Relaxing Under Pressure

Choking, tanking, tantrums, moping, whining, racket-slamming, screaming, official-berating, etc., if you've been around this sport for a while, particularly in the junior division trenches, you're likely to have seen it all. Where do these emotions come from? It seems that a child who is an angel one moment is liable to turn into a monster the second he's faced with a minor obstacle during a match. Does tennis make people crazy or are crazy people attracted to tennis? I don't know if there is an answer to this question and arguments can go both ways. However, if you don't have a sports psychologist on staff to assist you with your child's mental game, how do you break through the initial stages - when it seems that the whole world is collapsing around you no matter how hard you try - before the game itself breaks you?!

Again, as with all topics covered on our site, it doesn't seem that an easy solution is readily available. Sorry, folks, no DVDs, self-help books, magic pills, or imported snake-oil. When faced with certain situations that seem insurmountable, it helps to think of the game of tennis as a way of life rather than an end result. Everything you're feeling is not novel; people have gone through the same emotional stages for generations. In this regard, the best players know that there are some situations that they can control and a number of situations that are not within their realm of authority. Initially, the components of competition that are totally within your control are those dealing with your preparation. These are your practices, workouts, training, studying, attitude, emotions, effort, stretching, icing, practice matches, and all the other little things that come together to form a symphony of who you are as a player. Skip on one or more of these things ("hey, it's just stretching. No big deal;" or "I'll play sets tomorrow"; or "My serve's good enough. I don't need to practice it today") and the stress that you feel on court are the proverbial chickens coming home to roost. All of a sudden, you wish that you could go back in time to do all those drills that your coach asked - nay, BEGGED - you to do. But time travel is not within our grasp at this moment. Therefore, what would otherwise be a calm and confident performance turns into a masterpiece of inconsistency, paralysis, anger, nerves, dissatisfaction, anxiety, stress and, ultimately, acceptance.

Nevertheless, while you're contemplating hanging up the racket and enrolling in that Norse mythology class that you've always wanted to take, it's worth noting that all successful people are faced with pressure situations on a day-in and day-out basis. How do they cope and excel while lesser players fold? First of all, be they lawyers, doctors, accountants, professional athletes or world-class musicians, the "best of the best" start out by focusing on the process, not the result. They know that the results are natural products of a number of factors including: preparation + attitude + work + dedication + consistency + luck. A surgeon thinks about the steps she must follow - from anesthesia to closing up the patient. The thought that the patient might die on the operating table is not something that consumes the physician's every waking moment. Sure, it's something to keep in the back of the mind as a possibility but constantly fretting about everything that could go wrong would end up paralyzing the physician with fear. Same with an attorneys - they analyze the facts and the laws. They are not obsessed with how the judge might rule. These non-tennis professionals are aware that the result (win or loss) does not define them as human beings. How they deal with obstacles says more about them than their actual results. A loss is only a loss if they fail to bounce back and strive for a win. To use an analogy, the end result is like the canvas of a painting - it's something that remains in the background but the art-work, that is, the process, remains in the foreground.

Theory aside, if you are faced with a pressure situation during the match, here are some things on which you can focus in order to shift the emphasis from the result to the process and, hopefully, relieve some of your stress:

1. Have you won a point? Yes? Great; if you can win a point, you can win 4. 4 points won equal a game; 24 points amount to a set and 48 add up to a match. Therefore, if you won a point (and I'm assuming it wasn't a double fault by the opponent - in which case, you shouldn't be feeling too much pressure) you can win a match. Therefore, relax. As corny as it sounds, "you can do this". The key is to figure out the way to get there by focusing on the little bites not swallowing the whale in one piece. Even the best climbers need multiple, smallest steps to reach the top of the Himalayas. As a player, learn to put one foot in front of the other and follow in the footsteps of giants - one step, one point at a time. Strive to regain a 2:1 win-loss ratio for your points. Maintain this balance for a few games, and your opponent will eventually throw a couple more points your way. If you can win 2 points for every one that you lose, you will win the match - it's not magic, it's math.

