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 »

Federer is often mentioned as the best watcher of the ball onto the racquet in tennis. But you can’t be a good tennis player without watching the ball well – lots of other players do it well too.

Watching the ball is such an essential fundamental, but it is not really practiced. Normally the coach just says “Watch the ball!”

The simplest way to trick yourself into watching the ball is Timothy Gallwey’s bounce hit exercise. It’s super simple and it works really well. All you have to do is say “bounce” when the ball hits the ground, and say “hit” when your racquet hits the ball. You’ll probably notice your timing is a little off when you first start this exercise, but after a while you’ll notice more balls go in as your timing improves.

Here’s a super slow motion video of Almagro and his lovely one handed backhand from the 2010 French Open Quarter Final against Rafael Nadal. Straight arm at contact out in front of the body, and watching that ball all the way onto the racquet

As I’ve said in my lessons, when you approach the net you do 2 things.

1. Split step as your opponent hits the ball

2. Stamp your front foot and the racket down at the same time as you strike the ball

But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a moving picture of Andy Roddick doing exactly what I told him.

I’ve put it on loop playback so you can visualize yourself doing it while watching.

If you’ve been playing tennis for a while, you’ve probably experienced it. Yes, the dreaded T-bo, also known as Tennis Elbow, or lateral epicondylitis.

Tennis elbow is an inflammation of the tendons joining the forearm muscles to the elbow. Mostly it is the muscles that lift you hand upwards (if your palm is facing the ground). These muscles are used in the spin serve, and to my surprise, in the one-handed backhand. They’re over used and cause inflammation if you have bad technique. That’s where my T-bow came into the picture.

In this article we’ll look at the common poor tennis techniques that can cause tennis elbow. We’ll also look at why the conventional medical explanation of inflamed tendons, or lateral epicondylitis, often doesn’t lead to recovery and what might be a better solution. Read the rest of this entry »

ZennisTip: Top players play the ‘big’ points right. Lower players get tight (mental) & make errors. Top players let go & play their game.

ZenTennTip: The body-mind is over 400 times faster than the rational mind for physical action. Conclusion: Quiet the mind for better tennis

ZenTen Tip: Think of the ball as an object of meditation. Practice concentration by being completely focused and present with the ball.

Zen Ten Princ: There are no booming forehands or tricky slices coming at you. There is just a ball coming over the net.

ZenTen Principle: You can not change anything you are not aware of.