Staying Positive After Injury
Injuries are an unavoidable part in sports…
No sport is exempt from the injury bug, including tennis…
Tennis elbow, back strains, Rotator cuff issues, ankle sprains and patellar tendonitis are common injuries experienced by many players. Some of these injuries will prevent you from playing tennis for short or long periods of time.
Ironically, most tennis players find the mental strain from not competing can be far greater than the physical pain.
If you constantly dwell on the negative while injured, you will slow the healing process as well as hurt yourself mentally.
Tennis players who fully recover physically, may still have mental scars.
Staying positive while not competing in competitive matches has several benefits:
- You will be able to keep your spirits high.
- You will be motivated to come back stronger.
- You will increase your mental toughness for when you cross additional athletic obstacles.
Taking an injury timeout doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world and, with the right attitude and some work, an injury hiatus may actually jump start your tennis career.
Twenty-four year-old WTA player Sloane Stephens, credits an injury hiatus for giving her tennis career a boost.
After the 2016 Olympics, Stephens suffered an ankle injury which caused her to withdraw from the US Open, undergo surgery and sidelined her for a period of ten months.
Stephens has played some of her best tennis at the 2017 US Open and will surely see her ranking rise after advancing to her first US Open quarterfinal and her first quarterfinal at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2013.
Upon returning to competitive tennis, Stevens has demonstrated a greater sense of composure, calm, mental toughness and a renewed enthusiasm for the game.
Stevens turned around a bad situation and found a way to use that injury time to her advantage.
STEPHENS: “I obviously wasn’t happy to get injured. That’s not anything that I ever wanted but it was a good lesson for me. It was a good time to be able to take a break, get my health in order [and] then reevaluate my whole entire situation—come back a better player and better person.”
Injuries stink… but if you use your time to reassess and come back stronger, you might be more mentally tougher and stronger than before injury.
Using Your Injury Timeout to Your Advantage:
Instead of whining about everything you cannot do while injured, find the things you can do to improve your tennis game.
Each week, create one goal you can work towards while not competing.
For example, your weekly goal may be:
- Strengthening your entire body
- Improving confidence
- Finding other hobbies outside of tennis
- Working on mental skills training
- Revamping your diet, etc.
Use your injury timeout to refresh and reset both your mind and body.
Related Tennis Psychology Articles:
- How to Rebound After an Injury
- Returning From An Injury With Mental Toughness
- How To Regain Confidence In Your Tennis Game
- Download our a FREE Tennis Psychology Report
*Subscribe to The Tennis Psychology Podcast on iTunes
*Subscribe to The Tennis Psychology Podcast on Spotify
Improve Your Mental Game for Tennis
Tennis Confidence 2.0
“Tennis Confidence: Mental Game Strategies for Tournament Players” is Dr. Cohn’s program to help tennis players, coaches, and instructors improve the mental game of tennis is just 8 easy to learn sessions. Tennis Confidence: Mental Game Strategies for Tournament Players Audio and Workbook program is ideal for any junior, collegiate, and tour professional player. Tennis coaches and instructors would also be wise to teach the strategies in “Tennis Confidence 2.0.”
Tennis Confidence is a complete mental training program developed Dr. Cohn. You learn the same strategies Dr. Cohn teaches his personal students to help them improve mental toughness and consistency – from managing unrealistic expectations to coping with perfectionism.
Read more about Tennis Confidence Program>>