The Raising the Champion Blog is updated every Monday
Make Things Harder for Your Opponents
Published Dec. 17th, 2018
About a 7 minute read
What’s crazy is if you talk to yourself negatively, you’re really competing against yourself, kind of like swimming against an ocean current.

And you’re making things easier for your opponent! WOW, you didn’t think of it that way, did you?

A truly competitive athlete makes things harder for their opponents, NOT themselves!

Whether we realize it, or not, we are constantly talking to ourselves. If we would actually pay attention to our thoughts, we’d see that sometimes we’re pretty mean to ourselves. 

Why the negative self-talk? Why make it easier for our opponents? There are a number of reasons but one big reason is:

Maybe you (or someone real close to you…lol) is extremely competitive! Maybe you (or someone real close to you…lol) is a perfectionist! I know you want to get things right, do things right, and even look good! Right? 

So, then when you don’t perform the way you want to, you get negative with yourself. You might even look for something or someone else to blame, maybe Mom and Dad, to get negative at that, or them. 

If you do this often enough it becomes a habit, like every time you miss a shot, you get mad at yourself. 

When you think about it, that’s not being very smart, is it? We both know what we think, our thoughts, and what we say, our words, and what we do, our actions, have a ton of control over how things play out in competitions and in our life. 

So, why are we putting so much emphasis, so much thought, so much emotion, so much conversation into what we DON’T really want?? 

Seems a little backwards to me. 

A significant amount of negative self-talk occurs in everybody, and eventually, it becomes a habit (or pattern). The good news is that any unhealthy habit or pattern can be replaced with a healthy one. 
The cool thing is…
Your brain already knows how to hit all those awesome shots because it’s already stored in your muscle memory from your previous training!
The trick is… 
How to get all that good training to flow from your muscle memory from the practice court, to the match court, so you can consistently perform the way you know how to and want to. 
FIRST…
You’ll need to learn to relax your conscious mind and calm it down, so your sub-conscious mind, your “automatic mind,” can work best. Now, quieting the conscious mind or your thoughts is not an easy task. This requires training. 
 
A good place to start is to train yourself to relax your conscious mind and learn how to breathe properly, relax physically, and relax mentally. Over the years, we found that athletes can best learn to control thoughts, direct thoughts, and relax, both physically and mentally by meditating.
 
Meditation is something that just about every professional athlete does. It allows the athlete to master their self-talk and enter their zone, or that optimum state of mind that allows their subconscious mind or “automatic mind” to take over.
 
If the athlete doesn’t learn how to breathe and relax and control emotions, it’ll be very challenging to achieve their zone and consistently play their best. 
 
Here at CP, we found that it can be very challenging, especially for young athletes, to meditate. It’s so easy to get distracted, and what are you supposed to think about? This is why we created a guided meditation exercise program called “In The ZONE” for our athletes. 
 
In the ZONE contains 6 Steps or exercises. The first 4 Steps, help the athlete get into their zone through a series of breathing exercises and physical and mental relaxation techniques. After that, Step 5 and Step 6 help the athlete break specific negative patterns caused by specific scenarios that make them tighten up in competitions. 
 
Once this mental training kicks in, the athlete can better handle those things that previously triggered the negative self-talk and poor body language, like rain delays, cheaters, 3rd set tiebreakers, playing a seeded player, competing against a younger player, or playing a sectional or national tournaments. 
 
Now, you’re making things harder for opponents. Now, you can get satisfaction out of seeing your opponents losing control and freaking out in these situations.  
 
That’s what you really want, right?
 
Until Next Time,
Tim
Complete Performance by Mattek (CP) is a company founded by Tim and his two sons that is dedicated to the training and development of junior athletes. CP is leading the tennis industry in helping young players overcome mental barriers, execute at a high level consistently, and develop as a player as well as a person. To find out more click here.
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