Losing Focus / Concentration

by Wayne
(MN)

Amazingly, many of the things you've mentioned in the related article, I have begun to do on my own.

I was tired of not playing my matches at the level I play at in drill so I've read many articles on the mental game and have employed nearly all of the above techniques.

Occasionally, though, I still find myself losing my focus and concentration over silly things that are out of my control, like noise from the drill being conducted on the adjacent court.

The other day I had a match on court that was adjacent to a court in which one of the pros were conducting a routine drill with his juniors, complete with the boombox blasting away.

I found it very distracting and, before I knew it, I dropped my first 2 service games and the set at 6-1. I couldn't shake my annoyance at my perceived ignorance coming from the other court, and I was completely aware that I shouldn't be letting it bother me.

The second set went a bit better but it just illustrates to me even more just how huge the mental aspect of the game is.