About a year ago utilizing my Tennis Warrior System I began keeping mental notes of approximately how many repetitions it would take before a player began to feel a difference on a given stroke. It was amazing to watch many different players improve their stroke in a similar fashion when they reached a certain number of repetitions.

Of course this is not a scientific study and common sense dictates that no two players will develop in exactly the same fashion. But this will give you an excellent guide to help you understand what it REALLY takes to develop your tennis game and what to generally expect when you learn a stroke.

After all these years of teaching I have come to a conclusion that most players do not really get it. They have no idea how much repetition and practice a top pro has put themselves through. Even though most players will say they do understand, when it comes to learning the game they want to hear something technical so they can quickly correct their stroke and the magic begins! Repetition and practice are something they will get around to someday if they have the time.

Well, if you ever get around to practicing and executing repetition, here is what to expect. You will begin to notice subtle differences every 1000 balls you hit. That's right every 1000 balls! And you will begin to feel a pretty significant change every 5000 balls hit. When you pass the 6000 to 8000 range you will begin to believe you can develop this shot in a way you never dreamed possible. By the 10,000 to 15,000 range you will possess an good backhand, but now you can begin the refining of the stroke to iron out the difficult subtleties and continue to improve....more repetition! At this point your confidence will begin to soar.

With all this in mind, once again read what Nick Bollettieri said in a Question and Answer session when ask about Monica Seles.

QUESTION TO NICK: How can I hit like Monica Seles?

NICK'S ANSWER: Let me tell you how Seles learned to hit like Seles. At the academy she went out and hit ball, after ball, after ball. She would hit 500 to 1,000 balls all working on just one shot until she had it perfected. Not just good, but perfected. To hit like her, I would suggest you do the same.

Now I'm sure, after seeing Nick's responce, this all sounds mind boggling to you, but keep in mind if you play doubles one or two times a week you hit probably 10,000 to 20,000 balls a year. If you play more or play some singles you reach the 20,000 to 40,000 range a year. By the way pros do this in about a month or less! Unfortunately these numbers are for all different strokes, not just one particular stroke! And there in lies the problem. You play for a year but you have probably hit only 1,500 hundred of one stroke or another. If you are like most players you have been running around your backhand to hit forehands so you probably only hit 800 to 1000 backhands a year. And you wonder why your backhand suffers! Most players hit two to three times more forehands than backhands year after year after year.

I realize many of you do not have time to practice daily and hit that many balls to improve. If you just add some simple week to week ball machine practice or practice with a partner focusing on hitting just 100 balls for one stroke (that would take you about ten to fifteen minutes) you would add close to 5000 hits a year for that shot! Instead of hitting only 800 to 1000 backhands a year you could get close to 6000! What a difference that would make.

If you are patient and stay with the process here is an example of what changes you will begin to feel. Let's say you are working on a backhand. At the 1000 mark you will begin feeling some strength that you did not expect. At the 2000 to 4000 range you will begin judging the ball a little better and show signs of taking some small quick steps to adjust your body position. At this point you still believe the ball you are hitting has to be in a certain spot for you to make a good shot.

At the 5000 to 8000 range you begin developing better balance. Where you were clumsily falling off balance you will now feel a more controlled recovery. And you will feel like the high follow through is more automatic. At the 8000 to 10,000 mark you will begin realizing the ball does NOT have to be contacted in a perfect spot for you to make a good shot. Some times the ball may be to close to you, but all the repetition has developed some instincts you did not even know existed. You automatically adjust to the close ball and begin making shots you can not believe! Many balls are still flying out, but you are beginning to control the direction of the ball better than ever.

At the 10,000 to 15,000 range the percentage of shots landing in the court increases dramatically...and you are on your way! You're excited about your results and you possess a backhand the likes of which few club players have ever seen. You now understand the power of repetition and promptly send me a box of Hershey's almond chocolate bars (my weak spot :)

In conclusion, whether you are aspiring to become a pro or just a good club player you must put in the time to achieve your goals. Everyone must go through these different phases of repetition to improve their game.
THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!

Can you not be technically sound according to the "so called" traditional way illustrated in hundreds of books and still win? Yes, of course, the pro's do it all the time. It's called mental toughness. The big advantage of Repetition oriented thinking is that it has mental toughness built right into it!!! Besides being oriented toward YOU taking the responsibility for your play, there are four other dynamic benefits that Repetition offers. Let me briefly cover them here.

