: 2nd Set Challenge

• Module 16: Mind Your Language