It is impossible to achieve success without putting in the effort. Tennis players have to put in a lot of work daily to improve their skills and increase their chances of success. Working hard is not only a physical aspect because the mind decides what the body will do. Especially, when you start feeling tired.
Tennis players understand the value of the training process. They have a plan that they have to follow day in and day out to address the areas that have to be improved before participating in the next competition. Many players work hard but they are not consistent with this effort (read here how to push yourself to the new limits). They mix up great practice sessions with really bad ones and this scenario happens because they are not able to deal with many uncomfortable factors that happen on the road to the top of high performance.
Working hard is necessary to improve but also has some side effects. If you work hard, you have to dedicate 100% mental and physical effort so as soon as you drop your level, you will see negative effects. Additionally, the harder you work, the more tired you will be so your feelings will be uncomfortable while performing at your best. A lot of players don’t know how to react when they are tired and they go for the easiest possible solution – they give up. If you want to become a champion, you have to understand what champions do when they are tired and you can’t allow tiredness to decide what your next step will be.
Success is uncomfortable. To get your game to the next level and beat your rivals, you have to be ready to get out of your comfort zone and stay there for a long time. It won’t be nice but it will pay you off in your on-court results so working on specific tools is necessary to understand what you have to do when your lungs are burning and your muscles scream to stop the activity:
Test yourself
In tennis, you have to beat the opponent but to do it, you have to first deal with your demons. One of the demons is the feeling of tiredness. When you wake up and you can’t walk or you run to the next ball during the exercise based on repetitions, remind yourself that it is the battle between you and … you! You are here to test your perseverance. You are here to improve your resistance. Treat the moments of tiredness as a test to prove that you are ready to face any challenge.
Change the attention
You have control over your attention. When you get tired, your thoughts are automatically directed to the uncomfortable feelings. You start to feel how hard it is and you can start doubting yourself. It is your job to consciously change your attention to not think about this difficulty. Focus on the goal. Give yourself a task to do. Make sure you think about something that you can execute – not about something that can make you work less intensively.
Look for motivation
Your willingness to deal with uncomfortable situations is based on your level of motivation. If your reason is strong enough, you will never give up. It means that when you feel tired, it is a signal that you need extra motivation immediately. Try to discover what motivates you and use every time when you have to run for the next 15 balls. It can be the memory of the last win. It can be the image of the next tournament. It can be an ice cream that you want to eat after the practice sessions. Find what works for you and have a proven response to the moments when your body will want to stop the action.
If you are tired, it means you are working hard. That’s a good sign. However, your effort will also make your body deplete its energy so you have to be ready for this and apply specific mental tools that will allow you to continue improving even when normally you would stop and rest.
Marcin Bieniek is a professional tennis coach. You can contact Marcin through his personal coaching website http://marcinbieniek.info. Marcin has been working with USTA, top 50 ITF and WTA/ATP players. Author of tennis book “Tenisowy Olimp” and frequent contributor to TennisPro and TenisKlub magazines. He was a speaker at International Coaching Tennis Symposium 2016 and 2021 at Hilton Head Island, USA.
enjoytennisblog 