Saturday, May 21, 2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Mental Tips from Golf to Help Tennis*
"[Tennis] is played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch course - the space between your ears." Bobby Jones, legendary golfer [Quote adapted for tennis]
Every sport - indeed every business, career, school track and life path - carries a mental component. Overthinking or mis-thinking can lead to under-performance and even failure.
We've all been told often that these mental states help - remaining cool, calm and deliberate; staying in "the present"; and focusing only the next topic or next point at hand.
Mental coaches have even offered practical tips to help develop these states, and push out our continuous internal dialogue and stream of thoughts.
Among these: Focus on your breathing, count off even numbers, think about your feet touching and feeling the ground.
Best results, they say, are achieved by NOT focusing on results.
So what do we do?
Let's look at GOLF.
Maybe it can teach us something about tennis and life.
First, we observe that the big key to winning in golf appears to be consistency - meaning avoiding mistakes and errors.
And the big key to that seems to be good and early preparation.
And that means focusing on the process of preparation.
"Process" over "results" is what your mind must be drawn to for better winning margins.
- *Accept that you and everyone will make some errors.
- *Focus on the process of your pre-shot preparation routine. (In tennis, that's early and smooth take-back of the racket.)
- *See and feel your shot though visualization.
- *Hold a single thought as you strike the ball on any shot: either ball contact, spin, tempo, balance, target, trajectory and so on.
- *When you make a mistake or are frustrated, just deliberately slow down, forgive yourself and reset.
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Friday, May 13, 2022
The Twelve Core Principles of Tennis
After five decades of tennis: watching, playing, taking lessons from coaches and teaching pros, and studying the sport closely -- including analyzing players at the highest level both in the present and in past history -- here's my take on this topic: The Twelve Core Principles of Tennis.
I'll set them forth in bullet-point format with only the
briefest of explanations.
I have tried to condense things down to just these twelve,
avoiding information-overload and mindful that attention spans are
short.
I think that it's better for the reader to simply think about each of these principles, as they might apply to their own game.
*My great thanks and gratitude to all the coaches, teaching pros and players whom I have learned from over the years.
All the best with your tennis.
The Twelve Core Principles of Tennis
1. Tactics: Always change a losing game, and never change a winning game. (Bill Tilden)
2. Weakness: You are only as good as your weakest stroke. (Bill Tilden)
3. Mental: In tennis, you are never really playing an opponent,
you are playing yourself - your own highest standards. (Arthur Ashe)
4. Mental: Stay in the present moment, and play only the next point. (Rod Laver)
5. Improvement: The deadliest opponent is the one who keeps getting better - all the time. (Blake Griffin)
6. Practice and Play: Practice like you play, and play like you practice.
7. Tennis Movements: Speed and quickness kills. Spin is king.
Timing and Rhythm is vital. Loose, relaxed, fluid and whip-like court
movements win. Always move forward into the court, and step into
the shot with full follow through.
8. Bottom-Up Tennis: Tennis is NOT an racket and arm sport. It is a
game played from the ground up with your lower body (legs and feet) - a
rotational game from your core, hips and shoulder.
9. Error-Free Tennis means Early Preparation: Strong Low Ready
Position, Split-Step-And-Go-to-the-Ball, Getting a smooth, early and
full turn, Racket back, Crisp footwork creating premium spacing to the
ball.
10. The Heart of Tennis is Ball Contact Point: Strong, solid, consistent and out-front Ball Contact Point.
11. Tennis Intentionality: Strong intention behind every shot - where and how you are hitting it.
12. Above All: Have Fun and Enjoy!
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Tennis and Implicit Bias
"Sometimes, we don't even know our blind spots,
until we first start seeing."
I. Introduction
The science of Implicit Bias is a developing and growing field of study
in society. Implicit Bias often surreptitiously affects people and their
behaviors, sometimes for good but more often for ill. Many people
operate with Implicit Bias in different activities in life, sometimes
without even knowing it. We as fallible humans probably can never escape
it altogether. But recognizing it, and finding ways to overcome it,
offers us the promise of more productive, improved and happier lives.
