Tennis Players are content with being a talent and leaving it to talent. Tennis Competitors strip it back and give themselves key jobs.

In other words, Tennis Players are happy to leave it to chance and hope that things go right; they fall back on their ‘talent’. You can see this in their approach to training, pre-match preparation and during matches. During matches, this is shown through actions and behaviours that suggest they struggle with match events, mainly due to a lack of belief that they can control or influence improvement or solve problems. They have become the victim.

‘The belief to get better is fundamental to performance.’

Meanwhile, Tennis Competitors strip back performance and give themselves key jobs in training, pre-match and during the match. Over time they become robust and agile with their focus on these jobs. They are finding the smallest, controllable elements of their performance and moving their focus between narrow-broad and inside-outside focus continuums to solve problems and maximise their impact in the game. No one focus area (e.g. broad-outside) is the solution in itself. Instead, competitors master refocusing and adjusting their focus to maintain and enhance their performance regardless of what happens. They continually tick off their Next Small Helpful Job while also attending to the ‘big picture’ of the match in the smallest, controllable way.

Coaches Note;

Help players move in the direction of the competitor with, Process scoring, self-policing, positive expectation and avoiding controlling competence feedback.

Sound interesting? Then take a deeper dive into the ‘concentration competition’ and ‘effective committed action’ content in ‘The Tennis Competitor - Match Management Edition at www.ahead-of-the-game.co.uk

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