STRESS: YOUR ENEMY OR FRIEND?
If you ask most players why they like to play tennis they will probably tell you "because it's fun". However, there are a large number of players out there, both tournament players and recreational players, who cannot handle the stress of competitive tennis. Most of their anxiety comes from them attempting to play at a level they know they can play at, but constantly coming up short and letting themselves down by making silly unforced errors. Playing tennis to them is more like a type of mental torture! It's the age-old enemy of most tennis players... STRESS It's stress that causes us to blow a match when we are leading by a set and a break. It's this same stress that makes us miss those easy forehand put-aways with the court wide open. In nearly every situation our response to helping players deal with stress is to try to teach players how to avoid stress. But stress is an inherent part of our game. Traditionally we have tried to eliminate st