Mental Tennis Tips

Roddick's MEGA serve

2006-05-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Check this video for the fastest serve on the planet :) :

Tennis Serve and Volley combination

2006-05-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Although serve and volley combination is becoming very rare on the ATP and WTA tour, it is still extremely effective at the club level tennis. Most recreational players have a very poor return especially if you can mix some spins and directions when serving. Volleying after the serve takes some practice and here are some tips to help you become a more complete tennis player:

1. Do not over rush after you serve. A common mistake when you decide that you'll play serve and volley is that you try to get to the net while you are still serving. You need to finish the serve motion first and then move quickly into the court.

2. If your serve is reasonably fast you won't get far into the court. Don't just run to the net hoping that the return will go straight at you. You need to make a split step when the opponent returns and you'll still be behind the service line. That's ok.

3. Now that you've balanced your self and stopped your momentum you can change direction and move towards the first volley. Two important things here – control your balance (in practice of course!) and keep your eye on the ball. Follow the ball to your racquet.

4. Move forwards towards the ball and try to play it inside the service boxes. The goal of your first volley is almost NEVER to finish the point. It's too risky. Instead play the volley deep into the open court.

5. Move even closer to the net after the first volley and NOW you can look to finish the point. Look for angle not power. In order to produce power on any stroke you need time to build momentum. You don't have time on the volley so accept that play volleys with precision, angles and be a smart volley player.

Follow these serve and volley tips and you'll be a smart player who will rarely lose a serve. As with all things in tennis so is here – it will take you some time to master this effective combination but when you do, you'll have an excellent tactical advantage against your opponents.

Tennis Psychology section complete!

2006-04-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I have finished the Tennis Psychology section and these are the remaining topics:

Thought Control

How your thoughts affect your play...

Confidence

How to build confidence and what is the reverse of self confidence...

Beliefs

Limiting beliefs can be found and removed...

Still Mind

Apply the Inner Game of Tennis principles to quiet your mind...

If you take your time and do each of these exercises for one week - they all have a homework assignment to do - you'll be on the best way to make your mind your best ally.

Develop effective second serves in tennis

2006-04-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

When you look to develop effective second serves in tennis then you must first define what is effectiveness. You can either want to force more errors with a good tennis kick serve or just make your second serve very consistent and safe. Its efficiency is then in being very reliable and possibly forcing a short reply.

But if you are really into an effective second serve then here are some tips and ideas to have an excellent second serve in tennis:

1. Use a kick second serve – this will obviously kick your serve high in the air and it takes great tennis skills to be able to deal with that shot consistently.

2. At least serve with good topspin serve. Tennis balls take topspin very good because of their friction and will jump rapidly from the ground. They are quite difficult to control right after the bounce.

3. Serve in the body – this tactic is very effective against good returners since they don't have the space for a big swing.

4. Serve to the weaker side and be ready to attack the short ball immediately.

5. Serve to the T to prevent your opponent from attacking with a god angle.

6. Some tennis serve techniques for improvement:
- have a loose arm; don't grip the racquet too tightly
- think »fast« and not »hard« or »strong«
- focus on the racquet head tip and not on the whole racquet. Try to accelerate the tip of the racquet the most
- don't hit AT the ball, hit THROUGH the ball
- use your whole body – leg drive, turn your torso and your shoulders to produce a lot of torque
- exhale after the contact

Hopefully these tips have improved the effectiveness of your second serves in tennis. Good luck.

P.S. The last tip – ALWAYS be decisive when you serve. Doubt is the single greatest cause of double faults on this planet at every level of play – from mini tennis to Wimbledon final.

More in the Tennis Psychology section

2006-03-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

If you want to learn more about making your mind your best ally then jump here to new topics in the tennis psychology section:

1. How to control arousal

With arousal control - activation a tennis player can control his emotions and body energy – intensity. This allows him to fine tune his emotional and body state to find his ideal performance state.

