How to Develop Mental Toughness in Tennis
If you were to assess your mental skills, what grade would you give yourself? Is your grade high enough to accomplish your goals?
Would you like to improve your mental skills grade?
Mental skills are more than just for tennis. you can also apply mental skills off the tennis court.
On the court, mental skills help you:
- Stay poised and focused during close matches
- Rebound from early match mistakes
- Play one point at a time
- Compete with nagging injuries or illness
- Build stable confidence
- Prepare for peak performance
- Manage intense emotions
- Overcome adverse weather conditions and unfavorable court conditions
- Bounce back from bad officiating calls and disruptive opponents
Off the court, mental skills help you:
- Concentrate at work or in school
- Goal setting for career objectives
- Learn more effective communication skills
- Deal with negative emotions
- Fight through adversity
- Build self-esteem
- Deal with stress
Sports are a microcosm of the world around us. Mental skills training gives you the tools to make the most of your circumstances on and off the court. Therefore, working with a Mental Skills Coach helps you process your experiences in tennis and teaches effective strategies that are transferable to all areas of your life.
Elina Svitolina Uses Mental Training to Improve her Game
World No.5 Elina Svitolina has been working with a mental coach to help her manage the pressures on and off the tennis court, especially with the ongoing stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SVITOLINA: “During the difficult time right now, I think mentally it’s very important to stay strong, to stay fresh. With all the tournaments that are going to happen right now… you have a different kind of pressure. So, after playing a few tournaments at the end of the last season, I was thinking [of taking on] a mental coach. I think this is the right decision for me right now.”
Svitolina further discussed the importance of working with a mental coach to handle the pressures of life as well.
SVITOLINA: “[Mental training] is about everything in my life in general… You have lots of stuff going on around you. You have the private life as well, you have family, all these kinds of pressures from outside. Trying to be in a good mindset for the match is everything around you. So it’s important to have the right people around you, to not get too down and not too high with the mental state. It’s all the small things that are happening.”
Working with a mental coach is not a sign something is wrong with your game.
Working with a mental coach is a sign that you are committed to achieving the most you possibly can on and off the court.
If you want to achieve your potential, overcome obstacles and perform at your peak, then mental skills training is a necessity, not an afterthought.
How to Develop Mental Skills:
Start by downloading our short mental game test on our website to assess your strengths and weaknesses.
Pick one mental skill to work on each week, such as stable confidence, refocusing, letting go of the last point, etc.
We can also help you with our personal coaching programs here at Peak Performance Sports. So contact us if you want more details.
Related Tennis Psychology Articles
- How Elina Svitolina Prepares Mentally for a Match
- How to Have Stable Confidence in Tennis
- Coping with Tough Conditions in Tennis
- 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>>