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Managing Fear and Risk
I’ve been a high-performance tennis coach for over 30 years. I thrived comfortably in relative obscurity, enjoying the Southern California sun working with nationally ranked junior tennis players and coaching coaches. For 20 of those years, I secretly dreamt of writing my own tennis instructional books to positively impact the coaching industry while traveling the world.
Procrastination dominated those 20 years. I wasn’t willing to take the chance. I lacked the courage to risk leaving my base and losing my successful coaching business if I were to begin traveling. It seemed too dangerous. What if I failed? What if the books bombed? What if I wasn’t as smart as I thought?
My internal dialogue was telling me that even though I had something special to share, I shouldn’t risk a good thing. I didn’t have professional speaking experience. Why did I think I could write books?
I intuitively knew that I had to risk leaving relative comfort behind and put my old career in jeopardy in order to attract a larger audience and share my experiences and tennis developmental theories. I researched the fear and risk management process and began writing The Tennis Parents Bible. My goal was simply to complete it and if it helped a single parent or coach along their journey that would be a bonus.
Back then, no one could have told me I would go on to write four, #1 bestsellers, coach the ITF coaches and speak at the largest conferences and grand slams around the world.
Athletes respond to risk and fear differently. In my experience, while most athletes are initially overly cautious, some are overly adventurous. Success and failure in competition greatly depend on how the athlete responds to fear and risk. Results, both positive and negative, stem from repeated behavior. An athlete’s behavior is created by their attitude. Therefore, understanding and managing our athlete’s attitude toward fear and risk is worth exploring.
A great place to start when managing an athlete’s attitude is establishing a baseline of their thoughts and behaviors concerning the following common stumbling blocks. Begin by answering the following question:
- Do they have an adversity towards fear and risk? Is it extreme or mild?
- Are they tolerant towards fear and risk?
- Do they seek out fearful or risky endeavors? Is it extreme or mild?
Athletes possess different degrees of fear and risk depending on the conditions. For example, in competition, one athlete may exhibit extreme tolerance and grit while playing tennis behind the baseline and extreme adversity and fear when attacking the net. Other athletes may excel on the practice court displaying almost flawless stroke production only to shut down, choke or panic in competition. At the other end of the spectrum, some athletes possess no fear and live for the thrill of competition.
“Some extreme athletes hold only mild fear as they seek canoeing over Niagara Falls or bungee jumping over the Bhote Kosi River.”
Most coaches hope that their athlete’s strokes and athleticism have authority and command over their performance, but I believe it’s their emotional aptitude that actually runs the show.
When working with players who have issues with fear and risk, begin by asking yourself the following six questions to identify the athlete’s level of emotional awareness.
- What is their cognitive design? Do they understand their brain preferences?
- How do they view the feared situation?
- Do they appreciate the opportunity to be able to compete?
- Are there past bias or experiences they need to let go?
- Will they accept a strategic, proactive plan to attack their issues?
- Are they willing to train correctly for the mission at hand?
Conquering Fear Stems from a Courageous Plan
A re-occurring message throughout the book is that teaching tennis requires more than teaching the fundamentals of the game. It takes serious interpersonal skills. One necessary interpersonal skill is motivating athletes to dig deeper, push a little harder, and dare to compete in the face of fear. Courage is the ability to persevere and withstand fear. Unfortunately, in match play, fear often dismantles athletic performance.
“Peak Performance happens only when fear doesn’t interfere with the process.”
On the practice court when there’s no real threat of negative judgment fear is minimal. Fear comes to life, in all its raging glory, when the athlete is judged during competition. In the competitive tennis world, fear is emotionally induced by a perceived threat, which is natural. Fear is real and best not to be ignored or treated lightly. Fear changes an athlete’s brain chemistry, upsets the stomach, tenses muscle groups, and directly alters the athlete’s behavior. So I’ll say it again, fear is real and emotional training shouldn’t be ignored.
When fear is interfering with performance, experienced competitors are trained to fight despite the perceived threat. While intermediate competitors, uneducated about the process, tend to freeze or cave into the pressure. I believe that the best way to conquer performance anxieties, such as fear, is to accept that they come with the privilege of competing.
Parents and coaches, simply telling an athlete not to be scared aren’t preparing them for the onslaught of mental or emotional contaminants that will hold them hostage in match play. Overcoming debilitating fear comes from re-routing the athlete’s brain. This entails shifting their focus away from the outcome of the match and toward their preset performance goals. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! Modifying the brains response to fear has to do with neuroplasticity. Eliminating the strong-lasting inner connections formed by poor mental habits takes time, thought, and daily effort.
Neuroscientists call this pruning. The process of pruning is unlearning by re-routing old, undesirable neural pathways, which form physical, mental or emotional barriers. For example, relax and cross your arms…no really! No one’s looking. Cross your arms in a relaxed state. Now, consciously unwrap your arms and re-cross them the other way. Boom! It doesn’t feel right, does it? This new motor program feels a bit uncomfortable and awkward. The same concept holds true after your spouse re-organizes the kitchen drawers and for two weeks you habitually go to the old spoon drawer only to find dish towels. As the new neuropathways are strengthened, the old pathways are weakened. It is a two-step system: Part one is pruning of the old mental habit, and part two is developing the new mental habit.
Uncle Tommy is 83 years young. In his home, he is kind, relaxed, funny and comfortable to be around. We hang out, watching Blue Blood re-runs and snack on junk food. But when we jump into his 2002 Camry (which we nicknamed “La Bomba”) Uncle Tommy turns the key, and the different environment changes his brains chemistry, his attitude, and his body language. Within minutes, he’s agitated, tense and uncomfortable.
