It is no secret that the competitive tennis environment demands an excellent deal of mental toughness, yet numerous players fail to enlist knowledgeable mental coach. Instead, they believe personal experience and therefore the advice of these around them, which although helpful, it’s missing the precious mental strategies which will be taught by a licensed mental skills consultant.
In what’s already a challenging environment, elite youth tennis players aren’t clear on the way to manage their emotions and successfully navigate the highs and lows of a competitive match. In fact, with the advancements in technology and designs of socializing, it’s becoming increasingly more evident that the present generation of youth athletes is distinctly different. The iGen, as they’re called, is suffering from achievement and thwarted in emotional intelligence—a lethal recipe for stress and anxiety.
In many of my conversations, coaches and fogeys can recognize these changes, but are ineffective at offering the extent of coaching that knowledgeable mental skills consultant can accomplish. Specifically, there are two major benefits of separating mental skills training, including:
1. It provides an objective outlet to possess open and honest discussions
One of the foremost important discussions in mental skills training is on the subject of a player’s perceived expectations. In other words, what does one think you “have to” do? for several , their expectations demand uncontrollable results, like “I need to win” or “I need to play my best all the time,” which results in increased stress, lower energy and difficulties moving past mistakes.
As a teacher or parent, it’s difficult to effectively have this conversation without a psychological understanding of the interplay of processes. More importantly, when discussing emotion-driven topics, you’ve got to be mindful of the facility and control dynamics that are unavoidable between an adult working with a youth player. you’ll actually cause more stress by sparking conflicting emotions during a phenomenon called the “Double Bind.” for instance , players rationally know that it’s okay to form mistakes, but won’t allow themselves to simply accept them. When training with knowledgeable mental skills coach, players can feel comfortable knowing that they need an unbiased outlet to share thoughts and emotions, with the goal ultimately of learning tangible techniques to bring back the court.
2. it’s a platform to develop emotional management skills
In my experiences, I even have found that the young players of today are stifled by a fear of feeling uncomfortable emotionally, which ends up in greater muscle tension, rapid thoughts and a weaker performance. Just consider what percentage times an elite athlete chokes against a lower-ranked opponent … it comes back to a fear of feeling disappointed or embarrassed before the match even begins.
Since the iGen is increasingly more sensitive and thwarted in emotional intelligence, emotions are experienced as a disposition instead of a short lived physiological condition . In other words, it’s as if the sensation of disappointment indicates that the player may be a disappointment. This generalization is extremely debilitating, especially since you can’t eliminate uncomfortable emotions when competing at an elite level.
With the assistance of knowledgeable mental skills coach, players are given the required time and space to know and accept their emotions as a short lived experience, and that they are guided to develop individualized refocusing strategies for competition. This mental shift is that the key to giving young players a way of control over their emotions, which helps replace fear with courage.
Although coaches and fogeys may deliver a positive and supportive message, there are tangible skills that players can learn to face adversity in competitive tennis. Furthermore, sports psychology has the potential to become a universal platform for the iGen player to find out and master the required emotional management skills of life