2. What can you control

When a player realizes that most of the events in tennis are not under his direct control, he is able to refocus only on things that he can control.

3. How to improve concentration
A player becomes aware that there are more ways of concentration and finds out which ones are the most effective in a specific situation. He learns how to concentrate and this enables him to play at his best for an extended period of time.

4. How to effectively use visualization
When the player uses imagery – visualization to its fullest potential, this can accelerate his progress and help him immensely in his mental preparation of the match.

How to serve in tennis - to achieve what?

2006-03-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

Even before you ask the question how to serve in tennis you must ask your self – what do I want to achieve?

Here are 4 main results that you may want to achieve depending on your level of play:

- how to serve to have the correct technique
- how do I need to serve to be consistent
- how to approach serving if I want to win quick points with the serve
- and how do I have to serve in tennis match if I want to play tactically sound game

There are more goals of serving and we'll focus on them in the future articles but let's explore the following four objectives and what to do with a tennis serve to achieve them.

1. How to serve to have the correct technique
There is a lot of information about tennis serve technique but here are some tips to help you develop a good serve quicker:
- think fast and not hard. Hard or strong makes you tense, fast makes you loose
- learn the correct grip. If you do, you'll discover an new way of hitting the ball really fast when you get the hold of it
- stand more sideways when serving. Show your left hip (for right handers) to your opponent and then rotate during the serve.
- accelerate you racquet head the most. Don't focus on your arm speed but more on your racquet head speed.

2. How to perform a tennis serve to be consistent
One of the foundations of a consistent serve is good concentration. In order to develop good concentration you need to perform a ritual which will put you every time in a state of good concentration.

Bounce the ball a couple of times, exhale, visualize how you want to hit your serve and then just do it. Be decisive!

3. How to serve a tennis ball if you want to win direct points
There are more components than just speed although this one is the most apparent. So if you want a fast serve, check tip nr.1 and the article on the »fastest tennis serve«.
The next component is placement of the serve. Practice serving in three main areas in every service box: out wide, in the body and to the T.
And the last is unpredictability. Mix placement, spin and speed and you'll win many quick points with your tennis BIG serve.

4. How to serve tactically smart
Here are your most typical options:
- serve to the weaker side
- serve in the body and attack the net
- serve a high top spin kick serve and attack the net
- serve out wide and then wrong foot your opponent
- occasionally serve your second serve to your opponent's better side too keep them honest

Tennis Psychology and Mental Tennis Game

2006-03-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

I've recently opened a new section on tennis psychology with 8 ways of working on your mental part of the game.

The first is also up: Thought control - how does our thinking affect us?

There is also the first page of another new section which will be dedicated to many mental tennis tips and articles that will help you win more matches.

And if you want to see clearly how the TennisMindGame.com is structured just check out the handy sitemap.

The Fastest Tennis Serve

2006-02-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, many of us are on the hunt for the fastest tennis serve. ;) You search the internet, read the magazines and look for the solution – how to get a fast tennis serve. Or maybe you already have a quick tennis serve but want to be the best in your tennis club.

The tips mentioned here will only help you with the right mindset to develop fast serving. For technical and physical tennis tips you'll have to look elsewhere. Now back to serving – how does your mind affect your tennis service?

Here's the first tip – in order to really find your fastest serve you have to think fast and not strong. If you think »strong« then you'll use too many muscles and they will contradict each other. You won't be able to serve really fast. But if you think »fast« then your arm will be loose and you'll be able to generate a lot of speed.

The second tip – you need to visualize how you are making the fastest serve that you can possibly play. See it in your mind how quickly the ball travels from your racquet to the service court. And then just let go. Don't judge your serves too soon. Wait and serve at least 10 or 20 services before you start looking for results.

The third tip – when you are in an actual tennis match, you need to think correctly to produce your fastest serves. And that is to stop thinking about how to beat your opponent with your service speed and instead just focus in your serving and how to make it really fast. So in other words – try to hit a fast serve and not win the point against your opponent with your serving.

