How to Be a Confident Tennis Player

Confidence attracts a lot of things. People like to do business with others who are confident. Women are most attracted to men who are confident. Even if those men are jerks. And success and peak performance on the tennis court are attracted by confidence.

Confidence is like a magnet that immediately attracts the best qualities in your game. Whatever abilities you currently have will be automatically enhanced if you play in a more confident matter. First off, you'll never second guess your abilities again.

If Roger Federer double faults two times in a row, do you think he's afraid to go for the ace on his next serve? No. His confidence in his serve isn't shaken one bit, despite the recent results. He's still able to approach the next serve with all the gusto needed to make that serve effective.

So how do you improve your confidence on the court? There are four specific ways you can do this. Unfortunately, many people only know of the one most popular way of boosting confidence. That's why most people never truly take their confidence to the next level. They neglect three other, equally resourceful tools.

In other words, they only use 25% of their resources to improve their confidence. If you'd like to use 100% of your resources, and harness the four different ways to improve your confidence as a tennis player, then click here.

Confidence Through Your Own Experience

This is the most common, and perhaps the most limiting. To gain confidence, you have play better. To play better, you usually have to first gain confidence. That's why the process is slow and ineffective. It requires a lot of practice to slowly build your skills. Then, over time, as you make incremental improvements in your game, you'll make equal incremental improvements in your confidence.

However, confidence doesn't have to be gained through your own experiences. If you come to the court already confident in your ability, then what you experience that day will be reflected by your level of confidence.

A better approach is to build confidence with other people's results.

Confidence Through Other's Experience

To be confident about an outcome, you have to believe that outcome is possible. One way to confirm its possibility is to see someone else do it. Once you have observed how they achieved it, then you know it's achievable. And once you see exactly what efforts are required to achieve that, then you will know if you can also achieve it.

Usually, we make mountains out of mole hills. Success is often not as hard to achieve or as complicated as we make it. Once you see how someone else does what you want to do, you can say to yourself -- “Hey, that wasn't so special. I can do that, too!” That's an instant confidence booster.

Confidence Through Preparation

Most people are not confident when they go into a situation unprepared. This means that the more thoroughly prepared you are for a match, the more confident you will be about your ability. Use little things to build you confidence. Get a good amount of sleep. Eat nutritious meals. Know more about your opponent than they know about you.

By preparing properly, you eliminate doubts that would otherwise shake your confidence.

Confidence Through Visualization

The problem with practice is that it isn't performed perfectly. It's easy to get stuck at a certain level because you are practicing in such a way that limits your progress. You are making mistakes when practicing, and until you correct these mistakes your game will stagnate.

What you can't yet do physically, you can do mentally with the proper mental exercises. If you visualize playing your “perfect match” over and over again, pretty soon your brain will not be able to distinguish between this memory and the memory of your actual play. Thus, you will become more confident because you have synthesized memories that your brain thinks have actually happened.

Visualization techniques are, without a doubt, the most effective way to boost your confidence. When you combine them with great preparation and other people's experiences, your confidence as a tennis player will sky rocket.

How to use Detachment to Win More Matches

When you are first trying to learn a new skill, if you have an “outcome based” focus you'll usually end up quickly frustrated. That will make you want to give up.

Most people hate to fail. That's why it's so hard for them to change. First, to admit you need to change can, by itself, by looked at failing. Second, when you try a new skill, you almost never do it perfectly the first time you try it. You usually fail miserably.

The first time you tried to walk, you stumbled. The first time you rode a bike, you almost crashed it and scared your parents half to death. And the first time you try to improve any aspect of your tennis game, you'll probably mess up and experience a setback which will cause you to play even worse.

However, when you learn how to play with “detachment”, you can grow more quickly as a tennis player, improve at a more rapid rate, get passed sticking points in your game and ultimately win more matches.

There are two way to do this. To learn each of these techniques, click here.

