Posts by Jeff Greenwald
Feel Don’t Think
In Andre’s autobiography, Open, he continually references Steffi’s attempt to help him get out of his head. “Feel, don’t think,” she would continually say to him. He scratched his head at first. What is she talking about? Finally, it dawned on him that being present and out of his head was a secret he had
Read MoreApplying Mental Skills
Do you find that you get stuck in old mental habits–worrying about whether you will win or lose, getting frustrated with your errors, feeling tense? Someone once told me never to tell students that something is hard to do. I disagree. Breaking old mental habits, based on all of our past conditioning, IS hard. Being
Read MoreMastering Your Time Between Points: Stage Three
Mastering your time between points must include, at times, some tactical or technical goal–that is, how you want to play the next point. And stage three would be the time to do it. You’ve already directed your attention away from thoughts or judgment about the last point and focused your eyes on something external
Read MoreMastering Your Time Between Points: Stage Four
Finally, stage four is the most basic of all. Focus your attention on the spot while serving or the ball when returning. You may think you are doing this, but too often, players are internally distracted and are actually not focused on the ball. You need to get connected and absorbed into the ball. You
Read MoreMastering Your Time Between Points: Stage Two
So, I’ve talked about getting out of your head after the point is over and putting your attention into your body—an internal focus. As I said, this should be approximately 5 seconds or so. It will help keep you present and less vulnerable to the extraneous, unproductive thoughts that swirl around in your mind. The
Read MoreMastering Your Time Between Points-Stage One
Did you know that only 20% of your time on the court is actually spent hitting balls? Were you aware that the remaining 80% of time in any given match is spent walking from one side of the court to the other, sitting on changeovers, or preparing for the next point? This time is ripe
Read MoreThe Art of Coaching: Learning How to Learn
Tennis is actually a complex game requiring good eye-hand coordination, balance, spatial ability to set up to the ball properly, strength and speed and a great deal of “task” focus. Taking these demands into consideration, it is critical that the experience as student and coach be a collaborative one. Certainly, managing a player’s approach to
Read MoreThe Psychology of the Serve: Isner and Mahut Find the Zone
Of course we are all dumbfounded at not only the length of Isner and Mahut’s historic match, but how they could maintain their concentration under these conditions for that long. In an interview, Isner himself, had great difficulty articulating how this was possible: “I don’t know. I guess we both served incredibly well. It’s grass.
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