If you can’t be a little mean and horrible on the field, you’ll always be a found feast for the enemies who can be horrible and mean.
Rafael Nadal is not the best tennis player in logical terms, but he is the one who does it mentally. This shows you that your mentality is almost more important than your ground strokes. Especially at the club level.
Nadal is always a little mean on the course – and sometimes horrible. He doesn’t appreciate the enemy’s eyes. He determines the speed of the match through his rituals, which seem ridiculous to many outsiders. He leaves his emotions completely free rein after outstanding points in important game situations.
In this article we will find out why it is simply not in keeping with human nature to be too tolerable on the tennis court and simply – too nice.
Maybe you also give too much of your mental strength in your games by being always nice and kind. You’re avoiding confrontations and discussions about ball prints on the court. You feel intimidated when your opponent feasts for a great blow and cheers loudly.
Maybe you’ll lose your mental strength a lot sooner. That is, when you research the results of your next opponent on your smartphone, see with horror how strong he must be and put him on a podium before the match, on which your opponent would probably get fear of heights. You make your opponent bigger than he is. And yourself weaker than you are.
Children are a great example of this psychological area. When you slip into the role of an observer and shake off your emotions, you get great insights into the actual behaviour of the little dwarfs. Children from the age of three or four start to fool people who move around them, children know their own needs and develop effective strategies to meet them. The simplest example of this is screaming. Once the bottle or the desired attention is on its way, it quickly becomes calmer again than in a remote forest area.
The strategy, the screaming, does not take into account the current state of health of mum or dad. The child places his or her goal at the centre of his or her actions and not the desire to make it right for his or her parents and to secure peace of mind.
Many tennis players do not place their goal, the victory of the match, at the centre of their actions. Especially in critical and match-critical situations they are far from confrontation of any kind. They don’t question the ball imprint of their forehand given by the opponent, even though they have the impression that the ball still scratched at the outer edge of the line. Then it is not the victory of the match that becomes the goal, but the peace in the square. Rafael Nadal would never sacrifice straightening his hair, typing the ball and the grip between his buttocks for peace on the court.
In fact, you can learn a lot for your mental strength from little children. The first lesson should be for you to act according to your goal and not allow yourself to be distracted from that clearly defined goal. This ability can be as powerful as a third serve in some games for you. Get on your opponent’s nerves if you don’t like a decision. Discuss, ask if you can come to his site and take a closer look at the ball imprint. Also – Pardon, especially if your opponent seems annoyed by it.
Take your time before important second serve. How often do you see that in critical situations the second serve is played immediately, almost in one movement, after the first serve? Too many times. If you’re bothered by his applause at an inappropriate moment, tell him that. Immediately and directly. Such behavior signals to your opponent that you are determined to pursue your goals on the field.
You will definitely profit more from being a little bit terribly on the course than if you always act with the intention of “peace of mind”.