Think Feedback Instead of Failure

Earlier we mentioned that most people are “outcome based”. What happens when you base your progress on your outcome is that you end up feeling like you failed if you didn't do it right. Instead, change your focus from failure to feedback.

You are not playing this next match to win. Winning would be nice. However, you're playing this next match so you can later study what you are doing right and wrong. You are using it for feedback to make improvements to your game.

With a feedback attitude, you won't get as disappointed if you don't get instant results, and you will be less likely to give up before lasting progress and change are made. Instead, you'll stick with the routines that will ultimately enhance your game, which will in turn allow you to win more matches.

The Amazing Pressure Deflater Machine

Detachment is also a good way to take the pressure out of the match. Sometimes pressure is your friend. Michael Jordan and John Elway are two sports figures who come to mind who just thrive of pressure.

However, those individuals are rare. That's what makes them so legendary. If you can't use pressure in a positive way, then it's best to neutralize it all together.

Next time you're in a tight match, the game is on the line, and you feel the pressure getting to you, here's how to deflate it. Detach yourself by asking yourself this -- “In the grand scheme of things, how important is winning or losing this match?”

I don't think it will make much difference one way or the other a thousand years from now. So in reality, it's not a big deal. Once you realize that it's not a big deal, you can then play the point without carrying around the burden of pressure. And guess what? With that burden lifted from your shoulders, you are more likely to win the match.

Isn't it crazy how not caring if you win can, in some cases, help you win more? I don't know how it works exactly, but I just know that it does work.

How to Make Positive Thinking Work

It's true that high achievers think more positively than your average Joe. However, just thinking positive thoughts is not the answer. Actually, there is a dirty secret about positive thinking that most people won't tell you about.

The reason why positive thinking is so popular is because people want to believe it works. It's the same reason the lottery is so popular. Even though you have a billion to one odds, you just want to believe it's possible to win so bad that you play the lottery anyway.

If only success where as easy as thinking positively all the time. It's not. The only reason why positive thinking, on it's own, continues to be taught after all these years is because people allow themselves to be fooled by it.

With that said, there is a way to benefit from positive thinking and to use it in a specific way that can help improve your tennis game. If you want to learn how to do just that, click here.

The Truth About Positive Thinking & Success

When I board a plane, I generally think it will get to my destination in one piece, and that nobody is going to die. I'm optimistic about my chances of successfully landing. However, I anticipate that the flight will be delayed, that they will serve horrible food, that the seats will be uncomfortable and that I'll have to sit next to someone who will bug me.

I'm big picture positive, but I'm detail negative. And I'm right more times than not.

This is important because by anticipating the negative, I'm allowed to prepare for it. Let's look at how this relates to improving your tennis game.

Positive thinking done right: I have enough ability in me that if I set my mind to it, I can control the accuracy of my shots to the point I can put the ball just on the line.

Positive thinking done wrong: Even though I can hit the ball just on the line, I won't worry about the line judge making a poor call since I know the ball is in. Therefore, I won't prepare myself to adjust my shots accordingly to the line judge. Heck, since I'm a positive thinker, I won't even train myself for how to handle poor calls. That'd be a negative thing to do!

Most people mistake looking at things through a negative light. Negativity is actually a way to create positive power. It's by preparing to handle judges who make bad calls that allows you to react positively to the situation. It's by preparing to adjust parts of your game to play under less than ideal circumstances that creates more positive outcomes on the court.

Don't dismiss negativity. On it's own, it is poisonous. But when used to fuel positive change, it's a catalyst.

Let's strike at the very heart of the issue. It's very possible that you can do everything within your power and still lose. That's because there are certain factors in tennis that are out of your control. You can't control how your opponent plays that day. You can only control how you respond to your opponent. You can't control what kind of calls you will get. You can only control how you respond to those calls. You can't control weather conditions, accidental injuries or court side distractions. You can only control how you respond to those.

So here's how to make positive thinking work.

