The Psychology of Tennis (Part 2)

by Gail Jones

The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing player is a person of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her attack, no comprehension of your game. He will make brilliant rallies on the spur of the moment, largely by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an interesting sort of character.

The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court under the direction of an ever-active mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from.

He is a player with a definite purpose. A player who has an answer to every problem you present to him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and sticks to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the end, with never a thought of change. (article continues below)

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He is the player whose psychology is rather easy to work out, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never permits himself to think of anything except the business at hand. This player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the intelligence of Brookes more, but I admire the determination of Johnston.

Pick out your type from your own mental pattern, and then work out your game along the lines most suited to you. When two players are in the same class as regards stroke, strength and equipment, the deciding factor in any given match is the mental standpoint.

Luck, or so it is sometimes called, is often seizing the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a great deal about the "shots players have made." However, precious few realize the importance of the "shots players have missed."

The psychology of missing shots is just as important as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Let me explain. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and getting there, drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch.

Your opponent is shocked and shaken, realizing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will try to play the ball, and may make an error. You have thus taken some of your opponent's confidence, and increased his/her chance of error: all this by virtue of a miss.

However, if you had just tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt even more confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would only have been winded to no avail.

Let's just say that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible achievement. First it amounts to TWO points, in that it stole one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one that you ought never to have had. Second it also upsets your opponent, as he thinks that he has thrown away a big opportunity.

The psychology of a tennis match is fascinating, but readily understood. Both men begin with an equal chance. Once one player establishes a real lead, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental standpoint becomes weaker. The sole aim of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby maintaining his/her confidence.

If the second player draws even or even pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even more drastic contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but boosted by the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The situation of the other player is the reverse. He is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan is likely to soon follow.