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The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste:
Mental Toughness Skills

By Jak Beardsworth

Ever consider why The Inner Game of Tennis (1973) still resonates today with heady players some 40 plus years after its publication? Or why did Mental Toughness Training (1985) inspire Arthur Ashe to declare its author, Dr. Jim Loehr, "the single most important person in the game of tennis today?" Or even what motivated me to pen More Than Just The Strokes (2005), which reached Amazon's top 10 tennis instruction category back then? And, how is it that, today, television commentators in any sport invariably, always in admiring tones, bring up the "mental toughness" qualities of particular athletes that are noted as making the difference in enabling them to perform at a very high level?

It's because the mental game - which, let us not forget, includes one's emotional component - represents the often ignored mind-body connection that's very much in the mix of facilitating players in any sport to maximize their hard earned mechanical skills - shoot, throw, catch, hit, et al - especially in a mano-a-mano sport like tennis, where there's no one to rely on besides yourself to replicate your best stuff on a consistent basis.

More than anything that means without a gazillion unforced errors.

I recall a lesson a few years ago with an affable, hugely successful, international commodities broker who, while we were drilling his ball striking technique - not playing practice points or competing - in which he was showing steady improvement to an already decent game, declared, "It's all just about the mechanics, isn't it."

Well no, not all of it!

At this juncture in our sport - long after Jim Loehr laid out the first practical, doable template that remains the primary M.T. model even today - I'm still surprised that far too many pros, no doubt well-intentioned, do not include mental toughness skills in their everyday teaching and coaching. And, as a result, their players, even those skilled in mechanics who drill like champs, are often at a loss when it's time to put up in match play.

So, in any case, here's a list of fundamental techniques that should be an integral part of everyone's game:

  1. Ball Tracking - Yes, tracking or watching the ball is a developed skill, and both the most important and most difficult skill in tennis. That means, in terms of dueling cross court groundstroke rallying in doubles for example, tracking the ball right off an opponent's impact point all the way to your own. And then, without looking up prematurely – keeping your head still! - tracking it "downrange" right into the opponent's racket. In and out.
  2. Visualization – Immediately upon recognizing an opponent's strike of the ball, visualize your own intended shot response, including both directionally and marginally over the net. Federer, otherwise Mr. Modest, claims he is able to accomplish this faster than anyone else. You cannot measure how fast the brain – right hemisphere – can "think" in pictures. Imagery.
  3. Breathing – A multi-faceted advantage can be gained through the raw physicality of exhaling at and through impact on every shot. Muscle relaxation and greater power, emotional stress reducing, prevention of going into O2 debt, better timing through overall shot synchronization can all be achieved simultaneously in the ball on string moment.
  4. Reading – Another developed skill that allows, exclusively through one's periphery since you're singularly tracking, or focused, on the ball and only the ball, being able to predict where an opponent will be striking the ball in relation to their body position – way in front, not much in front, or even late – giving you a quicker, earlier jump start to return their shot whether it's cross court, down the line, inside out cross court, or inside in down the line. The ball is always going where the racket face is positioned at that fleeting moment of impact.
  5. Kinesthetic Consciousness - An awareness of what your body parts – feet, legs, hands, arms, trunk, shoulders, head – through a sensory consciousness to maintain fluid ball striking, along with favorable hitting positions without any overt thinking, such as mistakenly focusing on a paint-by-the-numbers, 10-point ball striking list, that will literally distract your eyes from the ball. Left brain undermining.
  6. Rituals – Developed on both serve and serve return since those two shots are initiated from a static start of potentially no motion. Creating rhythm through relaxed movement prior to serve or serve return. Bodies in motion.

Hopefully, if you're not already, you'll integrate these basic M.T. skills into your game for a guaranteed better and more consistent performance in match play.

 

Copyright© 2019 by Jak Beardsworth Tennis. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Past Essays

  • March 2024 - Get Your JuJu On
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  • February 2024 - Giving Opponents too Much Respect
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  • January 2024 - Rally Ball Or Pull The Trigger
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  • December 2023 - The Forgotten Stop Volley
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  • November 2023 - "You're Only as Good as Your Second Serve"
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  • October 2023 - good misses vs bad misses
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  • September 2023 - Why good players are good players!
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  • August 2023 - On poaching and fake poaching: Becoming a Force at the Net in Doubles
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  • July 2023 - The Beautiful Game is Getting Ugly
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  • June 2023 - The Approach Dropper: Lob Killer
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  • May 2023 - Why club players don't practice
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Essay Archives

