Mental Tougness in tennis

The Best Ways How to Become Mentally Tough
Mental toughness is nowadays considered as very important and deciding factor of winning in each sport. Being mentally tough is an assumption of success. It is the greatness of the most successful athletes in the world, and the reason why they accomplished significant triumphs in their carriers. However, mental toughness is not an innate ability, but acquired one. Every single athlete can become mentally tough, but not without appropriate attention to the general mental preparation. Mental preparation is the only way how to acquire this irreplaceable ability and control that part of the match or game which actually can be controlled by the athletes themselves. Nobody plans to do badly, but sometimes things are not working like we wish they were, or sometimes our opponent is simply better. Tennis players do not want to miss the balls, soccer players do not try to kick an inaccurate passes, and sprinters do not want to mess up the start however, athletes can control their emotions and energy level, they can control the level of their concentration and focus, but especially they can control the decisions they make and the thoughts they have. Athletes can gain control over these things by putting themselves to the match situations on the practice, by not letting emotions to influence their performance, by practicing with high energy and staying in the moment every time, and also by analyzing the wrong decisions they have made and avoiding them in the future. The first steps how to become mentally tough is performing all the right things at practice and pretending the match situations. According to Mississippi State Woman’s tennis assistant coach Courtney Steinbock, athletes should practice with the same mentality and attitude as they would in a match. That is why it is important to practice the “game face” every day. Controlling emotions, thoughts, and energy level can be improved by practicing. Having emotions under the control, positive thoughts, and good energy level are the basic, but extremely important signs of mental toughness. Controlling emotions during the practice and the match is crucial. Even though it may be really hard to not get mad after a lost point or a bad call of a referee, the only way how athletes can succeed is staying positive all the time, and using everything negative what happened to motivate themselves. Athletes should be focused only for positive emotions, encourage themselves, and do only those things which could help them. Sometimes it can be beneficial to let negative emotions out however, this must be very occasional and momentary. As important as controlling the emotions is controlling what is happening in the mind. “Mind is an important tool. If you control your emotions, it will affect your body. What your mind is thinking, your body will do” says Steinbock. Thus, athletes’ thoughts should be strictly positive. Positive thinking is the best way how to stay focused, confident, willing to fight, and being able to go for a hundred percent during the whole time (Burton, Raedeke 104). All the negative thoughts that athletes might have when something is not working like they wish it would, or when they do not feel very well that day must go aside because the way the athletes think also affect their energy level. Having a good energy is an assumption of playing well. Even though that sometimes things do not go well since the very beginning, it is important to keep your energy high. It is more likely to come from behind when the athlete is determined to do that. If athletes simulate the match situations throughout the practice, it is easier to repeat the same routine during the match. It is basically impossible to be nervous, negative, and apathetic at practice and then come to the match and want to be fired up and full of positive energy. All of these three things are keys to be mentally tough and they must be practiced. Second of all, athlete’s mental toughness can be improved by pre-match mental preparation which includes pre-match routines and rituals, good harmony of physical and mental warm-up, and visualization. Having the same pre-match routine makes athletes feel calm and confident. Moreover, pre-match routine is a good time to rehearse the performance and gain confidence in the game (Cohn). The most popular routines are very specific physical warm-up which pump the athlete up, and makes him loose and listening to the favorite music which calms the athlete down (Dumitrescu). Many athletes start having doubts about themselves and their skills right before the game what consequently affects their performance (Cohn). Thus, the importance of self-confidence is huge. Another important tool in the pre-match preparation is visualization. Visualizing strong performance and positive things to help athlete feel confident and thinking how he is going to handle exact situations are keys to getting mentally ready for the match Steinbock asserts. It includes rehearsing the way the athlete wants to play and win, how he wants to feel, or imaging even more concrete things. Tennis player can visualize how exactly he wants to perform the stroke, football player can imagine the way he wants to kick the ball, and sprinter can rehearse the perfect start timing. All of these parts of pre-match preparation should be taken very seriously because performing them helps athletes become mentally tough. Third of all, performing all the right things during the match is one of the best ways how athletes can become mentally tough. They can improve this skill in every match, game or competition they play and participate in. One of the right things to do during the match is performing rituals. “They help rebuild momentum when you lost it and maintain it when you gain it” (Dumitrescu). It is good to have rituals which pump the athlete up, rituals which help athletes to forget about negative things, and also ones which help to refocus and concentrate in general. Very common rituals are bouncing, breathing exercises, walking to the fence, verbal encouraging. Important thing about rituals is keeping on performing them throughout the whole match no matter what the course of the match or the game is. Another important thing is always having a game plan and strategy. The strategic goal in each sport is to maximize athlete’s or team’s strengths and minimize their weaknesses and at the same time trying to maximize opponent’s weaknesses and minimize their strengths. During the match, the player should be able to realize which way is the most effective and brings success (Gilbert 79). The next step is being able to adjust to the certain situations as best as possible and change what needs to be changed (Gilbert 79). No less important thing is ability to always stay in the moment. It means focusing only on the current situation and what is happening right now. Thinking about what happened or what could happen is completely insignificant and meaningless. What happened cannot be changed so there is no sense to occupy the mind by negative thoughts. Athletes need to focus on their goals. They should pay attention to staying calm and not panic even if they are losing. There is always a chance to win until the last point wasn’t played or the last minute didn’t pass. Therefore, the competition is the best time to get better and develop the mental toughness. Fourth of all, process of becoming mentally tough does not have to take place exclusively on the field, court or track. Analyzing matches and games through videos is a great way how to realize the mistakes that athletes do. For athletes it is sometimes hard to realize what they are doing wrong until they actually do not see themselves doing that. For instance, athlete may be extremely focused on the game, but his energy level could be low without realizing it. Seeing this fact enables him to focus on it more in the next game. Also, analyzing wrong decisions which have been made under the pressure and consequently avoiding them in the future is one of the ways to improve the mental toughness. Kuehl, Kuehl, and Tefertiller in their book Mental Toughness: A Champion 's State of Mind claim that “it is a combination of self-control and discipline that allows quick, intelligent decisions at the most intense moment” (6). Athletes should be able to learn from every loss, take something from every match or game they play, and use everything negative to motivate themselves. Hence, athletes should pay appropriate attention to thinking about their matches and analyzing their acting. Despite the fact that the most of the coaches and psychologist emphasizes the importance of mental toughness and how important it is to work on mental preparation, there are still many athletes who do not agree with this opinion. Some young athletes are not willing to admit the importance of mental preparation. They think that being talented is all they need. Many believe that being technically and physically better than the opponent is the guaranty of winning. Tennis players believe that having better strokes then the opponent is a deciding factor, runners think that being faster is the most important condition for winning, and soccer players believe that ball control skills is what separates the best ones from the rest. However, there are sports where mental toughness is less important than physical side. For example in weightlifting is more important to be physically strong and powerful then mentally tough. Even though that mental toughness is tremendously important, there are some sports where physical preparation predominates. However, the general opinion supported especially by sport psychologist and coaches considers mental toughness as important as physical preparation. All athletes should make a conscious effort in mental preparation because mentally tough players are more likely to control strained situation, stay calm in the most important part of the game, overcome obstacles, they do not make excuses and blame somebody else but not themselves, they push themselves to the limits to be as best as possible, and they fight back from failure easier (Kuehl, Kuehl, Tefertiller 6, 7). Those are the reasons why mentally tough athletes have a huge advantage in the sport. To conclude, mental toughness is a gained ability that athletes can only benefit from. It helps them win and succeed. Sometimes, things just do not work and athletes are not able to adjust and do well, but they always can do their best by having a good energy and attitude, being positive and trying to make things work until the end. When athlete can say after losing a match or unsuccessful competition that he did everything he could, that he fought until the end, and that he really could not do more, it is a “good” loss. In this case, he just needs to admit that the opponent was better and bounce back quickly. Thus, being able to do your best until the end means in other words being mentally tough. Athletes should always work on their mental toughness, develop it and consequently see the difference it makes in their game.

