Viewing entries tagged
self-talk
A lot of instruction in tennis is coach-directed. And a lot of that is simply the addition of information. Whether positive or negative, this often includes verbal feedback, praise and prompting. There’s also non-verbal feedback like gesturing or modeling - in other words, the coach uses a bodily action to demonstrate what they are seeking from the player.
My take on this - it’s critical… but (and it’s a BIG but), it’s overdone….
Every competitive tennis player has experienced playing in the “zone” at some point in their career. You feel dynamic, but calm and relaxed. You have a feeling of strength, confidence and invulnerability. You take pleasure in the match and the battle at hand, without worrying about losing, or even winning for that matter. You forget about technical flaws, you focus on the ball and your target. In the end, you just play, and everything seems to flow, in so much that you might even lose track of time and the score. Seem familiar?
Whether you’ve experienced the zone during a competitive match or not, many will agree that the feelings I just described represent an ideal mental state to play elite level tennis. So what if I told you that you could get in the zone on command?