Tennis Drills and Learning to play

2006-02-26T14:57:00.000-08:00

Two of the newest additions on TennisMindGame.com are:

- the new section on Tennis Drills which will soon become more rich with various tennis drills

- and another article for tennis beginners: Learning to play tennis - it's all in the feel.

New Tennis Tips in the latest issue of the newsletter

2006-02-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

I've just sent out the newest addition of the newsletter and these are the articles added from in the last two weeks:

Tennis Forehand Tips
The forehand groundstroke is usually the foundation of your game and the right tennis forehand tip can make your favorite shot even better. You'll find many useful tennis forehand tips regardless of your preference – whether your forehand is your good shot or your not so favorite one.

Tennis Playing Tips
There are probably thousands of tennis playing tips, but here are 10 great ones that begin at the warm up and end at the match point.

Play Better Tennis
We are always looking to improve and play better tennis, but where do we start and what are the most practical ways of improving?

Tipping the scales in tennis
The way a tennis score and match sometimes change is very difficult to understand. How can two seemingly equal players exchange sets 6:1, 1:6. Shouldn't the score be something like 6:4, 5:7 or something like that?

How to get someone angry

2006-02-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

Q: hey all
how do you get someone that is mentally week with a big tember angry? How do you play your shots and play the game etc?
Plz give me your thoughts on this
thanks
dant

A: Well, if this is your best way of winning the game, then ok: your goal is to make your opponent look like a fool. You must outsmart him.

Here are some combinations:
- drop shot + lob
- drop shot + straight at him (or passing)
- wrong footing shots
- serving all the time on backhand but on big points on forehand
- mixing your shots - spin, slice, slow, fast (if you have the skills...)
- being totally cool whatever happens to you (you show him, that you are mentally tougher)
- serving in the body
- hitting a sitter down the middle (most of the players try to guess where you'll play and run to one side)
- hitting an overhead very gently

Let us know how it worked. :)

Another Inner Game article and how to overcome laziness

2006-02-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

I just added another article in the Inner Game section titled Inner Game Drills for a tennis beginner. It explains what the biggest problems are for a tennis beginner and how the Inner Game approach can help them.

And here's a Q&A from a tennis forum:

Q:My question is short but important: What to do on those days when you have an important match and absolutely have no motivation or energy to play on that day? What do you do to drive that laziness off? Thanks in advance!

A: Originally Posted by uremate
Non food/drink, i just try and keep myself moving, not sitting down for too long (never feel like playing if ive been sitting on the sofa, nice and comfy for a while) and listening to some rock music

I agree with the above and here are some "cognitive" questions:

1. If I play the lazy way and not give all my best what will the end result likely be? Is that important to me? How will this affect me in the long run?

2. If I "push" through the laziness and really pump up myself - what will be the likely end result? Do I want this? How will it make me feel? How will this affect me in the long run?

When you have the answers in front of you and still can't find a reason for giving all your best in tennis than tennis is not very important to you. If you can accept that and play lousy than it's ok.

You can't be good and motivated at everything you do. So if you have different purpose here than hitting tennis balls I think that's ok.

Why I play

2006-02-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

Why do you play - was a question on one of the tennis forums. When I let out the thoughts on this I wrote this:

I used to play to enjoy the fight, to beat someone, to prove to myself that I can play. This "era" lasted 10 years. Then I realized that I play such a good game (at least in my opinion) that I don't have to prove it or beat anyone.

No one can take that away from me. It's my reality, my view on the game and even if one beats me it has nothing to do with me or my tennis.

This may sound strange but I'm completely detached from outcomes of tennis matches (or points).

In reality they are just neutral events. We give them meaning, we make the stories around them. I lost the stories a while ago.

Now I play because I enjoy immensely to move in harmony and have my mind occupied with a ball and nothing else. I enjoy the feeling of the ball hitting exactly in the middle of the racquet. I enjoy hearing the sound of the ball leaving the strings.