2. Are you taking appropriate breaks between points/games? This is important. Too many times, a player who's facing the executioner's noose is all too willing to sprint to the gallows. The player races from point to point, ditching 2-3 returns straight into the net or tossing a few consecutive double faults for the benefit of the opponent. Following this path takes a great deal of pressure off the opponent since he sees that he's made you reach your boiling point. If you cleared the first obstacle (i.e., answered "yes" to #1 above), the second duty is to "stop the bleeding". Stop donating points to your opponent; stop giving him confidence. Instead, make him think about the trophy (i.e., the result). As outlined in the step above, you want to maintain a positive win-loss ratio with respect to the points. Don't allow your opponent to steamroll you off the court. Slow things down to a crawl and regain your composure.

3. Control the things that you can control and by this we mean: serves. Ultimately, your serve should be your primary weapon. It's the one shot where your opponent has little or no say in it. Focus on picking your spots and having a high first serve percentage. The key is to serve "smart". Depending on your skills, serving smart may mean mixing up the pace, placement or even spin. Read your opponent's stance and try to figure out if he is anticipating a certain serve. No need to bomb serves if the opponent is standing 10 feet behind the baseline. A deft angle will do just fine. Don't forget about the jam serve. In pressure situations, our brains seem to focus on the "openings" (i.e., the corners) while excluding a more obvious target - the body. Mix things up so that you can spend the greatest amount of your energy on breaking your opponent's serve not holding your own. Players such as Federer and Sampras are tough because they breeze through their service games and then marshal(ed) their assets to tearing down their opponents' serves. Learn from them by focusing on your serve and shot immediately following the serve.

4. Don't play a hero on the returns. As previously mentioned, aiming for the lines with the returns is usually a bad idea and it's even more so when you're playing key points under pressure. Drive your returns deep in the middle of the court in order to neutralize the opponent's initial advantage. Make her play every single point. Show her that you are not to going away without a fight. Force her to show you how much she wants that trophy. By putting constant pressure on your opponent's serve you will, hopefully, relieve some pressure off your serves. Think about all the times when you struggled to hold serve and didn't have the energy or focus to mount an offense in the following game on your opponent's serve. It's only natural for your mind to take a mini-break after having to concentrate for a significant period of time. Thus, in step #4, you are attempting to make holding your serve (step #3) easier by pressuring your opponent's service game.

5. Share the pressure. Remember that the term "competitor" means to "jointly seek". That means that you and your opponent are in this battle together. Shift some of the pressure onto the opponent by making him hit uncomfortable shots in pressure situations. For example, 4-4 and 30-30 - this is a great time to chip and charge on your opponent's second serve. Make a good play, and all of a sudden the opponent is facing break point. Lose the point - no big deal; the opponent still has to serve it out but now he's thinking about the last point and how lucky he was for coming up with a good play. At least he's not thinking about the point ahead!!! Making your opponent think about the past means that your opponent is not living in the present. Now, you're opponent will start to feel some pressure because you have become unpredictable and the situation uncontrollable. By dictating the tempo, first through well-timed breaks, second through surprise plays, the momentum will start to swing your way.

6. Don't give your opponent easy points. Scrape, moon ball, push, grind, hack, whatever it takes - make your opponent fight for every point. Move your feet! This is a similar concept to point #4, but there's no use in making your returns just to ditch an easy rally. Take pride in your defensive capabilities but this is not the time to aim for the ESPN highlight real. Go after your opponent's legs, lugs and heart. Make him question the wisdom of being there on the court. Remember that, unless you're an ATP-level player, your opponents are not world-beaters. With basic planning and execution, they are all very, very beatable. Part of the pressure that you are feeling is caused by the feeling of wanting to win without a fight...being unsure of whether you have what it takes. Forget it; embrace the contest. Tell yourself "there's no place I'd rather be right now than on this tennis court". Repeat it and believe it. The sport of tennis entails virtues such as patience, perseverance, passion, sacrifice and, most of all, "game." Game means your willingness to rise to the occasion and love the heat of battle. When your heart beats fastest, your breath is loudest...that's the aspect that you need to learn to enjoy the most.

