The match is starting and I begin overthinking, “Oh nooo, that inner battle inside of my head is happening again!” It is so often present, but now it is really intensifying. One voice is telling me, “Come on, you can do it Vlad” and the other one is interrupting it with, “Vlad, there are not enough good things in your game that you can base your optimism on!” Right after that, here is coming again, “You have everything necessary for the win, just go for it!”. A sudden reply is arriving, “Why are you wasting your precious time by playing this trivial tournament?!?”
As you can notice, one voice always sounds supportive and nice. It knows your strengths and capabilities, understands you completely and cares about you so much. Sometimes it boosts your energy to an enormous level. At that moment, your focus, speed, stamina, and precision reach their highest potential. The other voice sounds selfish, troublesome and disruptive. It can paralyze your body and make you forget there are any positive things in the world! They come into a head and get in and get out alternately. It doesn’t happen just to tennis players, but for athletes in other sports too. That battle is also in our everyday’s life.
Is there a way to handle those situations? Since this inner conflict of voices escalates even before the match, the best way to calm it down and raise the positive voice is to get into some warm-up routine mixing it up with something not related to tennis. Listening to favorite music can be really effective.
When the match starts the rollercoaster of positive and negative thoughts takes up. Every time a player loses a point there is a battlefield in the head. If the player is confident, the positive voice is much louder and it will help out a lot, but if not, the game turns into a really unpleasant and stressful experience. It is almost the same as you have only two spectators next to the court, one cheering for you and another booing you. The only difference is that you really have power and chance to turn up and turn down the sound of both guys’ voices. That precious skill is called mental toughness and is something that players try to learn throughout their careers. The only very small percentage masters at mental toughness. In my blog, I will go over some exercises, tricks, and tips that can help players with it.
Parents, what can you do when you see your child being negative and self-destructive? You do and act in the way that your kids want to see you! Those are really tough moments for them and you have to understand that they do not like being negative! They just cannot deal with a negative voice that becomes unbearable and loud. It is one distinctive fact between an individual and team sports. Players don’t have a coach on the court, neither teammates, they are alone! So, parents, smile, stay positive and supportive! Let your kids know that you are present and that you believe in them!
“You’ve just got to get over that mental hurdle and those battles in your own head during matches when things aren’t going so well. It takes time. It’s probably all things I already knew, but for someone to talk about it maybe in a different way makes you realize things.” – Sam Stosur
Vlad Paunic Tennis Blog 