This is an article “Training Your Young Champions The Importance Of Mental Toughness” by Marc Pulisci
Every budding tennis player must know that psychological principles are essential for the sport, even before picking up their first racket. That's because tennis combines physical training and mental toughness to control stress, excitement, and pressure levels. For instance, in recent tours, we have seen neck-and-neck competition between the current crop of top players. These days, only a select few exhibit the type of mental strength that leads to titles, while we also see players agonize in defeat after a grueling battle on the court.
Teaching players the importance of mental toughness while they are young will help manage their expectations and prevent a defeatist spirit as they progress with their training. The key is to help them develop an attitude that keeps their eyes on the prize regardless of failure, injury, and setbacks. A good cohesion between mind and body maximizes their potential as prized players and opens their mindset toward improvement.
The importance of mental toughness in tennis
Remember the ever-inspiring Serenity Prayer? It tells us that we should develop the capacity to “accept the things we cannot change” and “the courage to change what we can”. More importantly, it tells us that it's vital to “have the wisdom to know the difference”. The same applies to a young student when being taught about mental toughness. Knowing the difference and controlling what you can breed resilience against what you lack power over.
For example, knowing that your opponent is stronger than you in forehands and backhands can prompt you to exploit other weaknesses such as speed and footwork. However, mental strength and resilience are never innate among tennis players, and many have to learn through practice and exercise to develop inner strength, intuition, and game IQ.
In tennis history, Swiss legend Martina Hingis remains the youngest grand slam singles champion in the Open era at 16 when she won the 1997 Australian Open title. She defeated American Mary Pierce, who had just turned 22 at the time. Hingis won two more grand slam titles out of the year's four after that.
Two years later, she suffered a meltdown after losing to German record-holder and then 30-year old Steffi Graf at the French Open finals. Hingis disputed a line call and turned furiously towards the umpire, which caused an uproar from the fans who booed her. Later that year, she lost another match against a 16-year old Jelena Dokic during the first round at Wimbledon and had trouble rebounding from her losses in the latter years of her career. The fact is that nurturing mental toughness should be a continuous process as a player matures.
Grow with the game
To illustrate the development of mental toughness, players should keep abreast of how the game is changing every season and how the crowd can also become an important factor during a match. Japanese star Naomi Osaka was recently brought to tears during a match when a female fan heckled her from the stands. Osaka has always been outspoken about her struggles with depression in the past, despite her promising future in tennis.
Every coach should know that mental resilience is not innate among players, and their on and off-court experiences can help develop their mental mettle. Preparing players to withstand stress and pressure on the court also means turning failures and adversities into building blocks of character development.
In competitive tennis, frustrations are typically high and it can be difficult for some players to remain calm and collected with every mistake. Take legendary Swiss champion Roger Federer, for example. A younger Federer used to show how easily upset he could get and how it affected his game. Many recall an incident during his 2001 match against Franco Squillari when he smashed his racket to express his dismay over a defeat.
Fortunately, the champion that Federer truly is learned to develop how his mighty hand and legs can work together with an equally strong mind. He soon became one of the top players today, with 21 grand slam titles to date. However, Federer did have to work extremely hard to attain his total transformation.
Developing mental toughness
Some tennis coaches train their players to develop mental toughness by pitting them against opponents with inferior skills to build their confidence. Many renowned players started at Challenger tournaments to get them familiar with the concept of winning before they progressed into higher tiers of competition.
This technique allows players to know whether they are doing well or otherwise during a match. A player's mind will focus on success instead of failure and force him to improve his on-court consistencies during training.
Remember, when developing their mental toughness, always compliment successful shots and avoid criticizing the bad ones. Refrain from correcting them so they will have time to process their mistakes independently and deal with them accordingly. Remind them that even today's top players like Federer, Rafael Nadal, or Novak Djokovic miss a few easy shots from time to time and fall at the hands of lesser players.
The peak performance zone
The key is to keep their mind on realistic outcomes to develop control and composure during a match. Convince them that they have what it takes to win when they come face to face with higher seeded players on the court. Again, this brings us back to the importance of the Serenity Prayer– accept realities and find other ways to fight opponents through controllable aspects of the match.
Most coaches will call this type of player realization the 'peak performance zone' which, according to American legend Jimmy Connors, gives truth to how the world’s top players apply better mental strategies than solely relying on physical capabilities. Players can control their stress, pressure, and excitement when in the zone by simply playing their best.
The peak performance zone also states that 95% of a match is played mentally. Coaches should develop three things:
A player's ability to focus on tasks regardless of how a match is currently going
The foresight on how a play will go according to his control
An autopilot mode that will let him enjoy the match instead of monitoring mistakes
Once a player is familiar with the zone, he will automatically grasp tactical patterns and make appropriate adjustments for the win.
Comments