Number one would be improved concentration. Obviously, if you can withstand a lot of Repetition your concentration will improve. And how about this, do you know what the key to concentration is? The key is self-discipline! One more time we are back to YOU! Your concentration improves because YOU keep concentrating even when it gets boring. It's up to YOU!

Number two is learning to deal with the good and bad cycles that exist when you do a lot of Repetition. For a while you are doing well, than five minutes later you're doing poorly. This is true also in match play, therefore, Repetition can teach you how to deal with the ups and downs of a match. I don't care if you are number one in the world, the good and bad cycles always exist. It's important to understand ahead of time that these cycles will occur and not be frustrated by them.

Number three is learning to deal properly with the bad times that Repetition produces. All matches have times when you are playing poorly. Repetition teaches you how to deal with these times by not making many changes, but instead staying with what you are doing and concentrating on improving your timing and rhythm. I have seen this over and over again in sports (even on a professional level). The athlete has trouble and starts changing everything under the sun. For weeks they try to come out of their slump by correcting every technical thing possible. Eventually, out of frustration they give up and just start going for their shots. To their amazement they come out of their slump! What occurred was simple, they stopped over-thinking and their timing and rhythm clicked back in. Do not over-think during your bad times!!! It's more about timing and rhythm than anything else.

And finally number four - from Repetition you learn not to tense up and "make it happen," but to relax and "let it happen," a key element in high level match play! When you do a lot of repetition you quickly learn that tensing up only makes it worse. You must learn in your matches to "let it happen" not "make it happen." Repetition can teach you this principle! Let's summarize and list the five dynamics of repetition.

1) Repetition Orientation relies on YOU not the technical.

2) Teaches you improved concentration through self-discipline.

3) Teaches you to understand there will always be good and bad cycles in a match.

4) Teaches you to handle your bad times without making major changes.

5) Teaches you to not "make it happen" in matches, but master the art of "letting it happen."

The truth is the key to concentration is self-discipline. Wow! This is really beginning to hit home. You are responsible through self-discipline to improve your concentration, which in turn improves your consistency. This means you should not only concentrate when things are going well, but also when you are losing, having trouble, or even when you are tired. Many times during practice I have heard players say. "I’m tired, I can’t concentrate anymore, it’s time to stop." In other words, what they are really saying is, it was the tiredness that made them stop concentrating. It is not their fault! This is where self-discipline comes into play. You discipline yourself to keep concentrating even though you are a little tired and playing poorly. By doing this you are challenging yourself to reach a new level of concentration. When your concentration improves so will your consistency.

Too many times players look for something external, like an exciting situation, or playing well to help them concentrate, instead of relying on their own internal decision making process. Repeat! Too many times players look for something external, like an exciting situation, or playing well to help them concentrate, instead of relying on their own internal decision making process. If you would like to increase your consistency in tennis you must be self-disciplined and concentrate regardless of the situation.

To summarize, the key to tennis is consistency - the key to consistency is concentration - the key to concentration is self-discipline - the key to self-discipline is YOU - and the key to YOU is...I haven’t the faintest idea!!!

For instance, many of you know that I teach with little technical information and a lot of repetition. A tennis stroke is more about developing a feel through repetition than forcing a host of different technical skills on a player. A player should develop his own game with his own individual style, form and personality. What I often hear about this concept is, "No technical skills?! You just let players do whatever they want? What if a player chokes up on the racket and holds it on the throat? Then what do you do? Let them do whatever they want?" My answer is, "I would tell that player to hold the racket on the handle." You must apply common sense procedures to the knowledge that anyone teaches you. Just because I place repetition and individuality first does not mean I cannot give a player common sense information and correct guidelines.

With this in mind, what you learn from scientific studies and the many scientific devices (like slow motion video) must be couched in common sense. Although, I must admit, applying this to science can be difficult. Mainly because science is so sophisticated and so exacting that the tendency is to believe, this must be right! And it often is right, but this does not mean the application to a given field is correct. And herein lies the problem!

For example, what I call the "professional model syndrome" is a source of much confusion and misapplication. Doing a scientific study using sophisticated slow motion videos you can take excellent videos of professional tennis players in action. Then you can watch as a pro hits the stroke this way or that way with the wrist firm or the weight forward, etc. With this "professional model" you are now supposed to do the same. A pro may hit a forehand groundstroke out in front with his wrist in a certain position and this now becomes the 'technique' you should emulate.