7. Keep your eyes on the court. A lot of players are not comfortable being out on the court by themselves. Normally, mommy and daddy are out on the practice court "helping the coach" collect balls or encouraging the player to try harder. Unfortunately, when you're playing a match you're out there on your own. Looking at the sidelines and seeing mommy's face grimacing (or disappointment in her eyes) after you've missed a shot will only increase your anxiety and sense of helplessness. Therefore, stop looking for safe harbor in your parents' eyes. You will not find it there. The consolation can only be found on court. Accordingly, in between points, focus on your strings, the towel and the ball. Never ever look at anything beyond the fence. Even the best players envelop their head in a towel on the changeover in order to block out the prying eyes of the audience (as a side-note, a non-player asked me one time: "why do these guys always look at their strings between points? What's wrong with their strings?!" That is, even she noticed that the players' eyes are fixated on the string-bed and NOT wandering around the arena). If focusing on the court is good enough for them, it's good enough for you.

Lastly, remember that it's only one game. It's seems like it's the biggest cliche, but it's the truth. At the end of the day, we're not solving the world's problems - we're just hitting a little yellow ball across the net and trying to break a sweat in the process. Therefore, learn the most you can from the experience, experiment with all the shots and strategies that you have covered in practice and remember that this is all just a test. It's how you bounce back from your experience - be it a loss or a win - that says more about you as a person that the actual score.

Attention Parents: Practice Set Victories Are Meaningless

Parents deserve a ton of credit. A big round of applause for all the hours spent waiting in the parking lot during practice sessions, trucking kids to tournaments, keeping a positive smile after a rough loss, and footing the bills. Every child is lucky to have a parent who is willing to go the extra mile for them. Warren Buffet once said, "Being born in the United States and having two loving parents is like hitting the lottery. You are already winning in life and you should be grateful."

With all the hours spent toiling around the tennis scene, parents can't help getting caught up in the results. There is nothing more entertaining in life than seeing how you stack up to others. It is wired in our DNA to want to count the beans in the morning and see how we stack up with others relative to us. This is just human nature. We are no different from animals in the forest, all trying to jockey for position to be at the top of the food chain.

With the parents emotionally involved (how can they not be if they are spending all this time and money), the child eventually picks up on the cues that winning is the MOST important thing. A child can feel it everytime they get into the minivan and the first question is, "Well, how did it go?" Some parents try to be sneaky and ease their way into it, but in a roundabout way, they eventually squeeze out every groundstroke game or practice set score by the time the evening is over. How terrible!

For example, let's say Ben is a solid little player. He is improving and doing great, really enjoying the tennis. Despite losing to his good buddy Igor a couple times in a row in local tournaments, even getting cheated once, Ben is not too far off. Ben really feels like his time will come and eventually he will get him in a tournament. Since Ben and Igor live in the same city, Ben decides to give Igor a call to set up a practice match. What a great idea! The date is set and they agree to play next week.

Leading up to the match, Ben's Mom begins to say subtle things like "make sure you get enough sleep." "Drink plenty of water before you go to bed." "Remember, Igor doesn't really like his backhand." "Watch the lines." Before the match has started, Ben is starting to feel some pressure from Mom to win this silly practice match. Bless her heart, Mom is trying her best, but not understanding this is the worst thing she could do, promoting the culture that winning is the most important thing.

The match happens and Igor routintely drums Ben 6-3, 6-2. Ben really didn't play well, getting frustrated at himself everytime things got a little hairy. He mopes off the court and hops in the mini-van (his mother was peaking around a tree trying to watch without being seen). As usual, his mother wants to know the outcome of the practice match. Annoyed with his Mom and feeling the pressure, he says, "We split sets, but he won 6-4 in the third."