Anticipate that your opponent is going to have the best game of their life when they play you. Believe that if you come prepared, you can still beat them.

Anticipate that you will get a line judge who is trying to make it impossible for you to win. Believe that you can still play through this in a way that doesn't affect your game.

Anticipate that there will be every court side distraction possible in your next game. Believe that you have enough focus to not let that break your concentration.

Secrets of Playing When You're Tired

They say what separates the brave from the timid is that the brave are courageous just a few seconds longer.

What separates world class tennis players from merely good ones is not that they don't get tired – they just learn how to play while tired in such a way that it doesn't drastically affect their game.

When you get tired, all sorts of bad things can you happen to your game, if you let it. You lose focus, which means you start making errors that you otherwise wouldn't. You become more easily agitated, to the point where the game is no longer fun. Finally, you limit your chance to see the bigger picture of the game, and end up focusing what's left of your energy on the wrong things.

If you don't learn how to play through your tiredness, then there will always be a limit on your ability to improve your tennis game.

Fortunately, there are three secrets you can use that will help you stay on top of your game, even when you're tired.

To learn these three secrets, click here.

Are You Tired Or...?

The first way to play through fatigue is to trick your mind. Actually, sometimes you are not fatigued at all, but only think you are. In either case, you can distract your mind from focusing on your fatigue, and use its resources to focus on something else.

Next time you feel tired when playing, start asking yourself these questions:

Am I really tired... or am I just extremely calm right now?

Am I really tired... or am I just saving up my energy for the next point?

Am I really tired... or am I just a little droopy?

Am I really tired... or am I just recharging?

If you don't allow the word tired to even enter your mind, you won't feel tired. Anytime you hear your brain telling you you're tired, make sure to check if you really are tired, or if you're just misreading your body's signals. By slightly changing your word associations, your feelings can take on whole new meanings.

Reframe the Feeling

The reason many people can't play through fatigue is because they associate too much pain with playing through their tiredness. If that's the case, you'll never break out of this pattern. Instead, you have to get inside your head and unlink what you currently associate being tired to, so you can empower yourself to be more resourceful when you feel fatigued.

Ask yourself questions like these:

Was there ever a time I felt tired and still played great?

Are all tennis players unable to play through their fatigue?

What will my game be like if I never learn how to play when I'm tired?

You want to ask questions that make you look at the situation from new perspectives. The first question changes your focus so that you can see for yourself that it is possible to play through fatigue, because you've done it before. The second one allows you to focus on others, who have also learned how to do it! The third allows you to focus on the larger picture by giving you a more universal perspective.

All of these things enlarge your possibilities, which will help you be more resourceful for looking – and finding a solution.

Supercharge Your Physiology

Our physiology plays are large part in how we feel. You ever see a depressed person standing straight up, maintaining strong eye contact and looking comfortable? Have you ever seen someone who was completely focused leaning back, slumping, with their hands behind their head?

When you're tired, you assume a certain physiology. Change your physiology, and you change your feeling of being tired. This is a perfect technique for getting a few more key moments of power.

How to Visualize for Success

There is a reason why almost all of the world's top athletes use visualization techniques for success – it's because visualization work.

Before learning how to visualize for success, it's important to understand why you should visualize for success. To understand this, you have to understand how we, as humans, process reality.

Reality is largely subjective, based on our senses. For example, you and I see the world very differently than a fly sees it. The reason a fly is drawn to a spider web is that, to their eyes, it looks beautiful and is filled with different colors. To them, it's almost like a rainbow. To us, it's just white silk. Different eyes process reality different.

But we use more than our eyes to take in reality. It's also what we smell. How we feel. What we touch. What we taste. Now here's the kicker – our brain doesn't make much distinction between whether our senses are stimulated by the actual real world or through visualization. In other words, if you rehearse a certain action perfectly in your mind, with enough sensory power, it will be just as good as if you physically performed that action. You'll create the same connections, and build the same amount of confidence.