Not a bad idea! The problem is that scientific studies cannot measure the PROCESS by which a pro has reached that point! The video just shows the final RESULT. What science is breaking down is the RESULT of all those months and years of experience and placing it in a 'technique' category. Somehow you are now supposed to take this technique WITHOUT THE PROCESS OF EXPERIENCE OR REPETITION and begin keeping the wrist firm or the weight forward. Sorry, but this is just not going to happen. Not unless you have gone through a PROCESS OF EXPERIENCE AND REPETITION which will prepare you correctly to assimilate and apply that information according to your OWN INDIVIDUAL STYLE AND FORM.

What is left out of the scientific equation is the thousands and thousands of times a pro mistimed the forehand before he mastered it. Science cannot measure all the internal human elements that come together to develop a top-notch professional stroke. The process is too intricate, too personalized and too individualized for science to categorize because you learn a stroke by the blending of many different senses unique to you to develop a feel for a given stroke. Steffi Graf was notorious for hitting the ball with her forehand farther back than most players. This may not be scientifically correct, but she had one of the most explosive forehands in the game!

You may be thinking, "how much better she would have been if she had performed the forehand according to the scientific study." Well, maybe yes and maybe no...who knows! If she was forced, against her natural instinct, to hit the ball in front with her forehand maybe she would have become frustrated and quit the game of tennis! Or maybe because it was not her natural feel to hit like this she would have had a horrible forehand. Again, who knows! Who cares! Science does not play the game of tennis, humans do! That's why you can use science or slow motion videos of pros to help your game, but do not eliminate the fact that it was the process more than the exact technique that is the unsung hero! Use your common sense and develop your own unique game.

I remember watching a video by Vic Braden called, "The Science and Myths of Tennis." In the video, Vic points out that when serving, the best height to toss the ball is approximately to the top of the racket when reaching up. According to science, tossing the ball to this height makes it easier to time the serve. If the ball is higher, then your timing would be more difficult because of the extra drop before you hit the ball. Vic then adds that the debate goes on about the correct height to toss the ball on the serve. What do the pros do? Some toss the ball lower and some toss the ball higher than the scientific mark. Again, you must add individual feel, style and form into the equation.

So there you have it, science says this is the best way and science says that is the best way....but is it?
USE YOUR COMMON SENSE AND TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS AND YOU WILL AVOID SCIENCE FICTION!

This is where conventional tennis lessons go astray. Pros are preoccupied with the exact mechanics of the stroke, giving the impression to the student that the mechanics performed properly is the stroke. You may be thinking... "well isn't it?" Answer, not even close!

I have seen thousands of players hit the so-called perfect stroke and send the ball sailing miles out! Meanwhile, the pros who do not have the so-called perfect stroke are hitting the balls in the court consistently! They do this by feel. Unless you have developed a feel from training the internal skills or senses you will have a superficial stroke that will inevitably break down under pressure.

You must learn to execute all your strokes by feel. How do you develop this feel? You develop this feel by training four internal senses by massive repetition. Those senses are:

1. Timing
2. Judgement
3. Balance
4. Muscle sense

All four of these internal senses combine together to form a whole, creating a 'feel' for a given shot. And that 'feel' allows the mechanics to work correctly. If you have a feel for a stroke you can improvise to make a shot. When you are all mechanics the ball had better be in the exact spot necessary to make the shot or YOU'RE IN TROUBLE! If you have a feel for a stroke you will identify with the stroke as a whole unit. If you are all mechanics you will identify with the stroke as individual parts, which can be mind boggling!

What I just explained about developing the four senses is why all pros have different styles and different form. Everyone has a different sense of timing, judgment, balance, and muscle sense. There are a million ways to swing high to low for slice and a million ways to swing low to high for topspin. No two pros are the same. Once a pro's internal senses are developed as a junior, his own individual style is revealed. This is accomplished by hitting thousands and thousands and thousands of balls. They may not look like the books explain or illustrate, but the results speak for themselves!

As juniors, pros may have had some lessons on the technical skills, but it was not until their internal senses were developed through repetition that their own individual style was revealed.

I remember reading about Bjion Borg and his big looping forehand with the western grip. Even though coaches tried to change his forehand, Borg just kept hitting it because he said it just felt natural. As you know, the rest is history. The big looping forehand has become a common shot on the pro circuit and has changed tennis forever!

