Really important story to share with you this morning while its fresh in my head…

Yesterday Kevin and I played two sets against each other for the first time and it really highlighted something in my head that’s critical to your success.

It’s a mindset shift that can 100% determine the difference between competitive success or frustration…

And unfortunately most of the zealous tennis players who read this choose the wrong focus.

Question:

Have you ever wondered why you hit GREAT in practice only to devolve into a completely inferior player during matches?

There are many reasons why it happens, but one of the biggest is players tend to bring their practice mentality over to matches…

…when the reality is their center of attention should be on completely different things!

To illustrate that I’ll make two quick lists.

One will outline the purpose and intention you should have during practice court time and the other will describe what your focus should be during matches.

  • What to focus on during Practice:– Reinforcing the confidence and effectiveness of your strengths by hitting aggressive balls from a feed, in cooperative rallies, or competitive point scenarios.- Changing poor technical habits through video analysis, shadow swings, and slow, deliberate repetitions.

    – Solidifying your technique execution of all strokes by doing comfortable rhythm hitting against feeds, a coach, or a partner.

    – Stretching your abilities by challenging your current comfort zones using shot patterns, drills, and execution exercises.

In short, the point of practice time is to purposefully and deliberately develop your skills in a systematic way.

COMPLETELY different from what winning players do during matches:

  • What to focus on during Matches.– Identifying opponent weaknesses by purposefully seeking out what causes a weak response, which techniques are awkward, and how they most easily lose their balance and pose.- Learning which patterns and plays best match your strengths directly against their weaknesses.

    – Paying close attention to what their strategies and tactics are so you can constantly be one step ahead of them.

    – Identify shifts in their execution, mental state, or patterns of play so you can exploit new and different opportunities as they arise.

In short, the best way to maximize your match play results is to completely put away your practice mentality and focus like a laser on the problem solving task of figuring out your opponent and deploying a deadly game plan!

I like to call this “seek and destroy”.

Seek = take the focus OFF of yourself and place it firmly on your opponent so you can quickly and accurately determine your opportunities.

Destroy = take what you learn and combine it with what you already know about your own strengths to craft lethal plays.

This is in stark contrast to most tennis players who essentially continue their practice focus right into every match:

“I need to be sure to drop my racquet head more on my backhand today so I can really start generating more topspin…”

“Why do my volleys keep getting dumped into the net?? Better figure this out…”

Etc, etc.

It’s one thing to be aware of what’s working and what’s not on any given day…

…but something completely different when you start problem solving your own technique and execution in the middle of a match.

Winning suddenly becomes extremely difficult!

So, next time you play a match, remember to “Seek and Destroy” instead of being self focused.

In fact, I’d highly recommend printing this message out and keeping the list of “What to focus on in matches” in your bag so you can quickly realign your mindset.

Want to know who won the match between Kevin and me?  We’ll be featuring it in some videos soon….