I enjoy running fast, accelerating, stopping and changing directions on the court and at the same time keeping my thinking completely cool and not in anyway connected with the dynamic movements of my body.

I feel like am observing myself and using a superfast computer to calculate what my best tactics and shots are going to be. Then I focus only on the ball and experience that short moment of impact as something very special - an extraordinary event which in reality lasts 0,005 s but it expands in my mind for at least a second.

I play to give the partner on the other side one of the best experiences that they ever had on the tennis court. I play to show them the way - that tennis can be a joyous, fun and relaxing moment of your day.

Most people go on tennis courts to express their frustrations and anger and tennis doesn't look so great when they do that. I show them that tennis has nothing to do with your personality if you decide so.

How to stop thinking about "outside" problems

2006-02-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Q: i no this doesnt have to do with this form but help me out ok? i have this problem i like a girls who has a boyfriend and i dont no what to do i cant stop thinking about her. can you give me any advice please greatly appreicated it its also throwing off my tennis can ok see ya

A: Ok, here's a ritual that you can use to "train" your mind to stop thinking. When you are still outside the court and are about to enter it, say to yourself: "Since there's nothing I can do to change (put your problem here - girl, job, school, ...) during this tennis game and it also makes me play worse, I will not think about it for the next 2 hours (or how long you intend to play). I will stop thinking about it as soon as I enter the court. And when I come back I will start thinking about it if I have to."

Then enter the court and imagine that your mind shut off all the outside problems.

This may seem a silly exercise but before you make any conclusions try it for a couple of times and then let me know what happened.

This worked 100% for me when I still had to do this. Now it's automatic - my mind just switches from outside life to tennis.

Tipping the scales in tennis

2006-02-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

The way a tennis score and match sometimes change is very difficult to understand. How can two seemingly equal players exchange sets 6:1, 1:6. Shouldn't the score be something like 6:4, 5:7 or something like that? The latest article explains that.

Losing to people who you know you "should" beat

2006-02-09T23:54:00.000-08:00

Q: I have a pretty bad mental problem. in practice with the tennis team i was some high quality ground strokes that were impressive to the top 5 who complimented me for my great improvement in consitsentcy and power in my stroke from last year. but then i had to play a 1 set match against some guy who almost didnt have any strokes developed and all eh did was get the ball back. while i was playing i completely lost my head and ashamedly lost 6-2. i know i coulda smoked that guy 6-0 easily but i dont know what happened. i tried to hit the ball just to get the ball over the net but my ball get going out by a foot margin. i didnt know what was going on.i couldnt concentrate at all. tehn afterwards while in a rallyign session my ground strokes reappeared to what it was prematch. i dont get it

A:
I see two scenarios here:
1. You hit very good shots and your opponent doesn't. Quality of shots does not mean that you automatically know HOW to play tennis. Strategy is usually the strong point of pushers since they don't have the strokes. So maybe you need to sit down and think how you lost the points and change tactics.

2. You underestimated your opponent - learn from this. When you underestimate your opponent you play with less effort and focus than you are capable. And tennis itself becomes very difficult so you make more mistakes. When you see the consequences of your decision to underestimate your opponent you hopefully won't do it next time.

How not to underestimate your oponnent?

Learn from your mistakes and hate them. :)

The magic formula is that you decide. But first you must become aware:"Hey, I am underestimating my opponent right now. I lost some great opportunities before by doing this. I will NOT do it anymore.

Ok, let's go. I'll do my best even if I beat this guy 6:0, 6:0."

Then just do it.

Now, why you underestimate... :)

Backhand tips

2006-02-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

Some new tennis tips on the site. If you have problems with your backhand then these Tennis Backhand Tips will help you get on a new level.

Winning Mental Tennis Tips - in an ebook!

2006-02-08T00:46:00.000-08:00

How to deal with any mentally challenging situation during the match and achieve mental mastery in tennis!

