6 WAYS TO PLAY WITH MORE COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE

Playing with confidence is crucial for all tennis players. Any lack of confidence can affect not only your ball-striking but also your decision-making. Additionally, facing an opponent who is determined to create difficulties for you on the court can contribute to feelings of fear and self-doubt regarding your strokes. However, there are strategies and mindset shifts that can help players overcome these challenges and regain their confidence.

Here are 6 ways to develop a more courageous and confident you.

#1 REMOVE THE DOUBT

Regaining confidence in your game starts with believing in your ability to hit the ball well. If you start striking the ball better, your confidence will grow. 

During practice, remove the doubt in your mind and begin striking the ball confidently; after all, it's only a practice session! Trust your technique and focus on executing your shots with conviction. 

What you are doing is treating Doubt as an inconvenient habit that has been affecting your strokes. By practising "doubt removal," you are replacing one bad habit with a good one.

Soon, you'll discover that you can bypass the mental doubt paralysing you and trust your swing more.  



#2 MAKE A NOISE

Making a vocal sound when hitting the ball can help you release tension and generate more power. It can also distract you from overthinking your strokes or the situation in the match. Experiment with different sounds and find one that feels natural and helps you feel more confident and focused during your shots.


#3 PRACTICE HITTING OVER THE BASELINE

Many players become fearful of hitting the ball out, so they tend to play too safe and often physically tighten. By practicing hitting the ball over the baseline during practice sessions, you can build confidence in your ability to play the ball deep and begin to feel relaxed again. Hitting "too" deep will help liberate you from your fearful, tight ground strokes.



#4 DEEPEN YOUR BACKSWING

A deeper backswing allows you to generate more power and control during your shots easier. When you feel confident in your ability to take a full backswing, you'll have more confidence in your strokes. Deepen your back swing to ensure more racket momentum and to avoid tight strokes that fall short in the court.


#5 CONTACT THE BALL CLEANER

As a player, whenever I was under pressure to produce something special, like a passing shot, I often told myself that the minimum I needed was to strike the ball cleanly. It was amazing how the little quirks and the hesitation in my stroke fell away when I reminded myself of this each time.

 When we lose our confidence, the mind often tries to calculate many unnecessary details, and we suffer from a mental overload. Giving myself a straightforward task helped direct my focus to the most essential ingredient, Contact.

Striking the ball cleanly and solidly can significantly increase your confidence. Focus on making clean contact with the ball. Clean ball striking will help you generate effortless power, greater control, and consistency in your shots.



#6 STAY RELAXED

Tension and stress can negatively affect your confidence and performance on the court. Try to stay relaxed and composed during your matches. Take deep breaths, use visualization techniques, and remind yourself to enjoy the game. 

Although you could be constantly playing in a stressful competitive environment, enjoying the challenge and responding positively to the situation is still important. 

Take time to re-access the reasons you're playing the game and remind yourself why you "signed up" for competitive tennis initially. You're here because you wanted to experience the challenge, so buckle up and let's do this!

Competitive tennis is not easy. 
Take the time to consider why you
began playing in the beginning and
embrace the challenges that come with
being a competitive player,



 

 

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KEYS TO THE TWO-HANDED BACKHAND

Image
This article aims to provide you with 5 ingredients to help simplify the  two-hander and give you more control and versatility.       1. THE BOTTOM HAND The bottom hand on the grip controls the length of your contact zone.  The further on top the knuckles of the bottom hand are positioned, the longer your contact zone. The further around to the front of the grip the knuckles of the bottom hand are positioned, the shorter the contact zone will be. The Djokovic bottom hand is positioned almost on  top of the handle.  This would indicate that he intends  to hit down the line.   Positioning the knuckles of your bottom hand on top of the handle makes it a lot easier to hit your down-the-line shots, while placing the bottom hand in the front of the handle makes it easier to hit extreme cross-court angles. Y ou  need to play your backhand in various grip positions on the handle. The important thing is not the position of your hands on the handle (grips); it's having complete control
Read more

BUILD YOUR TENNIS ON A DEFENSIVE FOUNDATION

Image
  You could be mistaken for thinking tennis is all about aggression. At the top level, players are pounding the ball at every opportunity. You'd be surprised then if you learned that my goal when coaching advanced players is to first have them develop a defensive mental foundation.   I'm not suggesting that I teach players to send up continuous lobs during the rally or for them to stand at the back fence to retrieve balls. My goal with advanced players is to change the internal mental dialogue all players experince before every stroke.  A PLAYERS INTERNAL DIALOG BEFORE SHOTS Every player has a continuous mental dialogue inside their head when they play a point.  "How aggressive should I be on this ball?", "Is this the ball to change direction down the line?" etc. The internal dialogue inside our heads drives our decision making There's nothing wrong with this type of internal dialogue, but there are better questions to ask yourself before each shot. So,
Read more

WRITING A PROPOSAL FOR TENNIS SPONSORSHIP

Image
When tennis players begin to compete internationally the expenses involved in traveling overseas to events such as airfares, accommodation and food are quite high and put a significant strain on most family budgets. Players and their parents often try to off-set some of this financial burden by looking for sponsorship.  Here are some important points to consider when approaching companies or individuals for tennis sponsorship. It's important to put yourself in the shoes of the head marketing person of a big company. He/she are busy and any proposal you develop should be clear in what you want to happen . Don't presume that they know what you want. You need to tell them in a clear and precise way. A sponsorship proposal that is vague and lacks a clear description of what you want and how you will use the sponsorship will not send the right message to a busy Marketing Manager The head of marketing has the responsibility of planning a yearly marketing campaigne that f
Read more