The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s NEW Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.
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Pursue Excellence Versus Perfection
“Excellence invigorates…Perfectionism demoralizes.”
Perfectionists are motivated over-achievers pushing themselves to the highest standards. They believe their extra attention to detail and long hours of hard work will produce the perfect athlete who can replicate perfection in every performance. These standards are impossible to meet, so these individuals often get caught in a toxic spiral of failure. Loyal to that nurtured perfectionistic view, they suffer needlessly.
To prepare for pressure, it is in these athletes’ best interest to allow a little wiggle room and shift their impossible goal of consistent perfection to consistent excellence. Excellent performance is attained when an athlete plays close to their current peak performance level throughout tournament play.
Striving for tennis perfection has many drawbacks, such as slow cognitive processing speed which leads to hesitation and tight muscle contractions. This emotional state produces slow racket head speed and poor risk management due to the fear of failure.
Top ATP Professionals such as Federer and Nadal routinely win about 53% of the points they play annually. They make mistakes in each match. They don’t need to be perfect, and neither does your athlete.
