How to Regulate Emotions in Tennis | Shankcast Tennis Podcast Ep. 29
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- What's your method to keep level headed?
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My emotion to regulate is rarely anger. It is more often a drop in confidence, that leads to increased heart rate and feeling of being frantic, even fearful. The thing that gets me out of that is breathing in through the nose, and out through the mouth, and really concentrating on the sting in the nose. About four deep slow breathes, and my heart rate comes back down. I also do this on particularly important serves.
BTW Ian, this is MarkinSandyEggo. I am now 6 months post op from my knee replacement. I've been playing for 2 months now, and today was a 2hour clinic followed by a 2-1/2 hour league match.
I'm baaaaack.
Just found this podcast, loving it. As a coach myself I’ve realized how much of a privilege playing tennis truly is. We forget the act of playing tennis is suppose to be fun, regardless of outcome. If it’s not fun then why do it? You’re upset because you’re losing or playing terrible? No, you’re playing poorly because you’re upset and you forgot how to enjoy yourself on the court.
I never punched my strings, but there were many times when I slapped them. I would also yell things while playing. Recently, I read The Inner Game of Tennis and that changed my perspective and now I rarely get angry during a match.
I am the type of player to get frustrated. Not necessarily at my opponent, but rather when I'm playing worse than normal. It's rare for me to throw my rackets, but I have done it. Although I have always understood the value of my rackets since I didn't grow up with much money, so I would throw my racket at the fence instead of the ground so I wouldn't actually break it. lol
I had a racquet chucking phase where I'd frisbee my racquet to the fence or hit the ball to the back fence. My good friend and practice partner got really upset one day when I did it. I slowly tried to reduce it, but one day i broke my favorite Pro Staff tuxedo racquet that I spent good money on. Then I realised I had to put an end to the negativity, as I was neither happy nor winning by doing it. The hard part about the phase was that it coincided with some other turbulences in life, so the losses hurt more than they should have. Luckily I have been able to turn it around by trying to be fit and healthy; just eating better, exercising frequently, running a 5k, meditating etc; I still experience negative emotions, but the decay time is a lot quicker nowadays.
Enjoy these podcast, not so much for their tennis content, as for their general applicability across the whole sporting spectrum. I've been a competitive sailboat racer (and coach in my younger years) and picked up my 80's tennis rackets during the pandemic to hit around with my wife, so not a competitive tennis player at all. But I can see the same competitive emotions play out from my days racing sailboats. Two comments.
Expectations play a huge role in competitive emotions. If I get beat by someone I consider at at a lower level, it is a huge emotional downer. It happens; competitors get better, they train more, acquire more skills, they are psychologically ready to win. Mark alluded to that when a former student beat him convincingly, a student he was able to handle in previous matches. Those competitions, when a competitor thought to be inferior wins, are when your emotions are likely to bubble over in a bad way.
Besides your personal stories on the emotional lows of tennis, I was surprised you didn't go over the emotional highs of a well played tennis match; the day when, surprisingly, emotions seem to melt away, the skill is there, the shots are falling. (I'm relating it to those races on the water when my competitors dropped back into the distance.) Then compare that to the days when everything is a struggle but you can still pull out a win. What are the emotional skills to make a not-so great day still successful?
The big difference between tennis and sailboat racing is that tennis is like fighting a dragon, or two knights jousting. It's just more intense in the one-on-one struggle for domination. As Ian said, "It is all on You." Failure looms bigger. I think there should be a Part II podcast on the special psychological pressures of facing off against a sole competitor. (Does it attract only the Type A competitors? does it encourage more cheating?)
I'm late for this comment but I just want to say that it helped me a lot.
I just played my second tournament after having practiced 5x a week for 6 months since the last one. I was putting so much pressure on myself to perform that it was the most miserable I had ever been on a tennis court. I won the match and was still SO disappointed with how I had played.
During the match, all I could think of was "what were you doing this entire time that you're still this bad at tennis".
It was fucking terrible.
I have the second round this Friday and I will focus on having a better mental state.
My issue is mostly keeping the right level of pressure focus excitement... However you call it.
There is like 2 dimensions I'm trying to balance. One is the amount of excitement and the other axis is positive vs negative mental space.
In the first set I'm generally zoned in on a stable 67% excitement and majority of positive thinking.
And after the first set i get issues on both axis. Over excitement and overcooking points or being too mellow laid back. And on top of that more negative thoughts enter my mind because of errors i make or because of the result of my wandering excitement.
This is right now the most important thing in my game to get hold on. I notice it during the match and i know how to influence it, but then i influence it too much the other way and I'm bouncing my mental game up and down during the 2nd and then also mostly 3rd set.
I don't have that issue in doubles, only in singles
I try to use repetitive movements that help me get into winning state or physical triggers that help set my mind back from the anger of say a missed shot- (not to level of Nadal wedge pulling) - basically repeat the trigger you always do when you are winning, good posture etc - and greater chances are you will win again- I however still struggle
with day prior to a game with nerves and even insomnia which can derail the performance of game but the more prepared I am the less of a problem - and yeah have fun. I suspect a lot of top tennis players do get mental illness from all the pressure (ie Agassi abusing Adderall to stay focused ) - tennis seems to get more addictive - the better you get- can take over your life (not to cast a dark cloud but what are your thoughts on this as coaches?)
