The biggest reason tennis athletes fail to play to their potential is sports performance anxiety.
They let their nerves get the best of them and rarely seek to identify the root cause or develop proven strategies to address what’s holding them back from winning more points and more matches.
#1 – Hyper-Focused on a Result
The #1 reason tennis players struggle to manage their nerves is they spend much too much time focusing on their desired result.
They want to win and that’s ok, but they spend 95% of their time focused on the outcome and only 5% of their energy on how exactly what they will do to achieve that outcome.
It’s shocking to me how many tennis players aren’t able to recognize the fact that they are placing most of their focus, energy, and attention on an outcome.
This is why self-awareness is such an important place to start in order to stop choking in big games or during big points.
When you focus on something out of your control, such as winning, nerves quickly arise and can hijack your thoughts and your focus causing you to choke. – Dr. Jay Cavanaugh
Once you identify where you’re placing your focus, you’ll often find two things.
First of all, you’ll notice you focused more on the future than what you can do now to create it.
Secondly, you’re worried about winning which may or may not happen.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t want to win, what I am saying is you must focus your energy on what you can control, and winning is something you can influence yet not control as you’re competing against someone who can influence that outcome as well.
How to shift your focus
The key to calming your nerves and playing to your potential starts with moving your focus from the future into the now.
You can achieve this result by using as many of your five senses as possible to become hyper-aware of your immediate environment.
This is accomplished by feeling the grip with your fingertips, feeling the soles of your tennis shoes with each step you take, or maybe even listening to your breathing for a moment.
Your mind cannot focus on two things simultaneously so when we shift our focus to simple things in our immediate environment, we’ve made a big move in the right direction.
The next thing you can do is set an intention for the next move you’re going to make.
Imagine where you want the ball to land if you are serving would be a great example.
Manage the conversations going on within your mind as well to ensure they are focused on the task at hand.
These few tips will kickstart your journey to playing just like you practice to win more tennis matches.
If you’d like help implementing these and several other strategies Dr. Jay Cavanaugh offers for helping tennis players play to their potential, shoot us a message using the contact form on our contact page.
