How do you know whether you are winning?
No, that usually doesn't tell you the answer. You think you are winning when you FEEL that you are winning. For example, have you ever been ahead 5-2 and then lost 2 games to lead 5-4? During that time, most people feel that they are losing. So, our emotions tell us who is winning and who is losing. And your opponent, who just climbed from 2-5 to 4-5, now feels that he or she is winning. As you can see from this example, emotions cloud judgment. If you lead 5-4, you are still winning. Yet what happened during the previous few minutes bothers you and can make you feel as though you're losing. Now, there is no logical or physical connection between missing a shot one minute ago and missing one now: both are just matters of probability. Unfortunately however, we mentally make the past influence the present and the future. The mind analyzes the past and predicts the future. Since we missed a sitter a minute ago, we FEEL that we are likely do so again. These feelings of fear and doubt tense muscles and slow decision-making. In other words, negative thinking and negative emotions affect body and mental ability so that we cannot perform at 100% anymore. The result is that now the probability of missing a sitter is much higher. Our fear has just become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Our feelings and thoughts increase the chances of future events being what we expect. But we are unaware of that. We think that destiny and certain unfair laws serve us these unfortunate events of double faults and missed sitters. The fact is that we create them. How do we overcome these mental bad habits? Just understanding this connection between negative thinking and poor performance can motivate you to stop thinking negatively. If your goal is to be the best you can be, then this motivation is strong enough to make you just STOP IT when you become aware of unhelpful feelings and thoughts. If, for example, you were leading 5-2 and just lost 2 games, your feelings might tell you that you are losing. That would negatively affect your game so that you help your opponent by playing poorly. Instead, look at the situation realistically: You are leading 5-4, and you won 5 of the last 9 games. You must be doing something right. Play your game calmly, as you did before. If, on the other hand, you were 2-5 down and you just won 2 games, you feel that you are winning. USE those feelings to make you aggressive and focused. It's a balancing act though. We've all seen (and experienced?) matches in which a player behind 5-2 or 5-1 staged a great comeback to 5-5 and then lost 5-7, just because they relaxed too much, thinking they had done the hard part. In summary, do not rely on your feelings when they are not helping you. Feeling bad after losing a lead cannot be good for your game. You can learn from your mistakes and accept that losing a lead happens to the best of players, even when playing their best. Back from Winning Score Emotions to Mental Tennis Back from Winning Score Emotions to TennisMindGame.com
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