This is not theory. A famous study was done on a group of high school students. One group practiced physically shooting free throws. Another group did not shoot free throws at all, but mentally rehearsed shooting free throws. After doing this for a few weeks, they tested both groups. Guess who performed better?

The visualization group.

We know that practice doesn't make perfect – only perfect practice makes perfect. The great thing about visualization is that it allows you to practice perfectly, because you are using your mind to create your results.

However, you must visualize in a specific way to achieve this. To learn how to do this, click here.

The Proper Way To Visualize for Success

Remember that we process the world around us through our senses? However, when most people visualize, they only use one sense – their sight. What happens is that your brain doesn't really internalize the images you create, and you don't receive much benefit.

The first thing you need to do is to enhance your visions. Don't just rely on sight alone. Here's what you do.

First, focus on a vision of you playing at your best, or playing your perfect game. What does it look like? What are the expressions on your face? How many times do you bounce the ball before you serve it? Start with vision to fill in the details. Use as many details as possible.

But don't stop there. Next, as you work on your vision, ask yourself – what do I feel like? Is there a feeling of excitement in my stomach? Is my mind in complete balance with my body? Do my muscles feel tense, or do they feel warm and ready to move at a split second's notice?

Now ask yourself this – What do I smell? Perhaps it's the smell of a brand new tennis ball, fresh out of the can. Or maybe it's that certain smell of the towel you use to wipe off your sweat? It could even be a smell from the foliage around you, or the smell of the court.

Go through each of your emotions, and fill them in and experience them. This is how you make your visualization real. You trick your mind into believing you're actually there because you're experiencing ALL the senses you would if you're really there.

Finally, after you've used all your senses and made the experience as real as possible, tweak your vision. What happens if you make the colors brighter? If you make the images appear larger than they really are? Does this enhance the pleasure you experience when having your vision?

You should create a vision so pleasurable that you'll want to access it almost constantly. And when you find yourself dong that, then you will be visualizing for success.

5 Steps to Developing a Mental Fitness Program

What the mind can conceive the body can achieve.

What determines your success largely takes place in the mind. While on the court you can observe that different world class tennis players have a variety of playing styles, almost all of them have the same beliefs and mindsets.

You need to cultivate a similar mindset to really take your game to the next level. In other words, you need a mental fitness program to compliment the time you spend on the court.

Today I will show you how to design such a program in 5 easy steps. These steps are:

1. Deciding what you want

2. Figuring out what's stopping you from getting it

3. Creating massive pleasure to obtaining what you want

4. Creating massive pain to not obtaining what you want

5. Re-linking current associations

To learn more about each of these five steps and how to use them to improve your game, click here.

1. Deciding What You Want

To get your mind in the right state to improve, you have to give it something to focus on. This way when your work your mental muscles to improve your tennis game, you'll know what you're working them for.

What aspect of your game do you wish to improve most?
What would bring you the most amount of pleasure?
What would you dare to dream about achieving in tennis if you knew you couldn't fail?
How will you know when you've achieved it?
What will it feel, sound, look, smell and taste like?

Take time to consider each of these questions. Lift all limits and just dream. This is the only way you'll hone in on figuring out exactly what you want to get out of tennis. Once you've done that, it's time to move on to step two.

2. Figure Out What's Stopping You From Getting It

It's not a matter of just knowing what you want. You also have to know what is currently stopping you from getting there. Is it a physical attribute? If so, can you improve that attribute to the point it needs to be at to improve your game?

Perhaps it's a mental limitation. Many people can't break out of their current zone because they fear changing. The equate change with pain. The best strategies in the world won't coax them out of their current comfort zone because to leave that zone is just too overwhelming. In order to move past obstacles, we must first identify those obstacles. Otherwise you might be trying to climb a brick wall when you really need to be swimming across a body of water.

