Tennis psychology is the same as understanding the workings of your opponent's mind and gauging the effect of your own game on his/her head and also understanding the mental effects resulting from the different external causes on your own head.
However, it is true that you cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.
You must understand the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, or if that is not possible, try to ignore it.
Once you have correctly assessed your own reaction to conditions, study your opponents in order to determine their temperaments. Similar temperaments react similarly, and you may judge men of your own kind by yourself. Different characters you must try to liken with those whose reactions you already know.
Someone who can regulate his/her own mental processes stands an excellent chance of reading those of someone else for the mind works along certain lines of thought and can be studied. One can only control one's own mental processes after carefully examining them.
A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. If he was he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a fairly clear indicator of his/her kind of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe strategy of reaching the net.
Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would rather remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first type of player mentioned above merely hits the ball with little idea of what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a definite plan and sticks to it.
However, it is true that you cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.
You must understand the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, or if that is not possible, try to ignore it.
Once you have correctly assessed your own reaction to conditions, study your opponents in order to determine their temperaments. Similar temperaments react similarly, and you may judge men of your own kind by yourself. Different characters you must try to liken with those whose reactions you already know.
Someone who can regulate his/her own mental processes stands an excellent chance of reading those of someone else for the mind works along certain lines of thought and can be studied. One can only control one's own mental processes after carefully examining them.
A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. If he was he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a fairly clear indicator of his/her kind of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe strategy of reaching the net.
Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would rather remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first type of player mentioned above merely hits the ball with little idea of what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a definite plan and sticks to it.
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If you are a novice tennis player or want to know more about the general psychology of tennis, please go to our website called Tennis Tips for Beginners. Free reprint available from: Basic Tennis Psychology (Part 1).
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