As every tennis player knows, it's not the opponent on the other side of the net who is the most formidable. It's the one on your side of the net, and we don't mean your doubles partner. It's the one wearing your tennis shoes, your tennis shirt, your tennis headband. It's you.
It's you not moving your feet. It's you playing their game instead of yours. It's you taking your eye off the ball. It's you being distracted by something not on the court--the match next to you, the airplane flying over, the work emails you just checked. It's the voice in your head that won't stop talking about that easy volley you just missed and how you should be up a set instead of down a set.
You can't battle your actual opponent in tennis until you learn how to battle the relentless opponent in your head. That starts with controlling the only thing you can control. Yourself.
It's different for everyone, but a good place to start is to control your breathing, which helps control your heart rate, which helps control your thoughts, which helps control your attitude.
To control your breathing take some slow, deep breathes through your nose between points. That will help slow everything down, including your mind, and make you less emotional when things go wrong. Once you control your inner opponent, you can start thinking about controlling the match against your actual opponent.
Try this Too Good Tennis Tip and you'll become way tougher to play. You'll be resilient, positive, clearheaded, strategic and, most importantly, you'll be having fun.
To calm and control your inner opponent, we recommend rocking our "Ball Like Buddha" Too Good graphic tennis t-shirts.