Click a year to view more essays

2023

  • April 2023 - DON'T FIGHT TIGHT
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  • March 2023 - Classic finish line failure
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  • February 2023 - Defending the lob over your net partner - The "Switch"
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2022

  • December 2022 - E. I. D. - Extended Impact Duration
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  • November 2022 - Movement Enhancement to Stay Better In-Point Connected
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  • September 2022 - Advanced Visualization 301
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  • August 2022 - Tennis' uniqueness: warming-up the enemy
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  • July 2022 - Extracting Double Faults Through Receiving Positions... and more
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  • June 2022 - Consider Serve and Volley
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  • May 2022 - How the Toss Primes the Serve Relaxation Pump
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  • April 2022 - Ball Watching and Science
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  • March 2022 - Caving
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  • February 2022 - Kenny G and Emmo
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  • January 2022 - The Knees
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2021

  • December 2021 - The Match is with You
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  • November 2021 - The Backup Racket in Your Bag
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  • October 2021 - Every Tennis Player Can and Should Have a Weapon
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  • September 2021 - LEARNING NEW SKILLS: First the Process, Then the Results
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  • August 2021 - The Challenge of Visualizing… For Some
    [read more]
  • July 2021 - Playing with both your feet and your hands
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  • June 2021 - Finding the Range
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  • May 2021 - The Focus
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  • April 2021 - About Your Butt Cap
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  • March 2021 - The Essential Forehand and Backhand
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  • February 2021 - On Being a Doubles All-Courter
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  • January 2021 - Same Grip Volleying Myths
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2020

  • December 2020 - On mechanics and style
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  • November 2020 - THE BIG 3: The Glue That Keeps Your Best Game Together
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  • September 2020 - Protocol and Game Tradition Revisited
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  • August 2020 - As Good as Your 2nd Serve
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  • July 2020 - Shot Shaping
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  • June 2020 - Getting a Point in Jeopardy Back to Neutral
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  • May 2020 - A Positive Mind-Set: On and Off the Court in Today's C-19 Reality
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  • April 2020 - The Zombie Tennis Creed – Top Ten
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  • March 2020 - A Roadmap Into "The Zone"
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  • February 2020 - The service toss: myths and realities
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  • January 2020 - Shot Gazing
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2019

  • December 2019 - The Dreaded High Bouncing Moonball Dilemma
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  • November 2019 - Chalk Flew: Troublesome Line Calling without Hawkeye in Clubland [read more]
  • October 2019 - In the Spirit of Don't Drink and Drive… Don't Think and Hit [read more]
  • September 2019 - Old School vs New School [read more]
  • August 2019 - Getting the Ball Where You Want It [read more]
  • July 2019 - Taking Points Off…What? [read more]
  • June 2019 - Confidence Is Confidence: Take It Wherever You Can Get It [read more]
  • May 2019 - TENNIS INNOVATION IMPLODES [read more]
  • April 2019 - Defending the Court with Older Bones: A Club Player's Guide to Saying "Nice Shot" Less [read more]
  • March 2019 - Do You Have Doubles Rally Tolerance? [read more]
  • February 2019 - I Knew Jimy Van Alen: A Historical Look Back [read more]
  • January 2019 - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Mental Toughness Skills [read more]

2018

  • December 2018 - Less Bling is the Thing [read more]
  • November 2018 - Anatomy of a Doubles Serve Return…from the Inside Out [read more]
  • October 2018 - Older Dogs and New Tricks: Still Improving at Any Age [read more]
  • September 2018 - The All-Important Dynamic of Gripping [read more]
  • August 2018 - The Cinemascope Syndrome: Undermining Your Ball Watching [read more]
  • June 2018 - Serving and Returning Better with a Quiet Eye [read more]
  • May 2018 - The Man Who Breathed for Two [read more]
  • January 2018 - Rituals Anyone? [read more]

2017

  • December 2017 - Why Serving is so Difficult in Clubland [read more]
  • October 2017 - Managing your body and mind in tennis space [read more]
  • August 2017 - Why Bother Breathing to Improve Your Game [read more]
  • May 2017 - The "Maintaining" One's Game as One Ages Fallacy [read more]
  • February 2017 - Punta Gorda Tennis Clubs: Setting the Bar [read more]
  • January 2017 - State of the Club Game: The Growing Death of Sportsmanship [read more]

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