Physical or emotional pain?
Which one do you choose?

Have you ever lost a match and yet you felt good? Perhaps not really enthusiastic or ecstatic, but still positive…

Why?

What is the difference between losing a match and feeling bad and losing a match and feeling good?

The difference is in your effort level or the feeling that you gave the best you could. If you give 100% effort and still lose, then you have a good feeling since you were fighting and trying to win, but the circumstance – your opponent – was too good on that day.

The main reason why you feel bad after you lose is that you feel that you could have done more. That’s usually when you don’t give 100%.

With effort I usually mean the physical effort of running after every ball, staying in the rally even though your legs are burning, returning balls from a defensive position even though you can hardly breathe and so on.

In all these situations you have the choice to go for a high percentage, smart and tactically correct play – which usually means consistency and keeping the ball in – or to go for a low risk shot which will also end the point and give you the time to recover and rest.

When you choose the second option, you will probably feel bad if you happen to lose the match. You KNOW you could have done more. What you feel is guilt.

You need to become aware that you have two choices on the scales:

Giving 100% physical effort, which makes you free of guilt since you know you gave all you had, OR, not giving 100% and maybe experiencing the feeling of guilt after the loss. (or even a win if it was 7:5, 4:6, 6:4 against someone you could beat 6:2, 6:1 if you gave your best).

So eventually you have this on the scales:

100% effort means physical pain – legs, lungs and the rest of the body is hurting, but you experience 0% emotional pain – no guilt.

Less than 100% effort means that you have 0 (or very little) physical pain, and you experience emotional pain - guilt.

I have personally always chosen the physical pain since I tolerate it much easier than emotional pain. You also need to know that experiencing physical pain (not to the extreme) is just your body realizing that it is not fit enough for the effort and that it will improve.

Experiencing emotional pain does not necessarily mean improving in the “mental fitness.” On the contrary, it usually deepens your emotional scars and wounds.

Which one will you choose – physical or emotional pain?

Back from 100% Effort to Mental Tennis

Back from 100% Effort to TennisMindGame.com