You too should learn to develop your own style through massive repetition. Yes, it's fine to take lessons, but do not rely on the technical to make you a good player. Instead rely more on training your internal senses, your sense of timing, your sense of judgment, your sense of balance, and your muscle sense to the point where you begin feeling the stroke, even if the stroke is not book perfect. Who knows, maybe you will change the face of tennis again!

When you train with emphasis on mechanics you become more robotic and rigid. When you train with emphasis on feel you become more natural and automatic...just like a pro! Eliminate from your mind this notion of the perfect mechanical stroke. That notion will hamper your freedom on the court to express your own style and form and to just be you! Instead, learn to develop your internal senses through hours and hours of practice on the tennis court.

Let me leave you with a response from Bjiorn Borg in his book "Borg on Borg." Below is the interviewer's question and Borg's answer exactly as it appears in the book.

Question: You are the best player in the world and lots of people try to imitate your style. It has been said you don't like to be imitated. Is this true?

Bjiorn Borg - " I know lots of players try to imitate me and I'm not sure that's a good thing for them. I think it's better to find your own personal style, as Mr. Bergelin [his coach] has said, rather than imitating someone. Playing like me might go right against the personality of the player who's trying to do it.

I think it's difficult to play as I do. You have to be very quick if you have a two-handed backhand, because you have to be nearer the ball when you hit it, so you have to get to it sooner. I see lots of young people trying to put on top-spin like Vilas and myself. I have nothing against it. It might even be a good idea, because it's difficult to play against opponents who put a lot of top-spin on the ball. But the most important thing is to feel at home playing your strokes. Everything else, slice or top-spin will follow naturally. Find the style that suits you best."

How do you like those last few lines? "But the most important thing is to FEEL at home playing your strokes. Everything else, slice or top-spin will follow naturally. FIND THE STYLE THAT SUITS YOU BEST."

This information was from a book written in 1979. It's now 2004! Do you think the tennis world will ever get it? :)

If you stay with the Tennis Warrior System you will see many different connections that will help you advance your game and your thinking rapidly. It's a philosophy, a way of thinking that most of the top pros have mastered. Like anything else in life, learning will take time, patience, knowledge, and practice. To see the big picture you must understand the connection between these principles. That's why I have a website, email lessons, books, and tapes to help you begin to embrace all the dimensions of the game.

To see the vital connection between self-discipline and match momentum you must understand two principles.

1. The key to tennis is consistency, the key to consistency is concentration, and the key to concentration is self-discipline.

2. Consistency establishes momentum

Since you take your mind with you wherever you go, the self-discipline you develop in your weekly practice will become a mental habit that you bring into your matches. How can this help your match play? In your practice sessions you were self-disciplined to continue practicing week after week regardless of the failures, frustrations, and obstacles. This SELF-DISCIPLINE you enforce on yourself in practice begins improving your CONCENTRATION. The key to CONSISTENCY in tennis is CONCENTRATION, therefore when your CONCENTRATION improves so does your CONSISTENCY! You become more CONSISTENT not only in your practice sessions, but through the failures, frustrations, and obstacles of a match. As a direct result of SELF-DISCIPLINE in your practice sessions you become more CONSISTENT in your match play. Remember, you bring your mind with you wherever you go!

Now, where does MOMENTUM in a match fit into this scenario? Well, if you have not yet figured it out, CONSISTENCY ESTABLISHES MOMENTUM. The CONSISTENCY you have established in your practice sessions through SELF-DISCIPLINE now helps you establish MOMENTUM through the ups and downs of match play. You learn that when you are in trouble in a match you must exert SELF-DISCIPLINE and reestablish your CONSISTENCY to get the MOMENTUM back. CONSISTENCY ESTABLISHES MOMENTUM! As a bonus in your match play you will begin thinking automatically and instinctively from the habits you formed in your practice sessions.

But listen carefully, if you have not developed self-discipline through the ups and downs in your practice sessions, then in your match play your only focus will be on the failures, frustrations, and obstacles. You have not conditioned your thinking properly and gaining back momentum will be impossible.

THUS THE SELF-DISCIPLINE YOU HAVE DEVELOPED IN YOUR PRACTICE SESSIONS HAS A MAJOR IMPACT ON MOMENTUM IN YOUR MATCH PLAY.

Have you ever noticed that the best athletes in the world are the most self-disciplined. Make no mistake about it, the best athletes have not only developed their physical talents through self-discipline, but they have simultaneously molded their thought process right along with it.

You can and must do the same!

Although your week-to-week practice with repetition may seem insignificant relative to the big picture, this consistent practice has far-reaching mental implications that WILL be the difference between winning and losing a match.

