Remember your first tennis tournament? Were you nervous? Did you perform well?

Or have you avoided tennis tournaments because of how you feel when you think about entering them? Fear, nervousness, anger?

I remember my first tournament as an adult. I was nervous and played poorly until I got my nerves under control.

To paraphrase the Bard “There is nothing scary, but thinking makes it so”. Whatever your feelings about a tournament, it is your ‘thinking makes it so’.

If you think of a tennis tournament as a way for you to be publicly embarrassed, you’ll play below your best.

But if you think of a tournament as just another match, perhaps followed by another match, you’ll be much more relaxed and able to play your best and enjoy yourself.

A number of my students are playing in their first tournament this weekend – The City of Fernandina Beach Spring Singles Tennis Tournament.

When I was done writing up my pre-tournament email to my list of students, I realised there are some good fundamental tips that could help all tennis players entering a tournament. So here they are.

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My Zen Tip for your first tournament is to focus on process, not outcome. Focus on HOW (process) to play your best, not the SCORE (outcome).

For example, instead of focusing on future focused outcome thoughts such as

“Oh dear, it’s my first tournament, I don’t want to look stupid”

“oh oh, I’m x-x down, don’t screw up”

“I’m x-x up, I HAVE to win this game!”

Focus rather on present time process thoughts such as

“move your feet”

“loose wrist, follow through”

Or our favorite go to present time standard

“Bounce, Hit”

Stay in the present and focus on process and you’ll have a good time and play well.

Enjoy.

Paul

You can’t play good tennis without good mind control.

That’s one of the reasons I love tennis so much – it teaches you mind control through instant feedback. If you’re not concentrating on the ball when you prepare for a stroke, you’re not going to hit it well.

The first rule of good tennis is to concentrate on the ball. We all know that and we try. But there is subtle interference from the ego that is sometimes difficult to catch and eliminate. It’s what causes you to play so well during the warm up and then tank as soon as the match starts. The cause and solution to this problem is is what we will look at in this article. Read the rest of this entry »

“Love your opponent, because without your opponent you couldn’t lose.” I’m not just talking about tennis….