Works Cited
Burton, Damon, and Thomas D. Raedeke. Sport Psychology for Coaches. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print.
Cohn, Patrick J. "5 Strategies for Pregame Mental Preparation :: Sports Insights Magazine by Peak Performance Sports." Sports Psychology for Athletes, Coaches, and Parents. 2007. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. .
Dumitrescu, Anca. "Mental preparation for consistent tennis performances." ITA Tennis, n.d. 23 Feb. 2012 .
Gilbert, Brad. Winning Ugly. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Print.
Kuehl, Karl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller. Mental Toughness: A Champion 's State of Mind. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 2005. Print.
Steinbock, Courtney. Personal Interview. 06 February 2012.

Cited: Burton, Damon, and Thomas D. Raedeke. Sport Psychology for Coaches. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print. Cohn, Patrick J. "5 Strategies for Pregame Mental Preparation :: Sports Insights Magazine by Peak Performance Sports." Sports Psychology for Athletes, Coaches, and Parents. 2007. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. . Dumitrescu, Anca. "Mental preparation for consistent tennis performances." ITA Tennis, n.d. 23 Feb. 2012 . Gilbert, Brad. Winning Ugly. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Print. Kuehl, Karl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller. Mental Toughness: A Champion 's State of Mind. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 2005. Print. Steinbock, Courtney. Personal Interview. 06 February 2012.