Behind the wheel, Uncle Tommy feels a lack of control. He associates driving with uncontrollable reckless drivers, bumper to bumper traffic, and mayhem, which translates, to fear and risk. When a driver changes lanes without their blinker, Uncle Tommy’s automatic response is to roll down the window and curse them out. I asked my wife if Tommy‘s emotional climate changes every time he drives his car? “Oh yah…every time. It’s embarrassing!” Without re-wiring his agitated head space every time he sits behind the wheel he is strengthening that neural pathway and cementing his emotional response.
Conquering Fear through Desensitization
Let’s use the analogy of Uncle Tommy’s negative association with navigating “La Bomb” through the streets of Los Angeles with a tennis player who has a negative association with navigating tournament competition.
Like Uncle Tommy, some tennis player’s brains chemistry changes for the worst as they prepare for competition. Their attitude and behavior flip due to their preset emotional response to fear and risk.
Whether it’s fear of other drivers or fear of a competitor, disconnecting performance anxieties takes desensitization. This is an ongoing process of exposing the athlete to stress-busting, fear-based drills. These fear busting exercises replicate and expose the athlete to simulated versions of the emotional climate of competition.
The desensitization drills are followed by dress-rehearsal practice sets where pre-set, customized rituals and routines are in place. This pulls the athlete’s attention toward the process instead of the outcome. Repeated exposure diminishes the stronghold anxiety has on the athlete. In sports psychology, they describe it as shifting focus from the “destructive neuropathway to the new enlightened neuropathway.”
By learning and rehearsing a pro-active emotional response to fear, athletes (and even old uncles) can discover that their old belief system was merely a bad habit that formerly held them hostage.
Re-Examining Risk
Neuroscience shows us that it is normal human behavior to focus on what we could lose versus what we could gain. That is why some intermediate athletes play to win, get a comfortable lead then shift to playing not to lose, only to blow the lead. Their focus on avoiding possible pain causes probable pain.
When an athlete no longer fears losing, they embrace risk and play to win until the match is over. With this mindset, competition isn’t threatening. The challenge is seen as a privilege.
Coaches and parents would be wise to remind their athletes that it is common for many athletes to be unknowingly loyal to comfortable mediocrity. Most want to fit in and not stand out. They prefer to protect the status quo and aren’t willing to break their routines that are not working anyway. It’s important for the educators to frequently motivate their athletes to remember that winning more often stems from improving, improving comes from growing, and growing comes from risk. It is the internal challenge every competitive athlete faces.
The Risk Leads to Reward Philosophy
It’s also important for us as parents and teachers to emphasize to our athletes that risk is inherent in competition. There are reckless risks, and then there are thoughtful, calculated, and inspired risks necessary to beat worthy opponents. Not all necessary risks pay off instantly. Sometimes risk initially leads to losses. Especially when the risky behavior (pattern play, shot selection or stroke) hasn’t been fully developed. When your student attempts the correct shots the moment demands, whether they win or lose, they are improving their mastery of the sport.
“Without appropriate risk-taking, nothing new would ever be accomplished.”
In beginner and intermediate tennis competition, playing it safe and retrieving often pays great dividends. However, in high-performance tennis, it’s a different story. At the higher levels, playing it safe and not taking advantage of appropriate risks is usually a receipt for failure. Without pushing your athletes to embrace risk, they will likely remain stagnant in their growth and predictable in their match play. Athletes who embrace risk are more likely to realize their true potential.
“Athletes have to risk defeat, judgment, pain, and shame to play at their peak potential.
Taking intelligent risks is an essential part of achieving high-performance tennis results.
Managing Risky Players
Like we uncovered in previous chapters, not all athletes share the same cognitive profile. We are all controlled to some extent by our genetic design. While parents and coaches promote the rewards of taking calculated risks to some athletes, it is wise to understand that other cognitive designs need polar opposite training. To these, reckless daredevils, minimizing risk is in their best interest. Some of our athletes aren’t thinking of reasons not to risk; they are thinking why not risk…
Opposite of the timid performers are the reckless athletes who are hard-wired to thrive on risk. In fact, they perform with too much reckless abandon. They are often downright mindless and inattentive to playing high percentage ball. This personality profile doesn’t have limiting beliefs; they have limitless beliefs.
I occasionally work with talented, young juniors who are so overly confident that they are sure they’re going to be #1 in the world next week! Due to their limitless beliefs, nothing is stopping them from routinely attempting low percentage shot selections. Their intuition is skewed, as we watch in horror as these impatient athletes give away relatively easy matches.
With these exciting athletes, I recommend assisting them to play only within their preset comfortable script of play. Firstly, assist them in designing their most proficient serving patterns, return patterns, rally patterns, short ball options and net rushing sequences. Second, practice these exact scripts routinely in place of rallying. Third, bring in a sparring partner and monitor the athlete’s ability to stay on their pre-designed scripts throughout practice sets. Forth, in real tournament play, chart the percentage of points the athlete played on script versus going rogue. In my experience, exceptions follow every rule so shoot for a performance goal consisting of about 75% on script and 25% off script. The athletes should seek excellence and not perfection.
“Champions understand that if they don’t apply intelligent risk, they don’t grow. If they don’t grow, they don’t reach their peak potential. If they aren’t performing at their peak potential, they’re not satisfied with their performance. If they’re not satisfied, they’re not happy. So, happiness stems from risking intelligently.”
