The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers!
COMPETITIVE DRAMAS: INTERNAL STRUGGLES
Personal Promise
Performance goal setting often starts with an athlete’s personal promise. This is done before the match in the “morphing into an athletic warrior” phase of the pre-match preparation.
An example of an athlete’s personal promise sounds like this:
“Today I will remain in my peak performance frame of mind. I will stay on script and trust my training. My best chance of success is doing what I’ve been trained to do. Today, I’m going to hit the shot the moment demands. Today is my day. I’m going to enjoy the battle!”
Often, top warriors have an optimistic phrase called a mantra that represents their personal belief system. They memorize it and repeat it several times before each match as a form of self-hypnosis. So, what is your child’s personal promise to themselves?
NOTE: This emotional component is so important and so popular in my workshops that I will be tackling this topic twice from different perspectives in this section- emotional intelligence and emotional readiness.
QUESTION: What’s the difference between emotional and intellectual ability?
Frank: In the junior levels of tournament competition, I see two very different character traits: natural born Warriors and natural-born Worriers.
Natural born warriors compete with superior emotional ability and are constantly ready for a threat. They have a high pain threshold and they can switch tasks quickly as they enjoy thinking “on their feet.”
Natural born worriers often come to the party with superior intellectual abilities but inferior emotional abilities. Their fear of making a mistake results in over-processing game situations which ultimately leads to a more timid competitor. Worriers are less comfortable with new situations and frequently stress about speculated issues that aren’t truly present. They seem to shut down more often under stress. This makes them unable to adapt to the ever-changing match scenarios.
Interestingly, many worriers, who have parents and coaches wise enough to focus on the mental and emotional components of the game, actually progress nicely into the higher levels of the sport. They learn to handle the chaos of competition extremely well after years of deliberate, customized emotional training.