No matter what you do in tennis it must be consistent. You have heard of the three L's in real estate, location, location, location. Well, in tennis it would be the three C's consistency, consistency, consistency. Consistency establishes momentum. If you want the momentum on your side be consistent. You need to be consistent not only physically but mentally. Physically by hitting the correct shots again and again. Mentally by selecting the correct thoughts again and again. Most players can understand being consistent with their shots, but being consistent with their thoughts usually seems a bit confusing. You must practice selecting the highest percentage thought for the situation.

For example, let us suppose you are making mistakes and you are on the verge of becoming upset. The two choices you have when you miss are: 1. Get upset and negative, become tentative and lose the next couple of points and even the match...or 2. Manage your mistakes and keep giving yourself an opportunity to win. By choosing number two (managing your mistakes) you are selecting the highest percentage thought for the situation. Selecting this thought consistently gives you the greatest opportunity to win over the long haul. It is as simple as that! You choose to get upset or you choose to manage your mistakes. The more you select to manage your mistakes the more mentally consistent you become. This is what high percentage thought selection is all about. The choice is yours. ...you CAN control what you think, you just have to practice.

Consistency establishes momentum. You must learn to be consistent with your thoughts as well as your shots. Consistency, consistency, consistency, when you become consistent both physically as well as mentally you become a formidable foe. The result, you are the type of player who is not put out by anything and you make your opponent beat you in order to win. You are mentally tough...and you know it!!!

For instance, if you did 20 push-ups three times a week for three months, by the end of those three months would you be stronger? Of course you would! If you designed a system that categorized a consistent process for a person to follow for three months, could you confidently say, "If you stick with my system you have to become stronger." Of course you could! I have worked hard and put long hours in to organize a system based on EXISTING SUCCESS PRINCIPLES that have to work! Every pro who has ever played the game had to use these principles. No pro that I know of has ever picked up a racket and one week, one month or one year later became a pro. They had to put in the time and the repetition! NO talent is above this principle. No matter how much natural talent or proclivity a person may posses for a particular sport, profession or artistic endeavor no success can be achieved without repetition.

With this in mind, if you would like to improve your game faster you too MUST put in the time! Put in the time on what? Well, I cannot teach you specific strokes over an email but I can challenge you to TAKE CONSISTENT ACTION!

THE PLAN

In addition to your normal play, pick one of your weak shots and work on it week after week. Hit a minimum of 100 balls a week on a ball machine or have a friend feed you some balls. If you have time to hit other strokes, by all means practice repetition there too. Keep in mind though, 100 balls a week is a bare minimum. If you aspire to be a pro you must hit many, many, many, many, many more balls. THEN after you have hit all those balls...your practice begins!

Let's say you're a club player with a weak backhand. Reflecting to a past email lesson, a club player who plays doubles twice a week normally hits around 1,500 backhands a year. Most players run around their backhand and hit forehands so many times it may only be 800 or so backhands a year! If you were to add 100 extra backhands a week, that would be approximately 400 backhands a month and 5000 a year. You would be hitting five times more backhands in 2003! Do you think your backhand would improve a little faster?

Now, putting this plan in place and staying with it the whole year is where players run in to big time problems.

STAYING WITH IT!

Let me show you a typical pattern that most people fall into when beginning something new. They say, "yes, I'm going for it this year, I'm going to put in the time and make it happen." They then proceed to go out and hit hundreds and hundreds of balls weekly. They're excited, they're motivated and they are making it happen! I believe 'gung ho' is the phrase.

After about one month of over doing the practice they begin to tire and question what they are doing. Eventually, instead of just backing off to a tolerable level of practice they just give up! The concept is called 'all or nothing.' If they cannot do it all they will do nothing. Most people start off 'gung ho' and then quit. Here is a better way to handle this wonderful enthusiasm.

Reflecting to a past email lesson...CONSISTENCY ESTABLISHES MOMENTUM. Using the weak backhand illustration, do not begin your weekly practice by thinking in terms of developing a backhand. Instead think in terms of FIRST establishing some consistency. I don't care if you do 50 backhands a week at first. What ever amount you chose, do not exceed 100-200 a week for the first month. CONSISTENCY FIRST! After the first month, begin adding a little or stay at the 100-200 mark until you are ready to increase. Once you have established a PATTERN OF WEEKLY PRACTICE then kick in some 'gung ho!' If you would like to stay at the 100-200 level...that's fine! Just make sure by the year end you are still doing the 100-200 backhands a week.

