The One Thing You Must Do To Transform Your Tennis

Tennis Evolution

Show Notes

Hey, it’s Jeff Salzenstein here, founder of Tennis Evolution, former top 100 ATP player, and USTA High Performance coach, and today, we’re going to talk about transformation, and, I actually have a question for you:

“What do you think is the quickest pathway to transforming your tennis
and getting the results that you want?”

Think about that for a few seconds. Do you think it’s improving your forehand? Maybe it’s getting your toss in the right place? Or how about implementing the correct strategy to beat that annoying pusher that keeps bugging you, keeps getting the best of you? Nope. It’s none of that.

Sure, all those things can help and so much more, and as a coach, I love to get in there and fix the details to improve technique and footwork and strategy and tactics. But the reality is that it all starts with your mind. It all starts with mindset that you have every day that you step on the court, and you’ll be surprised. You actually might be more unconscious than you think. You might be more negative than you actually think that you are. It’s just conditioning. It’s the way we’ve been brought up. It’s the way we’ve been taught. It’s the way we taught ourselves, and I’m going to challenge you, that if you truly want to transform, you’ve got to change the way you think.

Case in point. I was working with an athlete in the last week. She’s had a really rough go. She hasn’t been playing very well for this 2017 year, and she was at her wit’s end. Didn’t even want to step on the court anymore, not enjoying tennis, not having fun. And, you might think “Well, gosh. She should just have fun. Enjoy her game,” but I told her “Listen. It’s kind of hard to have fun when you keep losing all the time, when you’re losing matches, and not only losing, but you’re not playing great tennis. You’re not playing well at all, you’re struggling, you’re missing shots you used to make, you’re double-faulting more than you used to, you’re losing the big points. It can weigh on you after a while, and that’s not fun.” So, just to tell someone “Hey, have fun,” that’s not the answer.

So, we talked about how we could make this shift happen. We talked about a lot of things, and the first thing that we wanted to focus on, for her, was to make sure that she stops being so hard on herself. So, instead of saying “Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe I missed that forehand.” “Oh, I always lose these points.” “I’m playing so bad right now…”

You know that inner dialogue, that critical thinking, the judgement? It weighs on you after a while. It actually makes your body and your mind grow weak. If I were to do a muscle test on you after saying these negative things to yourself, your body would go completely weak. True story. I have to show you guys how that work some time.

So, what I’m having her do is focus on actually accepting her mistakes more, and actually forgiving herself. Actually, I know it’s kind of touchy-feely, but actually telling yourself in the moment how awesome she is, and how much she loves herself, and how she loves tennis, and just shifting that perspective, can allow you to create a powerful experience to actually transform.

Now, I can’t guarantee that if you start appreciating your tennis, more telling yourself that you’re awesome, telling yourself that you love your tennis, I can’t guarantee you that you’re going to start winning, and I can’t guarantee you’re going to start hitting your forehand better. But, what I do believe happens is that the mind and body will work together to help you start to find solutions.

And, we’re going to talk more about this in the future, because I’ve got simple tips that can help you start playing better right away. Okay? Simple tips that can help you start playing right away, but it starts with the foundation of loving yourself, loving your tennis, accepting your mistakes, and telling yourself how awesome you are in the moment. It’s just pushing yourself to get better in every moment.

So, I encourage you. This week, and for the rest of your tennis career, to be aware of your mindset, and to shift it as quickly as possible. Don’t go down that rabbit hole of negative thinking. When you shift the way that you think, and you shift the way that you talk to yourself, big changes—big positive changes are going to come about for you.

So, if you enjoyed this lesson today, I’d love for you to leave a review on iTunes. Subscribe to iTunes so that you can get updated. I love sharing these things with you—these tips, these nuggets, that can make a huge difference in your tennis and your life. So, thanks so much for tuning in today, and we’ll see you at the next one