Learning to compete - with emotions!

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“Play as you must, don’t play how you feel” –  David Taylor – WTA Tour Coach, Grand Slam Champion coach (Sam Stosur). Arguably Australia’s most successful female coach of all time.

 

“Play positive and aggressive and follow your tactics under pressure – regardless of how you feel” – Brent Larkham – ATP Tour Coach, AIS Head Coach, Tennis Australia National Academy Head Coach. One of Australia’s most successful coaches of the past 25 years.

 

“All players will experience the emotions of anger, anxiety, frustration, nerves, and embarrassment , just to name a few, during competitive matches. These emotions are like passengers on a bus – we can’t kick them off or get rid of them – we have to tolerate them and focus our minds on what we need to do to perform at our best”  - Anthony Ross, leading tennis sport psychologist for elite players - mentallytoughtennis.com

 

 

It is my experience as both a professional tennis player and a coach of elite tennis players that there is no player who doesn’t at some stage get emotional during a match. Feelings of anger, frustration, embarrassment, anxiety, elation, excitement are, I believe, impossible to avoid or “control”.  Spending so much mental energy on “controlling emotions”  is exhausting!! Instead, players need to learn to “tolerate” these emotions and despite them, focus on what they “must” do to execute their game to the best of their ability.

 

Like the passengers on a bus hopping on or off a bus (Anthony Ross, mentallytoughtennis.com) these emotions will always be there – and just like the passengers on a bus they come and go. But just like a bus driver has to put their sometimes noisy, annoying and aggressive passengers on a bus aside and focus on driving the bus safely, so do tennis players need to tolerate these thoughts and feelings and focus on what they need to do to execute their game to the best of their ability.

 

Many players don’t understand this and spend a huge amount of energy trying to “control their emotions” or just let their emotions overcome them, and they play matches based on how they “feel”. So when feeling stressed and anxious, they will play stressed and anxious which nearly always results in poor outcomes. When feeling “relaxed and positive” they will play freely, which usually results in a high level of play. But playing how “we feel” is not the way to compete long term. This often results in“rollercoaster” matches, where you see a player play poorly when the match is close or when they are leading (as they are anxious and starting to “think about the win”) and often freely and well when “the match is gone and I am down, I am just going to relax now and play”. A player who is on this rollercoaster will perform inconsistently and will struggle to win the close matches, as continuing to ride your emotions is exhausting! But so is trying to “control your emotions” and spending your whole time “getting in the zone”.

 

Instead, the answer to becoming a great competitor over the long term, is to become better at tolerating these emotions and still being able to focus your mind on the job at hand and execute your tennis skills.

 

Did you recently watch SAS Australia or have you watched these types of shows previously?  When training elite level soldiers, the training is based around this exact principle. Soldiers are put in extremely difficult situations day after day in their training – where they experience extreme physical and mental stress. This is to prepare them for war – the ultimate form of stress – where it’s a life or death situation.  In the heat of a battle in war (I can only imagine) one’s heartrate would be very high, emotions would run high, there would be anger, frustration and extreme levels of anxiety! These feelings won’t disappear, but how does a soldier perform at their best under this extreme pressure?

 

The answer is in their training and their ability to focus on the task at hand despite the emotions and what’ is going on around them.

 

“We put our soldiers under extreme pressure in training to prepare them for battle. By training this way a lot, they learn to tolerate these feelings and still make good decisions and execute their tasks under pressure”  - This was a quote from the drill sergeant on the recent SAS Australia series.

 

Whilst tennis is not a life or death situation, it sure can feel like it at in those big matches at the big moments.  The heart rate lifts, palms become sweaty, breathing becomes more rapid, hands get shaky – trust me I experienced this as a player many times!!

 

But also I became better at it the more I experienced it – but the emotions didn’t go away.  Even after 10 years on tour and over 800 professional matches – they were still there at those big moments.

 

But what I did get better at and what many players do as well – is the ability to tolerate them and focus on what needed to be done.  I learnt to “play as I should, not as I feel” and to “play the right way, play to the tactics, play aggressive, be positive ” – despite not “feeling” this way.

 

This is called “experience” – and it’s a massive factor in tennis.

 

You only get this experience by getting out there and putting yourself in those pressure situations and learning how to “tolerate” these feeling and emotions. Just like a forehand or backhand or any other skill, you have to work on it. And the best place to work on it is during matches. So next time you compete don’t let the emotions overcome you – get better at tolerating them and focusing on what you need to do to win the next point.

 

NEXT TIME YOU COMPETE and YOUR EMOTIONS ARE RUNNING HIGH, REMEMBER THIS QUOTE  “ PLAY HOW YOU MUST, NOT HOW YOU FEEL”

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