Roger Federer smash shot leaves opponents baffled at Brisbane Invitational
Tag Archive for 'Tennis'
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Although many coaches recognize the decisive role played by the mind in favor/hinder the sport performance, there are still many who think that mental difficulties are overcome by training more or participating in more competition. Typically those who think in this way are convinced that at some point the athlete will be unlocked and will start for him/her a new winning phase of the career. Briefly, you have to compete, gain experience and then, won the first tournament, things will settle. I meet many athletes and they tell me stories like these one but with a different and negative end, because they still have the same problems, affecting more and more their self-confidence. They say that they train well and in competition they always repeat the same mistakes. I then explain, what I have repeated hundreds of times and that is that to have the technical skill (whatever sport) does not mean to know how to cope with the race, which is a different thing. When these athletes become aware of this difference, usually calm down and at this point I can explain to them that follow a program of mental coaching is really helpful to learn how to drive your own mind in the race.
Nadal says that tennis is a difficult and lonely sport in which the mental aspect is dominant over everything else. It’s a description of this game, profession, explaining in a few words how hard it’s to be successful in court, and contains in itself the reason why so many young players leave but very few become high-level players, and became part of the top 100 in the world. Tennis is a sport that challenge the self-confidence, because at the end of each game one loses and one wins and this is repeated many many times, spaced a few seconds apart. Submit themselves to this subtle torture it’s what the players love and hate, but when you are in this meat grinder of ups and downs, which stimulate contrasting feelings only few resist the temptation to give up and maintain high confidence in themselves .
At 35 years old Tommy Haas is the oldest tennis player at the U.S. Open. How did a player of this age do to maintain a mental approach so effective that it is still 13 in the world? A video of 2007 during the quarterfinals of the Australian Open opens a window on his thoughts in a very stressful moment. In fact, the video shows the Tommy Haas self talk during a break. Dialogue mainly negative and offensive to himself but with some positive statements almost exclusively centered on the result to get (do not go to the net, you can win, you will win the match, you cannot lose it, fight). In this case, the system that Haas has used with himself was useful as he won that match. Sport psychologists emphasize the importance of having a positive dialogue with yourself, centered not on the result to be achieved but on the actions to be performed. Although it is important to teach this positive approach to young people, in my work I have lived many situations where the negative dialogue has served as a motivational drive to provide the best performance. I met athletes in the break between two trials or before a final passing long minutes to insult themselves as Haas and then at some point ask: “Tell me something positive” and some times I talked about the sacrifices that had done to get to that point and other times of the obstacles and races who had won for being there, at that point they changed attitude and said: “Now go and do it” rather than “Ok! I will give my best.” They are almost always kept their word.
A few weeks after the historic triumph at Wimbledon, Marion Bartoli retires from tennis. The 28-year old French player has announced through her tears, admitting she cannot longer bear the pain caused by her injuries. “My body is starting to fall apart, I managed to hold them together going through the pain during Wimbledon,” said Bartoli after the match lost against the Romanian Halep. “Everyone will remember my title at Wimbledon. None this last game, “continued the French – clarifying how it was “a difficult decision to make. I had the opportunity to turn my biggest dream into reality. And I really pushed myself beyond the extreme limits to make it happen. Now, however – she added – I cannot continue to do it. “
A reader wrote asking for a comment:
“on a tennis player Francesca Schiavone as she has a lot of potential and recently in many games when then she earns points she starts to make some rookie mistakes like double errors and direct mistakes. How is this possible?”
I do not follow the matches of Francesca Schiavone and then I have no idea of how many are in percentage terms this kind of errors and how they affect the result, it’s any way possible to talk about these types of errors.
Physical problems – the courts requires optimal physical condition otherwise it’s difficult to maintain the quality of the game. It’s possible to play well some games and then make mistakes even trivial because the body “takes a break” to recovery.
Concentration problems – The concentration is another aspect whose presence must be constant during each game and it’s influenced by the physical shape. It’s also influenced by the thoughts and moods that the athlete develops after an error and therefore it interferes with the ability to refocus on the next game.
Toughness problems – A long sports career also wears the toughness. It is not easy to maintain an high desire to succeed.
Italian sport is increasingly dominated by women, tennis, fencing, swimming, athletics are an example. It ‘s a phenomenon that reflects what happens in society, in fact even at school the girls perform better than boys and at work is increasingly difficult to limit their success. It’s time that happened, finally 50% of the world is no longer excluded.
Do you want to stop losing in court through no fault of your opponent,
but because you do not control your thoughts and your emotions?
All the secrets of mental training in tennis:
4 fundamental objectives to control your game by controlling your mind, your emotions and your thoughts.
In 12 years + manual online contest
Since few days Fabio Fognini is among the top 20 best tennis players and a few points off from 15th position. It’s an important result for the Italian men’s tennis because, along with Seppi, have achieved a success that was missing for 17 years as can be seen in the ranking below.
