Tennis Psychology (Part 2)
Posted by Gail Jones in Uncategorized, tags: apparel, attire, celebrities, enjoyment, Fashion, fitness, health, hobbies, other, outdoors, recreation, sport, tennis, Uncategorized, wimbledonThe fast, unpredictable, net-rushing tennis-player is a person of impulse. There is no real system to his/her attack, no comprehension of your game. He will make brilliant coups at the drop of a hat, largely by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an fascinating sort of character.
The most dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the command of an ever-alert mind. This/her is the player to study. He is a player with a definite purpose. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle antagonist in the world of tennis. He is of the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of slavish determination that fixes his/her mind on one strategy and sticks to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the bitter end, with never a thought of changing his gameplan.
He is the player whose psychology is fairly simple to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is difficult to upset, because he never allows himself to think about anything but 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 type from your own mental processes, and then plan your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke, strength and equipment, the deciding factor in any match is the mental standpoint. Luck, as it is called, is usually no more than seizing the psychological advantage of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. People talk a lot about the “shots we have made.” But few people realize the importance of the “shots we have missed.”
The psychology of missing shots is just as vital 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 explain. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and getting there, drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is shocked and put off his stride, realizing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not risk it 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: all this by a miss.
If you had merely popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to get the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded for no reason.
Let’s just say that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was a seemingly 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, because he feels that he has lost a big opportunity.
The psychology involved in a tennis match is very interesting, but readily understandable. Both men begin with equal chances. Once one player establishes a real advantage, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes poor. The only objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby maintaining his/her confidence.
If the second player pulls even or draws 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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