I was told by some wise man that tennis you need this "cold fire" on the court. You need to have the competitive spirit and energy but also at the same time being calm and able to recover from set back.
I get really angry when things don’t go my way on the court like if I play bad, but the last straw was when I almost broke my racquet and half the bumper guard came off. After that I vowed never to throw my racquet and show to my opponent I’m mad for an extended period of time, and it’s going pretty well.
Awesome discussion loved it!! 😊😂
I drink empotions that make me play better before matches
Yeah ! Why do you have to care about your empotions in tennis when you can be paying attention to your emotions...
My calm down involves a 2-minute break in the bathroom to practice forearm stretching. Let it go by letting it flow.
The thoughts and strategies between points is very interesting. Keep it up.
People forget that Björn Borg had a real bad temper in the start of his career as well. Think Stefan Edberg was more calm throughout his career. Robin Söderling had a really interesting summer talk on radio last year about his sever mental health issues. To bad it is only in Swedish, not sure if it was subtitled.
It helps when you have had time away from the game to put it all in perspective...
I’m gonna have to disagree with something you guys said and all agreed on actually. You said that throwing your racquet, getting angry with yourself, etc isn’t disrespectful to your opponent, just makes you look like an idiot. However, as someone who’s been on the opposite time often (I push sometimes), it feels very disrespectful and makes the game much less fun to play against.
I take empotions of Bweh protein before every tennis match
Competition changes people. This conversation dovetails nicely with some really good advice from Matt earlier this week. I love to play tennis but when I’m in competition I almost take it personal even though I’m just beginning.
All competition, nothing personal.
Very puzzling that the title of discussion is regulating emotions yet the conclusion was we need more* emotion. That's not regulating it, in a game where you lose when you tense up, blind your strategic mind with anger, more emotion is really the antithesis of good strategy. In a game of inches and angles, perfection can be boosted by a calm demeanour. This calm is always enhanced by more oxygen, better condition but perhaps a sense of humor might be the most important skill of all.
If you can't laugh at your opponent or your mistakes then you might want to find another sport because tennis teaches every player humility, no matter how painful. The champions that win the clutch points in a match are devoid of emotion, they're concentration demands the emotional brain be switched off. If you can't deal with your emotions and reset for the next point, that will cost any player no matter the historical prestige personal pride or prize money. I think that ability to discipline yourself not to get caught up in emotion makes anyone a better player. Even the best have that humility, that ability to laugh and remember... It's only a GAME📍🎾
"it slipped outta my hand bro"
on a SUNDAY NIGHT
@@MarkSansait where's your fam?
Yall just casually sipping on Rock Hill Farms bourbon!? I couldn't find that around here in NC if my life depended on it
I find it interesting that you guys think in other sports people argue with the refs more. I mean it is one thing for a tennis player to tell a ref to watch for something in Tennis or something like that. Same with a football coach telling a ref "hey 76 keeps holding" etc. I think both are fine. Then you get the level where coaches or tennis players just have an outburst like "what? You called that out!!! That's BS!" I mean that is bad but in the heat of the moment that is somewhat understandable. And sometimes the calls in other games are just repeated very bad.
But even there, Tennis has pretty clear rules and it is rare that the refs are really botching the calls or interpreting them in favor of one team - like can happen in basketball or football - which has much more subjectivity. Never mind targeting even pass interference, Holding etc Basketball has its own fairly subjective calls as well. So there are naturally more disputes in say football or basketball. But tennis is getting to the point where my cellphone can call the game I don't think basketball or football are anywhere close to that yet.
But when it comes to being personally rude and abusive to refs it seems to me the top tennis players have been really bad - Connors, McEnroe, Serena Williams. Some people say it doesn't hurt tennis but I disagree. As a kid I wrongly viewed tennis as a game for spoiled brats. Connors and McEnroe behavior tended reinforce my view, so I never had an interest. I think many parents viewed it that way as well.
I think people like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic keeping their infantile tantrums in check has been good for the sport.
Interesting, there is a interview among John, Mat, Lendl, and Becker on youtube that talked about if tennis should be this emotionless. They talked about in their times they throw tendrum and maybe tennis might be better if they let them express themselves a bit? But I don't think in tournament now they allow those behavior anymore. I don't think this is coming back.
Link?
@@ngalawena ruclips.net/video/nuoAknS29pA/видео.html part 1
@@ngalawena ruclips.net/video/F877cmjJfeM/видео.html part 2
I have commented on this subject very very recently, I really enjoyed watching Mark. But...
I love the booze and tennis talk
Thumbnail check…?
hehehe fixed. Thanks for the catch
@@MarkSansait no worries, video’s great!!
So, poor kids are basically more mature, b/c they can't throw their racquet.