Tennis Mental Game Secrets E-Book

Jan Stanski

• Herausgeber: Jan Stanski
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 100

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The role of psychology in tennis and how to advocate its use are practiced by world-class specialists in mental preparation, coaches and tennis players. This book presents a passionate look at tennis people who are aware of this. People who constantly search for ways to work with players even as the sport continuously evolves. These include: Jim Taylor, Antoni Girod, Lan Bale, Jack Broudy, Tom Veneziano, Ed Tseng, Andy Dowsett, Johan Kriek, Mark Holdstock, Allistair McCaw and Patrick Mouratoglou. The tennis coaches, former players, mental coaches and life coach have different perspective, different point of views and opinions, different attitude towards key and fundamental things in sport of tennis and mental aspects but also the evolving issues. This book is also dedicated to the journey of world tennis, not only for fans, but for the psychology of sports enthusiasts and those who want to be a combination of these two disciplines, seeking to know more.

Leseprobe

Tennis

Mental Game Secrets

How to be Motivated, Confident, and Prepared on the Court.

By

Jan Stanski

Editing and proofreading: Jan Stanski, Dominika Tchórz

Translation: Dominika Tchórz, Jan Stanski

Special thanks to all the great tennis professionals presented in this book for reliable and fantastic comments.

Contents

Part 1 : Psychology in tennis. Mental skills. Psychology in a tennis practice.

Dr Jim Taylor

Antoni Girod

Part 2 : Adventure with tennis. / Relationship coach – player. / The most famous tennis tournaments.

Chapter 1: Adventure with tennis

Chapter 2: Changes in tennis over 10 years

Chapter 3: The most improvement and progress players in WTA or ATP in last two years

Chapter 4: The popularity of tennis in the world

Chapter 5: Role of the coach’s in mental preparation

Chapter 6: The most necessary mental abilities or skills for tennis coach nowadays

Chapter 7: Motivate the player by the coach

Chapter 8: The most important elements in working on relationship coach – player

Chapter 9: Types of attitude presented towards to the defeat

Chapter 10: Workout self-confidence on the court and not only

Chapter 11: The live legend of Roger Federer

Chapter 12: Tennis book for young tennis players but not only

Chapter 13: Professional tennis tournaments

Chapter 14: Mental preparation

Chapter 15: Work on the relationship with the parents of young (but not only young) tennis players

Chapter 16: Style of women and men coaching

Chapter 17: Responsibility of coach for the players’ results and of the player for his/her results

Chapter 18: The main problem with working on mental tennis player development

Part 3 : Emotions. / Way to success. / Mental maturity.

Dr Witold Wójtowicz

Paweł Habrat

Authors

Specialists and experts

“Note the role of psychology in tennis. (…) The list of the psychological characteristics determines whether the athlete will be able to make full use of their skills, both in training and compete. Often in my practice sports psychologist met with the players, who were masters of training, but their skills in no way could translate into a situation of competition. Contrary to appearances, sporting talent and physical skills do not guarantee success because they often postpone the match situation determines the psychological factor. Psychology plays an important role in the career of every player. Most speak about it in the context of stress. Psychic should be our greatest ally, as it can largely improve the physical condition necessary to be successful. The purpose of psychological training is, in this case, lead to a situation where the body and the head will work in harmony with each other. The point is that our thoughts and emotions caused by them, did not affect the limit of our capabilities through the resulting tension in the body. (…)Psychological training helps in taming the starting stress and difficult situations during the game, also helps to develop ways to cope in these moments. Both the continuous improvement of the technical and tactical elements, as well as from the experience acquired should become an integral part of the training, including psychological training.

It seems that the reactions of the player to the referee are not very important element of the match. But whether we like it or not, they may become important for the final result. Anger, frustration, helplessness are some feelings arise on the occasion of unjust decision of the umpire. Sometimes, the umpire may make the wrong decisions. Sometimes these decisions are favorable to us, and the opponent can move out of balance. Common errors in judgement occur at key moments in the game. How to deal with it?

Competitors Siemens Team always say: “It’s worth trying to focus on this, over which we have control. Over the umpire and his decisions do not have control! We need to understand that the problem is not the wrong decisions, and our response to it. Is anger and frustration change the decision made by the arbitrator? Many coaches say that players do not lose the errors of umpires but by its destructive reactions to these decisions. Prepare for the wrong decisions the referee. It will be easier than “stand” during the match. It is important to accept that contact with the umpire and his presence at the tournaments are an integral part of the game of tennis. As well as errors committed by him. The player should not be allowed to elements beyond its influence on his attitude and outcome.”

Paweł Habrat

The role of psychology in tennis and how to advocate its use world-class specialists in mental preparation, coaches and tennis players.

This book presents a passionate look at the tennis people that know about it. About what for them is, what are the ways to work with a player and as their eyes tell the sport has evolved: Lan Bale, Jack Broudy, Tom Veneziano, Ed Tseng, Andy Dowsett, Johan Kriek, Mark Holdstock, Allistair McCaw and Patrick Mouratoglou.

