The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s newest book, The Soft Science of Tennis. Click Here to Order through Amazon
My neighbor, Pete, owns Pete’s Home Repair Specialist. He’s a super friendly independent contractor. Due to his excellent soft science personal skills, Pete’s always in high demand. His decades of experience have taught him that detailed preparation prevents poor performance. Pete’s truck is like an encyclopedia of tools organized by alphabet and ready for action. Though Pete doesn’t need all of his tools at every job, he brings every tool, just in case he needs it.
This analogy is very similar to a high-performance tennis player’s tool belt. In matches, they may not need to employ every skill set developed in their tool belt, but they do need to have primary and secondary strokes ready for competition, as well as multiple patterns and plays developed and prepared to be accessed if needed. Life skills, such as preparation improve the athlete’s confidence, inner dialogue, and of course, solution-based self-coaching skills.
“In the heat of battle, the voice inside each athlete is their driving force.”
In match play, an athlete’s internal dialog is their self-coaching. Internal dialog is the conversation their ego is having with themselves. Athletes have a habitual way they choose to navigate their matches. When they see competition in a negative light, their internal dialog is dark. Conversely, when they “see pressure as a privilege,” to quote Billy Jean King, their self-coaching is more positive, uplifting, and optimistic. The question is: Where did the athlete learn their internal dialog mantras?
An athlete’s negative, problem-oriented inner dialog sabotages their performance by interfering with their quiet mind. To some athletes, negative inner dialog spirals them into a self-defeating, under-arousal state. To others, it pushes them into a panicked, over-arousal state. Both are detrimental to performance. As I mentioned earlier, an athlete’s non-stop inner dialogue is either helping or hurting their performance. Intermediate athletes are known to sabotage their play by criticizing themselves, worrying about losing and inventing post-match catastrophic conclusions during competition.
How to Strengthen Self Coaching Solution#1:
Video Analysis
One method of combating the athlete’s negative self-dialog begins with videotaping tournament matches and providing non-hitting match play video analysis. This process accesses the specific stressful environment that needs to be studied.
As the high IQ coach quantifies the match data alongside the athlete, I recommend identifying how the athlete’s inner dialog helped or hurt their performance. Were they able to self-coach successfully? When providing match play analysis, remember to apply the five optimistic comments for every one pessimistic statement. Following are video analysis topics the athlete and coach would be wise to discuss.
Match Play Video Analysis
- Strokes & Movement Efficiencies & Deficiencies
- Anticipatory Efficiencies & Deficiencies
- Staying on Script. (Top 7 Patterns)
- Opponent Profiling
- Between Point & Change-Over Rituals & Routines
- Emotional Control
- Focus Control
- Cause of Errors
- Court Positioning Cause & Effect
- Score Management
Athletes who are trained to monitor their emotions and inner dialog via post-match video analysis are much more likely to become aware of the software complexities of competition.
