The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.
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“I don’t want to play, what if I lose?”
“Devalue the event to deflate the anxiety.”
A common outcome-oriented mindset is that each tournament is a life or death crisis. This negative frame of mind is counterproductive and incredibly stressful. It would be wise to educate the athlete and their entourage that tournament play is only an information-gathering mission. Each match should be analyzed to determine why they won points or lost points as a result of their competitive decisions. The objective is simple, quantify the data and learn from it.
Competition should be seen as a fun challenge, not intensely difficult or dangerous.
Destress the situation by decompressing the athlete.
