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3 Simple But Powerful Ways Players Can Develop Mental Toughness...
1.) Practice Improving Attention Skills…
The 1stbarrier to mental toughness is when our concentration lapses.
Players can lose concentration during matches when they get distracted by external causes (e.g., sounds), or also when their naturally wandering minds start thinking about things not to do with the match.
It’s quite amazing that although being able to aim and maintain attention on a helpful performance target is such a foundational requirement to successful performance…
And although we are regularly told to “Pay attention” during our developmental years, we rarely actually formally practice it.
This is a little like expecting someone to get fit without doing fitness training!
Here is a super simple way that players can develop attention skills during the daily activity of teeth cleaning:
Step 1.) The idea is to see how long we can aim and maintain our attention on a sensory aspect of the activity…
So the sound of the...
Nick Saviano's Poor Mental Toughness Advice
Recently I read Nick Saviano’s book ‘Maximum Tennis’ which had lots of great tips in it but in the book when he told the story of losing after having 3 match points during his 1st ever Wimbledon performance he gave some poor advice regarding what we should try to do when it comes to thinking about possible match outcomes during matches.
The advice Nick gives is among the most common ways I see coaches and parents accidentally hinder player mental toughness development.
You can check out the advice and what I think we should do instead in my latest ‘Mental Toughness Made Simple’ video.
How to Focus on the Process, Not the Outcome
One of the biggest challenges in tennis is effectively committing to processes that increase the chance of success throughout matches rather than getting caught up in the outcome...
In this week's video I'm going to walk you through how I promote player's ability to do this more effectively :-) And if you'd like to access the Competitor's Score Worksheet that I use in this video you can do so here...
Have a great week :-)
Anthony
3 Simple Ways to Develop Mindfulness During On-Court Sessions and Physical Training
1.) Practice Improving Attention Skills…
The 1stbarrier to mental toughness is when our concentration lapses.
Players can lose concentration during matches when they get distracted by external causes (e.g., sounds), or also when their naturally wandering minds start thinking about things not to do with the match.
It’s quite amazing that although being able to aim and maintain attention on a helpful performance target is such a foundational requirement to successful performance…
And although we are regularly told to “Pay attention” during our developmental years, we rarely actually formally practice it.
This is a little like expecting someone to get fit without doing fitness training!
Here is a super simple way that players can develop attention skills during on-court sessions:
Step 1.) Make a rule that requires at least 5 seconds break between each rally.
Step 2.) Then during the break between each rally players should perform a...
Everything Players Need to Know About Developing Mental Toughness in a 2 Minute Story About a Bus Driver......
Amazing as it sounds, everything players need to know about developing mental toughness can be learned in a 2 min story about a bus driver...
Each day the bus driver selects his bus route and tries to drive his bus where it needs to go. The more the bus driver is in touch with why it is important to him to do his job well, the more motivated he will be to drive well (Key 1: Purpose).
To increase the chance of a successful trip the driver puts his attention on the road in front of him/her (Key 2: Present Moment Attention) and takes actions of steering and pressing the accelerator and brake in a way that takes the bus in the right direction (Key 3: Committed Action).
The bus driver stops the bus to pick up passengers at each bus stop. Different passengers get on depending on the stop. The driver doesn't have a say in who gets on the bus, everyone is welcome as long as they pay their money. Therefore, sometimes good passengers get on the bus and...
Nadal's Superpower and How Players Can Develop It...
During the 2018 clay court season, Rafael Nadal broke another amazing record, becoming the first male player to win 50 straight sets on any one surface. Consider that in his last 46 sets on clay before yesterday, no opponent had reached a tie-break against him and just once had someone achieved a 7-5 loss and his mind boggling run seems even more astonishing.
It got me reflecting on the mental attribute required to achieve such a feat and one stood out.
Relentlessness…
Andre Agassi described this attribute well in his book: ‘Open’. He said this about the difference between the great champions and the rest:
“The more you can be present on every point. I think that’s why you see great champions separate themselves at the end of a set or at the end of a match, because they are the ones that aren’t changing in their execution. They are not assigning a value to any one point more than another. It is about what they do...
3 Reasons Tennis Is Not A Game Of Perfect: Nishikori VS Murray
1.) We All Have Naturally Wandering Minds
It is hard for even the best players to continually commit actions to helpful process point after point because we all have a mind that is easily distracted…
And it looked today like both players were suffering frequent concentration lapses as the match ebbed and flowed one way then the other…
To help players improve skill in being able to aim and maintain attention on helpful processes throughout matches is simple to understand, but as we saw in today’s match, hard to do…
We simply get players to practice paying attention to present moment targets such as sounds, or physical sensations while stretching for as long as possible, while also encouraging them to recognize when they notice their attention has wandered, and return to the chosen target…
This improves attentional skill like fitness training strengthens muscles…
2.) Players Sometimes Get Caught Up in Nerves When Trying To Finish...
Players Can Develop Mental Toughness Anywhere, Anytime...
There is NO more simple, powerful way for players to develop the 4 mental toughness foundations than through off-court attention activities.
Watch this video to see me complete a simple 'Sounds Attention' activity with USC All-American Jack Jaede...In the video I also explain to Jack how the activity relates to his development of mental toughness.
Nick Kyrgios's Greatest Challenge
Despite Nick Kyrgios' awe-inspiring talent and unwavering self-belief…It appears clear that significant psychological hurdles stand between him and the fulfilling of his immense potential.
For example:
The loss of concentration during some matches…
Frequent intense anger…
His verbal abuse of others…
His occasional lack of effort…
Here's my take on why I think at least in part, Kyrgios' has developed an addiction to behaviours that serve to reduce fear/anxiety common to competing.
The 5 Behaviors…
1.) Appearing to Lose Concentration
Players can reduce difficult internal experiences without realizing to distract themselves away from the task at hand.
When we experience difficult predictions or judgments to do with competition outcomes, or difficult feelings and physical sensations to do with those thoughts such as anxiety, we may automatically shift our attention on to something else to avoid those difficult experiences.
This...