The Psychology Of Tennis (Part 2)
Gail Jones | June 5, 2010The fast, unpredictable, net-rushing tennis-player is a person of impulse. There is no real system to his/her attack, no understanding of your game-plan. He will make brilliant coups at the drop of a hat, mostly by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.
The most dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her strategy from back to fore court under the command of an ever-active mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite purpose. A player who has an answer to every query you present him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of slavish determination that sets his/her mind on one strategy and sticks to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the end, with never a thought of changing.
He is the player whose psychology is rather easy to work out, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never permits himself to think of anything except the business at hand. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the mental capacity of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.
Pick out your sort from your own mental processes, and then work out your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental standpoint. Luck, so-called, is often grasping the psychological advantage of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a great deal about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”
The psychology of missing shots is just as important as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Let me tell you why. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is surprised and put off his stride, knowing that your shot could just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to attempt it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will try to play the ball, and may fall into error. You have thus taken some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, just because of a miss.
However, if you had merely popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would only have been winded for no reason.
Let’s suppose that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible achievement. First it amounts to TWO points, in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one that you ought never to have had. Second it also worries your opponent, as he feels that he has thrown away a big chance.
The psychology involved in a tennis match is very interesting, but easily understandable. Both men begin with equal opportunities. Once one player establishes a real lead, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental standpoint becomes poor. The only objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby holding his/her confidence.
If the second player draws even or pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction occurs with an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but coupled with the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The reverse is the case of the other player, who is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The collapse of his game plan soon follows.
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