Thank you for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Ten Tennis Tournament Tips
As tournament play approaches, common stumbling blocks sabotage even the most talented athletes. Often the difference between winning and losing is simply applying the following mental and emotional tips:
1. Warm up your primary and secondary strokes and patterns Before a match, warm up the stroke and patterns needed to beat the style of opponent you are about to face. Have the appropriate game plan ready. If you do not know anything about your opponent’s style of play, warm up all your strokes.
2. In the match, keep your intensity and focus up until the match is complete. Often you have a comfortable 4-1 lead and tend to relax and lose focus, now thanks to you, it’s a 5-5 dog fight! Changing from “Playing to win” to “Playing not to lose” is changing a winning style of play.
3. Worthy opponents change their losing game plans. Your opponent switches to their plan “B” and you fail to spot the tactical change and fail to adapt and problem solve.
4. Spot and control the Mega and Mini Mega Points. Remember, you have to take the match from a champion. Expecting them to fall apart and quit when it gets tough won’t happen against the top players. Controlling the “big” points is a critical factor.
5. Perform your Between Point Rituals. Controlling the tempo of the match, your heart rate, mistake & anger management and problem solving takes place in between points. Often against weaker players you don’t bother doing your between point and changeover rituals. Later when you come up against a real competitor, you’re not comfortable with the feelings of problem solving and rituals which makes you uncomfortable applying it.
6. Apply the laws of offensive, neutral and defensive shot selection. Some players tend to go for glamorous offensive shots when they are in a neutral “building” situation. Others tend to get scared and fall back to simply hitting neutral shots when they have an offensive situation. Selecting the appropriate shot at the right time is high performance tennis.
7. Control the energy flow. Your opponent wins 3 games in a row and you just wander aimlessly to the next point. Your head is slumped, like a “poor me”…with a “deer in the headlights” look on your face. You are the only one who can stop this energy flow.
8. Second match warm up routines. Before the second match of the day you don’t bother to re-start your pre match rituals. You don’t bother with a short warm up or visualization with your next opponent’s game in mind. Heck, you don’t even go for a run before checking in. You’re sluggish, unfocused, and go down in flames.
9. If you’re being overplayed and can’t find an answer to get into the match. READ YOUR NOTES. You should have your patterns and plans listed. If you’re losing to a moonball pusher…pull out those notes! Try other options.
10. Gratitude. Your family is behind you 100%. They are always trying to assist you in your life’s quest. They pack your bags, string and grip your racquets, put thousands of miles on the family car to lessons, hitting sessions, off-court workouts, practice matches and tournaments every week! They sacrifice the hundreds of things they could be doing for themselves… They spend their time and thousands of dollars on ….you. Yet, you’re all too often mad at them. You don’t have a chance without the support of your parents. Instead of the “attitude” try gratitude. They are the best allies you’ll ever have.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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