How would you like to:

play your best tennis when it matters most
know how to refocus and keep your concentration constantly high
control your emotions and play the game with a positive attitude
deal effectively with 29 mentally challenging situations in a tennis match
have a feeling of control and confidence regardless of the score or situation
get much more joy and excitement from the game

All that and much more in the Mental Manual for Tennis Winners!

If you wish to progress in the mental area of tennis, this professional manual is an absolute must. It is easily understood and practical.

Borut Urh, multiple singles Champion of Slovenia and 8 years Davis Cup representative

Expert forehand tips

2006-02-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Improve your weak and upgrade your good forehand with the new Tennis Forehand Tips article.

Many players have better forehands than backhands but unfortunately they don't develop their good forehand into a devastating weapon. And of course there are players who have weaker forehands but they never improve them.

Check these tips that might change your mind and make your forehand and outstanding shot.

Tennis Serve and Tennis Rules

2006-02-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Tennis Serve may be a very tricky shot to master. In my last article I show you which are the most common technical and mental traps and how to avoid them.

Another article for tennis beginners explains, which Tennis Rules make the game so challenging.

I'll be back tomorrow - got another page to put up. Forehand tips (maybe even some backhand ones) are not very often seen since most players have more problems with their backhand. You'll see that even a good forehand tip can make your forehand from a solid stroke to a great weapon.

Tennis Basics and your starting point

2006-02-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Everyone starts working on his Tennis Basics from a different level but there are two very different starting points...

Another article for the section of Tennis for Beginners.

New Tennis Article - Not playing well today?

2006-02-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

There's a new article in the Tennis Articles called Not playing well today? So what. It's all about one of those days, when things don't go your way. But are we really victims of circumstances?

See how the story ends in Part 2: My personal experience.

Roger Federer & Martina Hingis

2006-01-31T16:04:00.000-08:00

With Roger Federer winning the Slam again and Martina Hingis coming back and winning the Slam too (in mixed doubles with Bhupathi) I decided to put them first in the Tennis Players section.

Enjoy!

Roger Federer and Martina Hingis

The Australian Open final thoughts

2006-01-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

Roger Federer wins another Slam with a win over unseeded Marcos Baghdatis.

Baghdatis had at 5:6 for Federer 40:0 to equal the set at 6:6 and he lost. Next set was 6:0 (for Federer of course).

Here's what Baghdatis said in an interview after the match:

Baghdatis said he started thinking too much.

"I wanted to continue being aggressive ... not to give Federer time to play his game," he said. "Maybe I was a bit scared of him. Maybe I didn't really believe it. Things were happening so fast."

This is when the mind starts racing around. We need to recognize, become aware and stop it. Just play the game to the best of your abilites. Don't believe the stories the mind tells you...

Overview of the site

2006-01-29T00:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick overview of TennisMindGame.com so that you can easy find what you're looking for:

Tennis Articles - with currently 3 articles about tennis and mental challenges in the game.

Tennis Tips - the title says it all. For now you can check Tennis tips for beginners and Tennis volley tips. Many more tips to come: serving tips, forehand and backhand tips, playing tips, ...

Inner Game of Tennis section with currently 3 subpages:
- Inner Game tennis drills
- Inner Game tennis books - Timothy Gallwey's two excellent books are reviewed.
- Inner Game articles - the first one is: "Inner Game is rarely a game..."

Tennis for Beginners section has the first introductory page and the first tips on How to play tennis. More ideas for beginners will be up soon: tennis basics, tennis rules, ... They all focus on one side of tennis - the mental game.

If you want to be in touch with what's new on the websitte and recieve mental tennis tips straight to your inbox, the subscribe to the bi-weekly newsletter!

Introducing TennisMindGame.com

2006-01-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

TennisMindGame.com is the original website from where you'll receive winning tennis mental tips and ideas that will make your mind your best ally.

I'll put some of my daily ideas here for which I don't intend to write a whole page or an article on my site.

Enjoy!