At the health club where I work out there is a girl named Phyllis who works on the tread mill. She does her one hour walk/run routine 3-4 times a week faithfully week after week. I have seen guys come in there 'gung ho' running like the wind along side her. Six months later she is still there plugging along with the same routine and the 'gung ho' guys are no where to be found! She could literally run circles around them. She is in a league all by herself. She has established tremendous momentum from the consistency. I marvel at her ability to stay with it.

Learn to establish momentum in anything you do by FIRST establishing consistency, then build on that consistency. When beginning a new project or tennis practice do not try to accomplish everything perfectly or quickly. Focus first on consistent action, no matter how much you are doing. You can develop a backhand or any shot you desire by following this simple formula .

Do the simple right, then do the simple better, then simply be the best at doing the simple! The pros do the simple so well...you think it's complicated!

To begin, I have taught mental toughness principles to children ages 7, 12, 16, 24, 40, 55, and older! :) Yes, as you know, some adults are like children. At times, I'm sure I'm no exception!

Basic mental toughness can be taught to anyone at any age. The foundation for mental toughness is learning to take responsibility for your own mistakes and failures. If I am teaching tennis to a 7-year-old child, I immediately begin orienting the child to mistakes and failures as part of the learning process. I do not make an issue out of failing. In fact, I encourage it! My desire is that the child understands that it's okay to take a swing and miss. Why? Because that's the EXACT mental attitude pros have mastered from years of practice. But, by the time you see them on television they are making a higher percentage of their shots. As a result you are not aware of the years of mental training they endured through their many failures.

IMPORTANT! THE CORRECT MENTAL ATTITUDE MUST BE IMMEDIATELY TRAINED INTO A PLAYER AND THAT MENTAL ATTITUDE TAKES PRIORITY OVER MAKING A SHOT.

Parents obviously can teach their child at an early age to handle failures and mistakes in any endeavor the child may pursue. Even if it's just learning how to walk! By doing this you are teaching them basic mental toughness. This sets the stage for the child to eventually learn some advanced mental toughness. Advanced skills like learning to cope with the up and down emotional roller coaster inherent in match play. How is a child or adult going to handle these ups and downs in a match when they have not yet learned to handle a simple failure?

Now, do adults handle failures on the court well? No, not many! They too have to be taught to handle failures and mistakes correctly as part of the process of learning and part of match play. I'm afraid that most people were taught at a young age that failures and mistakes are the bad guys! They have in their psyche that failures are bad, and successes are good. As you develop some mental toughness in all areas of life, you discover that both failures and successes ride together in tandem toward your goals.

Before I go on, let me clarify something that inevitably pops up. I usually hear something like, "I don't want to accept my mistakes. I don't like mistakes!" Well, neither do I! But, I'm not telling you to LIKE your mistakes, I'm telling you to learn how to DEAL with your mistakes effectively. There is a huge difference.

When I teach players of any age I begin with the same mental toughness principles tailored to their age and skill level. Learning to handle mistakes can be applied to a beginner as well as a top professional. As a result my books and tapes can be applied to any level of play. The material can even be applied to other sports, or even businesses. I have martial artists, skeet shooters, soccer players, businessmen, sales groups, etc. using my material. I have juniors who take my books to tournaments and read some of the simple information as a reminder between changeovers. This is a great idea for many players. If you have trouble remembering an important principle you may want to write down a few of the principles and review them quickly on changeovers.

Or use your computer to make a sticker and put it on your racket with a phrase like "the next shot is more important than the last mistake." I made stickers for some of my students who said it saved them many times in a match. Remember- whether you're a junior or an adult, the emotion of the moment can easily make you slip out of the mental toughness zone. A reminder of some sort can help bring your waning mental attitude back.

One last thing. In the beginning of this lesson I gave you an important principle that bears repeating. That principle is:

THE CORRECT MENTAL ATTITUDE MUST BE IMMEDIATELY TRAINED INTO A PLAYER AND THAT MENTAL ATTITUDE TAKES PRIORITY OVER MAKING A SHOT.

The priority for everyone, child or adult, beginner, intermediate, advanced or pro, is to train your mental attitude, NOT make a shot. Once you train your mental attitude correctly, making a shot becomes a result. If you think correctly, eventually you will execute correctly!

Authorized & Published at wimbledontennis.co.uk © 2000 2008 Tom Veneziano - tennis coaching expert.