The perfect son who could do no wrong told a lie! It was a routine 6-3, 6-2 loss. Nowhere close to a split set decision as he relayed to his mother, how could this be?

Although horribly wrong, it is understandable why Ben suggested a 3 set loss.  He was feeling immense pressure from his Mom and wanted to save face.  By telling a somewhat decent scoreline, his mother would back off (maybe even be slightly happy because it was his best scoreline to date) and maybe even be in a great mood all night.  Kids are no dummies, they understand how a single practice set loss (imagine a tournament!) can affect the household and dinner conversation.  Last thing a child wants to deal with is a Mom talking about their practice matches.  Trust me!

Verbal and non-verbal cues can really affect a child negatively, so be careful. Winning is not the most important thing and if it is, you need to step away. The right course of action is to not ask at all because it really doesn't matter! Nobody cares! Nothing positive can come of it. The child will tell you if they want to. Good questions to ask are "did you have fun?"

Returning: Long-range sniper or Ninja Assassin

If you find yourself missing your targets in the return, ask yourself: "am I a long-range sniper or a Ninja Assassin?" Sometimes, I find that a student is missing too many returns off totally playable serves. The standard question often is: where were you aiming? The standard answer is (pointing at a particular spot on the court): there or there.

For the most part when returning, the fact is that the server controls the point (at least in the later stages of your development). This means that even if your forehand is a weapon, so is his serve. Using a hyperbole, your forehand may be a bazooka but it's usually trumped by the A-bomb posed by the serve. Therefore, when missing the serve, remember to throttle back your ego and play smart.

Instead of aiming for targets on the other side of the net, aim for imaginary targets ON TOP OF THE NET. Instead of being like a long range-sniper, get up close and personal with your intended target. In other words, aim for something closer to you. Know that if you hit the target on top of the net, the ball will follow its intended trajectory and find its ultimate target on the other side of the court. To put it another way, if you had a gun, would you rather shoot a target that's 15 feet away or a target that's 50 feet away?! If you've ever fired a weapon, you know that the bullet will drop due to gravity and wind resistance. The further the target is, the more adjustments you have to make. Furthermore, you only have a split second to make these adjustments since your "bullet" (I.e., ball) is a moving target itself making it all the more imperative that you bring the target closer.

So learn from the Ninja Assassin and bring your target closer for the definite kill. To practice this, thread broomsticks or PVC pipes through the net and aim for them initially. Keep a mental check of where the ball landed in comparison with your close target. When you're in a match situation, you will have developed a feel for how you need to strike a certain ball in order for it to reach its ultimate spot.

Steal This Drill: Minefield Tennis

Do you find yourself losing points because you're too far away from the ball?! Maybe you're too far away from the middle of the court? Perhaps your opponent has managed to yank you side-to-side and you find yourself in the proverbial vineyard inspecting next year's crops. This can be attributed to a number of factors (which can be independent of each other): you are slow; you are not good at reading your opponent's intentions; you are not comfortable recovering or don't know how to properly recover in the first place. Another possibility is that you have not develop a keen sense of court awareness. The top players - see Federer, for example - have spent so many hours on the court that the map of the court is ingrained in their psyche. In many ways, they are like ballroom dancers who feel their steps around the room without looking down. Similarly, the tennis players know exactly how far they are from the the center of the court and when they are getting dangerously close to overstepping their comfort zone. In other words, in their 10,000 hours of training they have covered so much ground that they are intimately familiar with every square inch of the court. Furthermore, they know that when they reach certain zones, they are likely to lose the point as their opponents are utterly ruthless; they punish poor positioning and actively work to create it one behalf of their opponents.

