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MANAGING NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

Posted on October 18, 2023 by in The Psychology of Tennis Parenting

Negative Emotions

Playing future matches and carting the baggage from your past isn’t in your best interest. Without self-awareness, you won’t be able to navigate pessimistic emotions. No matter how clean your strokes are, you won’t be able to overcome the negative baggage on board. Most winnable matches are derailed for reasons related to emotional competencies. This second chapter identifies how to reset toxic emotions holding you back.

“You don’t have to move into a new phase of your tennis journey with your old baggage. You can leave it behind.”

2.1 Managing Anger

Anger is an emotion that every tennis player encounters throughout their career. Whether it’s missed shots, a disputed call, or the feeling of not meeting expectations, anger can quickly consume your thoughts and hinder your performance on the court. You can’t calm the storms of competition, but you can calm the inner storms in competition.

2.2 Understanding Anger

Anger is often triggered by situations that challenge your outcome desires. Jealousy arises when you perceive someone else achieving success or recognition that you believe should be yours. Annoyance occurs when distractions interfere with your concentration.

2.2 Understanding Frustration

Frustration arises from the inability to achieve the desired outcome. Self-criticism involves harsh judgment toward your performance. Hurt emerges when you feel emotionally wounded by the actions of others.

2.3 The Positive Side of Anger

Yes, anger has its advantages in competition. After a challenging situation, you should use anger to fuel the fire. Example: After disputing a bad line call, turn your anger towards a hyper-focus mode raising your intensity of play. Controlled anger leads to positive action.

Let’s use fire as an analogy. Fire used wisely can heat your home and cook your meals. Fire, burning out of control, burns the house down. It’s your job to use your internal fire to your advantage.

2.4 Positive Verses Negative Anger 

Negative emotions hinder you both physically and mentally. It clouds your judgment causing reckless play. Controlled anger leads to positive actions like hyper-focus, intensity, increased footwork, and ball velocity.

2.5. Overcoming Frustrations

Following are six of our reoccurring solutions to help you reset to an acceptance and recommitment mindset:

  • Recognize and Acknowledge Your Emotions

The first step in managing negative emotions is awareness. Take time in-between points to pause and reflect on what you are feeling. Acknowledging your emotions can prevent them from overpowering your thoughts and actions.

  • Take A Deep Breath and Reset

Instead of dwelling on the feeling of annoyance toward your opponent’s successful play, embrace a growth mindset and view their achievements as motivation for your own improved play. Then apply your deep breathing, calming routine.

  • Reframe Your Perspective

Reframing your perspective involves finding the positive aspects of your performance and focusing on them. Reframing helps you shift focus from the catastrophe of possibly losing. This positive reframing induces the calm problem-solving mindset required to improve performance.

  • Focus On Controllable Factors

Instead of fixating on the opponent’s antics, shift attention to the future aspects within your control. This tactic involves letting go of the past and focusing on the present. Concentrate on your movement, strategy, and effort rather than letting outcome desires dictate your emotions.

  • Practice Positive Self Talk

Replace self-criticism with constructive inner dialogue. Remind yourself of your script of top plays to expose your strengths. Self-coaching encourages you to return to your positive mindset and enjoy the battle regardless of the outcome.

  • Seek A Mental Coach

If your negative emotions are getting the best of you, find a trusted mental coach to discuss your feelings. Open communication can help address misunderstandings, resolve conflicts, and provide emotional support during challenging times.

Managing your inner critic is essential for maintaining composure. By applying the above solutions, you will turn challenging matches around. Tennis is an emotional game, and your ability to navigate your feelings effectively sets you apart from all the solid ball strikers in every academy.

Training Tennis Anticipation

Posted on June 16, 2023 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

The Psychology of Tennis Parenting
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Training Anticipation

Competitive tennis is a violent game of keep away, not catch. Plan on each match being a 2-hour dog fight and plan on multiple matches daily on tournament days.

Yes, your athlete’s legs and lungs need to be at their peak performance level but preparing your athlete includes more than cardio endurance, speed, and agility. Factor into the equation anticipatory speed. This hidden skill set holds many benefits. Anticipation assists your athlete with their ability to quickly and accurately predict the outcome of actions even before that action occurs.

Roger Federer rarely appears hurried when executing strokes. The high-speed film confirms that he reacts and moves earlier than most competitors. His ability to apply agility and stability with his body and head through the strike zone is legendary. His early detection is essential for delivering and receiving on the run. So, how do top players like Federer do it?

Solution: Professionals acquire knowledge of their opponent’s favorite sequence of shots in particular circumstances. Athletes at the higher level all have preferred options of plays and patterns. They use pre-match video analysis and scouting reports to predict performance. If your athlete is preparing to play in the high-performance arena, I suggest uncovering ways to develop this incredible, secret skill set of predicting possibilities.

When my daughter played her first 14’s finals in the Hard Courts in Georgia, six fathers of her competitors videotaped her performance as a future scouting report. Yes, acquiring knowledge about opponents starts early.

Tennis Rudimentary Anticipation

Posted on June 8, 2023 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

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Rudimentary Anticipation

Anticipatory speed is one of the mental components that we need to teach much earlier. Anticipation is linked to cause and effect. It is based on the understanding that each shot hit in a match has finite responses from the opponent across the net. Experience gives athletes feedback, and the athletes who pay attention mentally log those responses. The mentally tough players log their winning and losing trends into their memory, which they use to anticipate where the ball will likely be in the future.

The more matches your athlete plays, the more they can apply subconscious programming. Because there are only milliseconds between shots in tennis, our athletes need recognition by intuition. There isn’t sufficient time to analyze the situation and set the proper shot selections and motor programs into play. Athletes build memory logs of data and feedback. Once the experience of going through similar events takes place, anticipation is applied.

Solution: Parents and coaches would be wise to start to develop their young athlete’s anticipatory skills at an early age with this rudimentary three-step process. (Examples are assuming both athletes are right-handed)

  • Returning Serves: Be mindful of the opponent’s ball toss. When they toss out in front to the right, the serve is most likely to go to your athlete’s right, which is their forehand. If the opponent tosses back over their head, to their left, it’s most likely going to your athlete’s backhand.
  • Rallies: Pay close attention to the opponent’s strike zone. A waste-level ball is typically hit with an offensive drive. A low, sock-level strike zone is often a slice reply. A head-level strike zone stroke usually falls short.
  • Volleys: Be aware that a high, shoulder-level volley is typically hit with pace and cross-court. An opponent’s low volley is usually a drop volley.
  • Identify Offensive, Neutral and Defensive Situations: Opponents who commit fewer unforced errors play high-percentage tennis. They do this by understanding zonal tennis and attempting to hit the shot the moment demands.

Once these foundational anticipatory clues are established, ask your athlete to log match clues between point routines and changeover rituals.

Tennis Training Organization

Posted on December 19, 2022 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
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QUESTION: My Son isn’t that serious. Does he still need a plan?

 

Frank: I still highly recommend organizing a weekly schedule. Regardless of a player’s long-term aspirations, whether it is to play as a professional or simply play as a hobbyist, an organized blueprint will maximize potential at the quickest rate through discipline.

Completing a weekly planner and being accountable for their time and actions are essential life lessons.  A disciplined player may excel and find a passion greater than initially expected or choose to redirect their passion, either way important life skills are nurtured through the discipline of organization.

 

For those parents and coaches saying, “What about the child that only wants to be a high school player?” I remind them that I’ve yet to have a parent come to me and state: “My wife and I want you to train our daughter to be a completely average tennis player!”

 

“An athletes schedule may vary depending on their goals, but their organizational
skill sets will become permanent assets.”