Three Dangerous Words...

The hardest part of competing is staying in the moment. You've all heard me say ,"the three most dangerous words in sports are?" "I might win!" Why is that dangerous? What happens then?. If you are thinking about winning, or the possibility of it, then you are not thinking about the current point, or more importantly, the current SHOT. As your mind wanders to the benefits and rewards of winning, (trophies, qualification, points, accolades, self-esteem, etc) it wanders away from the tactics and technique of the current moment. So how can you manage these thoughts?

Denial won't work. You can't say to yourself, that at 5-5 you will not think about winning. You are human and these thoughts will drift into your mind. The important thing is how you manage them. We practice having thoughts that we use to "push" the thoughts of winning (or losing) out of your mind" .The idea being that you must occupy your mind with thoughts that keep you in the present. For instance, when the "I might win" thoughts creep in late in the match, you can force them out of your mind by occupying your mind with the thought " there is no winning, there is no losing, there is only this ball." By keeping your mind focused on the most basic job, "hit the ball", you can stop your mind from wandering off toward "results".

When your mind moves toward results, you almost always leave the present. You might be angry about recent results of the prior few points. Perhaps you had some break points, or match points that you let get away. If you are thinking of those lost opportunities, your mind is in the past. If you are thinking of the coming points, like "two more points and I have this game, one more game and I win this set, etc" then your mind has drifted off to the future. In both cases, your mind is away from the present tense, the current ball, the here and now - which means you will be bringing less focus and concentration to your current task, and probably under-performing.

Ultimately, as competitors, we have to learn to love the competition. Juniors ( and all players) tend to love the winning and hate the losing too much. Though hating losing and how it feels can be a motivating emotion, I think players are far better off learning to keep their mind off of results. We don't have complete control of results - as there are so many contributing factors. The results may be entirely attributed to the opponent's play, the weather, the courts, the distractions, or any number of outside issues we can't control. What can we control? Effort, preparation, mindfulness, focus, intensity, engagement, etc. Competition is really about testing yourself. It might be a test against the better player, or against a historical nemesis. It might be testing yourself in a problematic situation, or in in an unfamiliar kind of event. But when we learn to love the testing of ourselves, and not the results (winning or losing), we become much more free to learn from the experience, and to perform at our peak in the most difficult moments. The ultimate goal is "getting better". When we stay in the present, love the competition, and get our heads away from obsession with results, we will not only play better, but we will enjoy the experience more. Try getting your head around, "there is no winning, there is no losing, there is only THIS ball." As you learn to stay in the present moment, you will perform better, and those