3. Create Massive Pleasure to Obtaining What You Want

Once you know what you want, and what's stopping you from getting it, it's time to get leverage. The first step to leverage is to increase the intensity of your desires. Think about it – almost every tennis player wants to get better. But few want to get better so badly that they will do whatever it takes to make those improvements.

Come up with such compelling reasons for getting better that it will make it harder for you to stay the same than it will to make a change.

4. Create Massive Pain to Not Obtaining What You Want

How much will you enjoy tennis ten years from now if you never improve any aspect of your game? How will this hurt your confidence to make changes in other areas of your life? Just as pleasure moves us toward the positive, pain moves us away from the negative. Create massive pleasure to changing, and create massive pain to not changing.

5. Re-link Associations

Take everything that you think is currently preventing you from improving you game, and try to re-link it to a new emotion. Instead of linking practice with fear, link it to empowerment. By practicing better, you'll have more power on the court. Instead of linking goal setting to “having to try real hard”, link it to growing as an individual.

Go through everything that you currently associate some sort of pain to, as it relates to your tennis game, and relink it with something that brings you pleasure. Then just consistently reinforce those links.

If you go through these five steps, you'll have created a mental focus so sharp that, if given a lever, you could move the whole world.

Motivation & Goal Setting

Setting compelling goals is the best way to make fast improvements in your game and grow as an individual. Goals give you targets, which simplify your decisions. You can approach each action you consider taking to improve you game with one thing in mind – will this move me closer to, or farther away from my goals?

Also, when you find out what your primary motivation switch is, and combine it with a well written goal, you'll make more progress in your game than ever before.

Once our need for survival, hunger and shelter are met, there are only 6 basic things that motivate us. Of the 6, there is one in particular that motivates you more than any other. It's important to know about these 6 motivators so that you can use them all as your work towards your goals. But even more important is to figure out what drives you must, so you can use it as a catapult for taking massive action and reaching your goals as quick as possible. Here are the 6 motivators:

1. To gain power/control

2. To prevent loss of power/control

3. To increase the depth of our relationships with others

4. To prevent the loss of depth of our relationships with others

5. To achieve a certain task

6. To avoid failure to achieve a certain task

Now that you know what these six motivators are, click here to read about a unique way you can use them when setting goals to get better results.

Knowing how to set a goal is just as important as setting a goal. A goal has to past three tests. The first test is the “over my shoulder” test. After you have written down your goal, it should be stated in such a way that a person could look over your shoulder and read it and determine whether you had or hadn't reached your goal.

An example of a goal that doesn't pass the “over my shoulder” test would be -- “To play with more confidence on the court.”

The problem is that “confidence” is too ambiguous. How will you know when you are playing with more confidence? Will you double fault less? For character traits and values, you have to assign them external indicators so you can accurately measure them.

The second test you goal has to pass is the deadline test. Without a deadline, a goal is just a wish. Whatever you desire to achieve, put a date on it. Otherwise, you'll find yourself procrastinating when you should be taking action.

Speaking of action, let's discuss the third goal test. Once your goal is written in a way that can be measured, and it has a deadline, if the moment after you have written it you don't do something to move toward that goal, that the goal isn't compelling enough.

You either need to create a more compelling goal, or come up with more compelling reasons to achieve that goal. That's where the 6 motivators come in to play.

After you have written down your goal, write two or three paragraphs about why you are absolutely committed to achieving your goal. Write how your goal will give you more power – more power to control your shots, your focus, etc. Write down how your goal will stop others from controlling you on the court. Write how achieving your goal will improve the relationships you have with others and how it will benefit other people, and so on.

Write a compelling reason for each of these 6 motivators. Then go back and circle the one that is most compelling. Now you will have your motivation style. Use this motivator everyday to keep you moving toward your goal.

After you've written your reasons why you are absolutely committed to achieving your goal, then take immediate action. If your goal was related to improving your focus on the court, then do a 5 minute visualization exercise.

It's not important if the first step you take is a big one or a small one. What is important is that you take some sort of action to bring you closer to your goal immediately after you set it.