It is dedicated to the world of tennis journey, not only for fans, but also the psychology of sport enthusiasts and those who want to be a combination of these two disciplines to know more.

Part 1

Psychology in tennis. Mental skills. Psychology in a tennis practice.

Interview with

Jim Taylor

Antoni Girod

Dr Jim Taylor

1. Why sport psychologist is needed in tennis?

Like all sports, tennis is very psychological. At the highest level, everyone has natural ability, great fitness and technique. What separates players on any given day is their mind. Some players figure out the mental side on their own. For others, just like with having a fitness trainer and coach, they need help with the mental side of the game. That is where tennis psychologists comes in.

2. How important is developing mental skills in tennis?

Essential for players to play their best. Motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, and emotions are five of the most important areas that players need to master.

3. What psychological features/attributes/traits you consider as the most important in tennis?

A tennis player must be confident, mentally tough, motivated, and able to focus and re-focus effectively. In a sport like tennis where the difference between winning a set (or match) can be determined by a few inches, a player must be able to focus on the shot at hand, not be distracted, believe that they will win, and utilize their passion to win.

4. What age is the best to start workout with mental abilities/factors?

Although how the mental concepts are communicated to the player will change based on their age, integrating them into a tennis workout can begin as soon as they pick up a racquet. For example, a coach (or mental coach) can start working with a player on focusing right away. Rather than discussing the importance of “focus”, they may stress that the child “watch the ball” and point out the consequences if they don’t. Similarly, the skill of self-talk can be utilized immediately. When a player starts to get frustrated after missing many shots, a coach can emphasize the importance of the player telling themselves “Look, I am already getting better!” or “I’ll make the next one”. For a more in depth understanding of things like what motives the player to excel in tennis or in life, it is best to wait until the player develops the cognitive ability required to understand these concepts. By middle school, a player will be able to understand these concepts enough to integrate them into a workout.

5. Which psychological skills should have modern/contemporary/present tennis coach?

The modern tennis coach should have a good enough understanding of psychological skills that they can identify where the players psychological strengths and weaknesses lie, and know how to improve them. Additionally, a coach must be able to integrate the skills into the player’s game based on the player’s physical strengths and weaknesses. A coach should have a firm understanding of skills like concentration, motivation, and composure. Because a coach should have an in depth understanding of the physical game of tennis, they will be able to relate mental concepts to situations within matches and practices in a meaningful and helpful way. Finally, a crucial skill for a tennis coach is the ability to structure and orchestrate quality practice sessions. This involves knowing what the player needs to work on, and structuring practices so that they are productive and focused on the specific areas of improvement.

6. Do you think that searching for champion’s psychological profile makes sense?

Although tennis champions have many psychological attributes in common (e.g., the ability to thrive under pressure, ultimate self-belief), spending energy and resources searching for a champion’s profile may be misguided. Psychological skills can be learned and developed. Rather than search for the ideal profile, efforts could be more effectively used to develop areas of weakness within players who already have some (but not necessarily all) of the attributes that make a tennis champion. By doing this, the amount of players that are potential champions will greatly increase and the overall game of all the players you work with will greatly improve.

7. Do you think is it possible to set up percentage influence/share of psychological/mental aspects taking into consideration/for the result of the tennis match/game?

There will be moments in a tennis match when psychological skills (or the lack thereof) will become very obvious. If a player who has not double faulted the entire match doubled faults in a tiebreaker to lose the match, mental aspects such as dealing with pressure and emotional regulation might be said to have had a huge influence on the result. However, one of the reasons developing mental aspects in players is so important is because multiple mental aspects are at work continuously throughout a match. So, although an estimated influence of mental aspects could be created, any such assignment would discount the constant and continuous applicability of mental aspects in the game of tennis.

8. Do you have to deal/meet with term “psychologist”?

Because many aspects of a player’s life can have an effect on their on-court performance, it is important for us in the field of sport psychology to be quipped to view and work with the person as a whole. In doing this, we inevitably do some work with players in the more traditional “psychologist” sense. But our primary goal is to help a player perform better. We can do this by spending time with the player on the court, helping them develop specific mental techniques to use in their game, and developing their ability to use the mental and physical aspects of tennis to maximize their performance. Other terms used to describe what we do include “mental coach”, or “sport consultant”.

9. What do you think about players who reply, “I do not need psychologist/mental coach, because I do not have problems”? What do you respond for that kind of replies?

I would respond by communicating that it is a common misperception that a mental coach is only necessary when the player has “problems”. The primary reason (especially for elite level players) that players hire a mental coach is so they can maximize the skills they already have, rather than fix their problems. Even if a player does not think they have problems there is always room for improvement. Why wouldn’t you want to be even more motivated, more confident, and more prepared on the court?

10. Can you tell us about three - the most frequent difficulties/obstacles you have to deal with/meet in everyday workout with tennis players?