II. What is Implicit Bias?
Implicit Bias is an preconceived attitude about something based
on past experience -- and it's often something we are not even aware of. Implicit Bias refers specifically to an unconscious preference or aversion to a person, group, culture, trait, idea or thing.
Our human brains operate everyday on both the conscious and unconscious levels. Think about it. Do you make your daily coffee or tea without thinking much about it?
Have you driven to your favorite local store or lunch spot without remembering
the drive or the directions? We thus cannot help but spend a lot of our waking hours engaged in actions on an unconscious stealth platform.
Indeed, our senses are continuously flooded with information from
our world which can never be fully processed. Did you know that the
human brain intakes about 11 billion bits of incoming data every second?
But that only about 40 to 50 bits of data are actually processed
logically and rationally. In fact, it's widely known that we only use
about 5% of our brain's grey matter.
Therefore, brain scientists say
that we intuitively use what are called "Cognitive Shortcuts" to process
data -- a preconceived psychological framework to understand things
quickly based on our past experiences. Sometimes, these shortcuts are
driven simply by our own fears and laziness.
Still don't believe it? Try taking the Project Implicit test, offered by Harvard University.
IMPLICIT BIAS TEST
It's free. You may be surprised at what you find out about yourself.
Most of us have pre-formed attitudes of one sort or another about a
range of things: including for example gender, race, culture, language, sexual
orientation, single parents, unemployed people, handicapped persons, and
many other topics.
III. How does Implicit Bias show in tennis?
So how does all this apply to tennis?
As a sporting activity in life, tennis is not immune from Implicit Bias.
Let's take three (3) simple examples from the practice and match courts.
1. Tennis is a racket sport played by swinging the arm with a racket at the ball.
For most non-tennis lay people, this is the way the game looks - arm-y
and racket-y. But high-level players know the real truth: Tennis is a
game of body and core rotation, and footwork. At its best, it's actually
played in the lower half of your body, and from the ground up.
2. I'm a baseliner, not a volleyer.
Many players learn the baseline game first. And when they enjoy some
success with it, they stick to it and don't bother with the net game.
3. I'm not a good server (or I'm not a good returner).
Some players know, even before tennis, they never had a very good
throwing (or serving) motion in baseball, football or other school
sports. Others never has much success returning a tennis ball served by a
high-level server, and the image sticks.
IV. How do you overcome Implicit Bias?
The good news is that the human brain is malleable and not hard wired,
say brain scientists. In other words, we can become aware of our biases
and then re-program our brain. Often, Implicit Bias is based on certain
past experiences. By engaging in new experiences, we can form a basis to
alter our biases.
Ways to De-Bias ourselves:
*Educate yourself about Implicit Bias, and take the Project Implicit test
*Be on guard for any possible biases in your thought processes
*Slow down, and write out what your biases might be
*Expose yourself to different and diverse experiences, events and people
*Try Micro-messaging: this refers to surrounding yourself with messages,
symbols and objects to remind yourself about overcoming bias (In one
example, the U.S. Congress began to display statues of women leaders of
color such as Rosa Parks to remind legislators of the important
contributions of American women in history)
Let's take our tennis examples.
Bias: Tennis is an arm and racket sport.
False. Be on guard, aware and observe closely every time you see players
in action that the game is actually one of body & core rotation and
footwork.
Bias: I'm a baseliner. No need to volley.
False. Learn, drill and experience the power and success of volleys, and
re-program your self-image. Bring along in your tennis bag small
pictures of top players executing a successful volley to glance at
between sets.
Bias: I'm not a good server.
False. It's only limiting yourself. Learn , drill and experience new and
different types and styles of serving. Keep watching videos of favorite
top servers serving aces to build confidence and develop role models.
V. Conclusion
Implicit Bias presents itself in many activities in life, including even
tennis. In tennis, Implicit Bias can hinder our play level and results
by limiting our self-image. But we can be on guard and re-program our
brains to overcome it, and reach higher performance levels.
Sources:
1. Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think and Do, By Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Ph.D., (Viking: New York, NY, 2019)
2. Project Implicit, Harvard University at https://implicit.harvard.edu
3. Implicit Bias in Law and Lawyers, Geeta N. Kapur, Esq. (Video Lecture: 2019)