Besides spending 10,000 hours running side to side, up and back as well as diagonally, is there a quick way to learn proper court positioning?! Answer: come on! This is CAtennis.com! Quick-fixes and band-aid practices are for the DVD hucksters. What we can show you, however, is an effective way to learn. Take "minefield tennis" for example. At the higher levels, chances are that if you ever find yourself in one of the spots designated by the red "Xs", you will lose the point. If you're too deep, the opponent will hit a deft drop-shot. If you're too far to the side, the opponent will bomb the ball the other way - sometimes deep, other times with a short angle. So, like any good soldier, learn to read the lay of the land. Set up a parameter of "mines" around the court... 15ft deep; 5th away from the sidelines; all around the court in a half circle - even off-court and short. Play points where you lose the point automatically if you step on one of these mines. The key is to practice being "tethered" to the middle of the court - like Federer - so that you're never too far away from having a decent play on the next shot. Sometimes, this means scrambling; hitting shots from a deep lunge; moving low to the ground; maybe even jumping ala Marcelo Rios. Since your opponent is actively trying to get you out of the comfort zone, don't give him too many looks at an open court; hit and recover. If you spot an oncoming shot that you think may take you away from your center of gravity, figure out the most effective shot you can hit so that you remain close to your base...instead of backing up 15steps, maybe taking 5 steps in is a more effective and efficient strategy.

Bob Brett: 5 Qualities To Hang On Your Bedroom Wall

From a recent interview, Bob Brett shared 5 characteristics of a champion.  It's safe to say Bob Brett is a humble spirit who possesses a wealth of experience from working with world class players on the tour.  His notable players include Becker, Ivanisevic, Medvedev, Ancic, and Cilic.  The most impressive quality about Bob is the length of time he worked with each player.  

Here are the 5 qualities of a champion according to Bob Brett:

1) World class talent.  The ability to learn. The ability to see the court.  Intuitive skills.

2) Play one's best when it counts the most.  

3) Be able to push one's self to do the right thing.  How strong is one's character to do the things one does not want or like to do. Do the right thing with one's behavior, training, and to stay disciplined.  

4) To overcome difficulty.  It could be injury, confidence, keeping one's mind through it all.   

5) Loyalty to what you want to do.  Believe what you are doing is the right thing and what you want to do. Choosing the right people to work with and trusting them, not turning to someone else when difficulty comes.  Disruptions in coaching break develop and one should be cautious of such changes.  The best players had very few coaches.  

After reading through the list, let's discuss each point in how it relates to junior/college players.

1) World class talent- yes, one could argue each player is born with it or not.  However, if one has a high ability to learn (love for the game) and willing to put in the time (10,000 hours), they can reach their own potential. Most juniors/college players do not have the ability to LEARN HOW TO LEARN.  Without love or thirst for learning (just give up!), tennis is too hard.  To the PARENTS- just give up and stop fighting a losing battle if your dreams are to make your child something he isn't (big time D1 scholarship or world class player).  

2)  Play one's best when it counts the most- This one you can't teach, but it can be helped along by putting kids into pressure situations more often.  This includes dominating your own age division before moving up, not ducking tournaments, playing all the tournaments regardless if you are #1 seed, playing atleast 8-10 practice sets a week against people at your OWN LEVEL, and not substituting lessons for matchplay. Have to practice being in pressure situations.  Non-PRESSURE situations include jetting around the world playing ITFs, chasing points at National Junior Events, playing Professional events, ducking Nationals after you signed with a college, taking lessons over matchplay, etc.  

3)  Be able to push one's self to do the right thing- This comes down to character and usually the guidance and parenting a child receives.  Be honest, don't cheat, be self-motivated...all qualities of someone of high character.  Children look to copy their role models (other good players, so beware if they are acting like idiots), parents, and coaches.  

4)  To overcome difficulty- again, this is a character issue.  The parents can help foster a child to respond to difficulty in an encouraging way.  

5)  Loyalty- again, not looking to place the blame on others but yourself if things don't go your way.  Starts with the parents again.   

Notice how Bob Brett didn't talk about forehands, backhands, serves, and spin ratio on the slice backhand (that ain't it!).  Enjoy!