A friend of mine gained an edge on me after he became a
staunch fan of Federer. People will learn from example, whether we’re talking
matrices in precalc during high school, picking their nose as a toddler, or in
our case, the basics of mental tennis.
Federer vs. Safin, a short compare and contrast. Actually,
just a contrast. Well, fine, both of them happen to be tennis players.
Changeovers (Federer)- Sits down in his chair, meditates,
clears his mind, visualizes victory.
Changeovers (Safin)- Screams at the umpire, heads back to the line
to show mark of the ball, tosses racket while getting a point penalty, has a fit,
repeat cycle
During Point (Federer)- During a point, or in the whole
match from a bigger perspective, you will probably notice Federer’s
consistency. He has an amazingly few amounts of errors for the number of
winners and aces he hits. He is able to hit the shot over and over again.
During Point (Safin)- Safin broke a tennis record. Two
actually. And possibly a third but that one’s unofficial. He had the longest
game (time) in Wimbledon history, over 20 minutes. He also went over 13 deuces;
I’d lost count during the match.
However, Safin has beaten Federer. At 2005 Australian
Open Semi-finals he took down Federer in your epic 5 set tennis battle. People
remarked at how calm he looked through the match. He’d taken his mental game to
the next level.
Getting to the mental level of Federer takes years, even
decades of experience. I never had any resources to find out how I’m supposed to think while playing tennis. Nor did my friend. We both figured it out after
years of practice, but still only had a rough understanding. When he did some
research on it, he soon surpassed me, and then I did some research to get my
edge back on him!
Here are some tricks I learned:
1. Bounce-Hit: I can’t stress enough how useful this
one is. It helps you concentrate without thinking all the time: how do I hit
this shot, am I doing it right, is this how the coach told me? When you are
actively thinking about hitting any tennis shot, you are guaranteed to miss it.
Eh, maybe miss it 90%, you get lucky a few times. What you do with bounce-hit,
is when the ball is hit by your opponent, say hit. When it bounces, say bounce.
When you hit the ball, say hit. Try it out, this works in rallies and on serve!
2. Be Happy! This is as much a tennis tip as a life
tip! If you look happy, it will not only confuse your opponent, you might play
better too. Seeing you dejected, on the other hand, will only make them play
better, knowing that they have the upper hand. They’ll be having fun, but you
won’t!
3. Control Your Emotions! Don’t go on a racket
rampage, throwing it at the fence, the ground, and certainly not at your
opponent. However, the reverse is true as well. Federer, even after a great
shot, displays none or very little emotion. You should do the same. When you
display emotion, you ruin chances of getting into ‘the zone’. ‘The Zone’ is the
state of mind where you are completely calm, completely aware, yet at the same
time, not thinking about anything much. Everything becomes effortless and easy.
That is the ultimate goal.
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