The Secrets of Mental Tennis

By Miguel A. Jimenez

Are you interested in learning how to become a better tennis player regardless of your ability? Do you ever wonder how do you structure your shots, such as where you serve and where to return, to anticipate and know what to do? or, how do you turn around your emotions when you have lost it? The Secrets of Mental Tennis is intended to serve as a framework and a point of reference that you can use to build your own mental and strategic plans that will help you get to the next level in your game and beyond.

For many players, the mental side of the game just means “positive thinking” and telling yourself to "focus." What is positive thinking? Focus on what? What should you be thinking and when? The bottom line in order to solve recurring problems, you have to have a series of steps and a process in place to solve the problems and achieve consistent results. The key is identifying those steps and coming up with a process that works for you that will deliver your desired outcome. The mental part of the game is composed of several different aspects that work together and this program is designed to incorporate in a more methodical way all the mental and emotional aspects of the game, distill them into their components and allow you to come up with game plans and precise steps/actions in order to produce measurable and consistent results. The program is divided into the following sections:

- Strategy
- Tactics
- Rituals
- Visualization
- Mental Toughness
- Emotions

Once you read the book, you should be able to put together specific game plans based on your style of play, know how to play against different playing styles, know what shots you should hit and when to hit them which have a higher percentages of succeeding, reduce your unforced errors, be able to identify patterns so that you can anticipate shots/plays and have a methodology in place to better manage your emotions to consistently stay in your optimal mental and emotional zone.

Miguel A. Jimenez

• Language: English
• Publisher: Miguel A. Jimenez
• Release date: Dec 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310587986

Miguel A. Jimenez

I have been involved with the game of tennis since I was 10 years old. At the age of 12, for three years I was enrolled at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy (NBTA) in Bradenton Florida as a student. I then went on to tour for 2 years in the ITF Junior circuit in South America and Europe. After ending the tour, I went on to take part in the International Coaches Program at the NBTA for 1 1/2 years. During that period, I got a Tennis Scholarship to attend Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN in which I played the number 1 spot in singles and doubles. Throughout my college career and after college, I taught tennis to junior players at different levels and adults to play the game. I have toured with a WTA player and worked at several different academies. At the present time, I do private coaching with juniors who are aspiring to get college scholarships. If you would like to ask any questions or send any feedback, please feel free to email me at [e-mail]

Book preview

What is the Mental Game of Tennis?

The mental game of tennis refers to all the aspects of the game that are not related to the mechanics of it (forehand, backhand, volleys, etc…) This includes the intellectual aspects and also the emotional and pre and post-game activities) Rituals= that are part of the game.

What is the mental game composed of?

While there may be some overlap between these spheres or a field of study could be categorized under another one, they are all present as a part of the mental game. The program is organized following an Inverted Pyramid that goes from the very general to the very specific. The reason behind this is to help you follow a logical structure that has a natural/organic flow to

How do I get better at it?

Practice! Practice! Practice! Well, how do you practice the mental game?! Realistically speaking, you may already incorporate some aspects of the mental game into your practice. For example, if you are doing basket drills that take you to a high exhaustion level, the exhaustion helps you work on your mental toughness as you have to keep telling yourself to keep moving forward and finish the drill.

Having a Plan of Action

How do you win points in tennis? Tennis is a game that is won or lost by either of two things:

Hitting a Winner

Missing a Ball

Guess what?! Not even the pros win most of their points off clean winners. Furthermore, at most levels, I would dare say that most points are won by unforced errors made by players.

In any endeavor in life that we take on, in order to get to the desired destination, it is of utmost importance to have a road map that will enable us to get to the destination. As it is commonly said, we do not plan to fail, WE FAIL TO PLAN.

Having a plan does not guarantee that you will reach your desired goal and sometimes it takes more than one try to achieve it. Hence, a well thought out and rehearsed game plan increases the possibilities of you reaching your goal. After all, most everything in life is a numbers game. The more you work at something, the more you increase your probabilities of achieving it. You also increase the number of times that you don’t achieve it. Part of the process is to be able to handle the setbacks and frame the process you are going through as a marathon vs. a sprint. Having a strategy will be based on the amount of weapons/tools that are available to you. For example, if you have a very weak backhand, your strategies need to compensate for your weaknesses and will also be limited by them. I recommend that you take your weaknesses into account and work on them from a technical perspective so that you get better at them and they become a strong point in your game.

With this in mind, this section will provide you with an outline on how to build your own road map that will help you get to the next level and beyond in your game. First, we need to define some terms related to the mental side of the game.

The mental game refers to non-mechanical components of the game such as the following cognitive and emotional aspects:

Strategy – A general plan of action that is composed of tactics that is designed to achieve a specific outcome. This plan can be composed of multiple sub-plans (Plan A, B, etc.) For example, you will be playing from the baseline working the points with high and deep balls to keep the highly aggressive opponent from attacking and charging the net. In tennis, a comprehensive strategic plan will take into account the following aspects of the game:

Playing the Score

Point Components

Point Types

Pattern Identification

Player Types

Baseliners (pushers)

Big Hitting Players

Serve & Volley Players

All Court Players

Tactics - Individual activities or maneuvers designed to achieve specific outcomes that comprise a strategic plan. Following the strategy we outlined, one tactic that will be employed is when serving, on a regular basis you will hit a kick serve to the backhand so that the opponent is pushed back and forced to engage in a baseline rally.

Rituals – A set of activities before, during and after a match or practice sessions that are done to keep a consistent environment for the purposes of enhancing your performance. For example, before a match, a player will get a set of specific clothes ready, eat at a certain point in time prior to the match, listen to some music, and practice for a pre-determined period of time prior to the match.

Game Preparation

Game

Post-Game

Visualization – The practice of imagining yourself executing certain tactics and feeling specific emotions to facilitate the execution of your strategy and enhance your mental toughness.

Mental Toughness–The ability to handle any and all obstacles and challenges that come up during competition in such a way that you are able to achieve your peak performance level under the toughest of circumstances. For instance, being able not only to overcome the emotional anger that may arise from an umpire calling a ball out when you are sure it was in, but also being able to channel it in such a way that the anger leads you to perform better and be more determined to reach your desired outcome.

Emotions – An altered state of mind that arises from an external or internal stimulus, it can be a pleasant or painful state of mind, and it is also accompanied by physiological changes. Emotions are what drive most, if not all, human activity into some type of action. Here are some aspects of the emotional game we will be covering:

Understand Emotions

Controlling Emotions

Creating Emotional States with Physiology & Visualization

What is a strategy? A strategy is a general plan of action that is composed of tactics that are designed to achieve a specific plan. This plan can also be composed of multiple sub-plans that address different circumstances (Plan A, B, etc.) For example, you will be playing from the baseline working the points with high and deep balls to keep the highly aggressive opponent from attacking and charging the net.

Herein you’ll find some of the components I have identified that will help you develop specific strategies. Please keep in mind that depending on many variables, the plans need to be adjusted. For example, the weather can alter your strategy as it may enhance or hamper your abilities to properly execute your strategy. Here is a list of variables to consider when devising a strategic plan:

Surface

Weather

Opponent

Altitude

Balls

Crowd

Injuries

Here are the different components that are part of developing a strategy:

Playing the Score

Point Components

Point Types

Passive Offensive

Offensive

Point Components

Pattern Identification

Player Types

Baseliners (pushers)

Big Hitting Players

Serve & Volley Players

All Court Players

Ok… Let’s get started with how to play the score.

Playing the score is fundamental as it will dictate how and when to implement tactical maneuvers in individual points. Hence, it is the building foundation of your strategic plan.

Point Components

In tennis, points are the founding blocks of the scoring system. While each point may require a different tactic depending on the score, the basic point structure remains the same:

Beginning

Working the Point

Ending the Point

Beginning

In tennis, a point is ALWAYS started by either:

Serving

Returning

When you are in either of these modes, it