Rhythm & Flow Tennis

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.” Vince Lombardi

 Confidence is knowing you have the ability to meet the demands of a situation you are likely to face. When you are confident, you feel positive, optimistic, and in control. You expect to perform well. Low confidence is characterized by pessimism, doubt, anxiety, and even dread. When you aren’t confident you expect to make errors, and when you do, it confirms your doubts.

Expectations have a huge impact on performance. Players seldom exceed their expectations. In a sense, you set the scene with your thoughts and feelings, which are closely linked to your beliefs.  What you believe, you become. This means that expecting something to happen actually contributes to making it happen. In the 40’s and 50’s the entire sports world believed it was humanly impossible to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Their limiting belief was supported by research reported in more than fifty medical journals throughout the world. In 1954 Roger Bannister challenged this belief and ran the mile in 3 min 59.5 seconds. Within the next eighteen months, forty-five  runners achieved the sub four-minute mile. Once the four-minute barrier was broken, they believed they could break it also.

If your mind believes “I can’t”, you will sabotage all your efforts. You won’t do what is required to realize the goal. But, if you believe “I can”, you are setting up a path of success. The psychology of dream fulfillment includes the mindset of hope, motivation, commitment, confidence, courage and concentration. You need to renounce your restrictive beliefs about what you can and cannot do in sport. Your power as an athlete starts with the awareness that you have unlimited potential once you align yourself with the belief “I can”.

So, how did your beliefs get to where they are? Throughout your life you receive messages. These messages come in many forms – remarks, gestures, opinions etc. These messages are planted in your subconscious. Many times these messages are negative and limiting. So, becoming aware of these messages you have stored is essential to building confidence. Confidence is learned, not something you are born with. It is largely based on the experiences you’ve had. That is, your confidence is influenced by the successes you’ve experienced, the setbacks you’ve suffered, feedback from significant people such as parents, coaches and friends, and the amount and type of preparation you’ve done. Confidence stems from your expectation that you will perform well. Your expectancy becomes your self-fulfilling prophecy. An essential ingredient in developing confidence is learning from mistakes. If you practice in an encouraging environment where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities and feedback is encouraging, you are more likely to become confident. Confidence is not a steady state. It can change throughout the season, from day to day, even within a training session or competition.

Strategies to build confidence

• Re-examine your beliefs. Remember, all beliefs are learned. Take each belief and consider how it was planted in your mind. Was it a remark by a parent, coach, teacher, or a friend? Re-examine these beliefs. Often they are inaccurate and you may not be aware of how much they affect your confidence.
• Self-talk. We all have internal dialogue. We constantly react to situations, interpret events and act out our beliefs. Self-talk is the thoughts we experience and the comments we make to ourselves as events happen. Positive self-talk motivates, affirms, and encourages. Negative self-talk tends to be critical, demeaning, and disabling.

Situation: You serve a double fault.
Negative self-talk	Positive self-talk
I’ve blown it	I’m playing well
How could I be so stupid?	Relax and focus
I’m in trouble now	I have a good serve

What you should remember is that we all encounter similar situations. It is how we react to them that accounts for many of the differences between us.

• Thought stopping. You cannot stop thinking, but you can exercise some control over your thoughts. You need to stop negative, disempowering thoughts if you are to build confidence. Thought stopping is a skill, meaning that you have to practice it to make it habit. As you train and compete, be aware of your self-talk. When you catch yourself thinking negatively, use what is known as a “cue” to stop that type of thought. A cue could be shouting “stop”, clicking your fingers or slapping yourself on the thigh. Negative thoughts will never disappear entirely. Even though they come and go, never let them control you.
• This entails replacing negative thoughts with positive ones

Negative thought	Positive thought
This is impossible	This is a challenge
I feel terrible	I feel ready to perform
I have to win this point	Relax and swing easy

It is good to use a  motivational statement like: “I can do this” or an instructional statement like: “Eyes on the ball” when you are reframing. For thought stopping and reframing to work, you need to practice until they become second nature. This is one skill successful people have developed often unknown to themselves.

• Affirm yourself. Affirmations are statements about yourself that are generally optimistic and positive. It should be clear by now that suggestions have a very powerful effect on our minds. When affirming, use the word “I”. Use positive phrases “I can do this”. Use present tense “I am calm and confident”.
• Practice with purpose. The purpose of training is to meet the demands of the competition you are going to take part in. Train at a competitive pace and with purpose. Set up competitive situations in practice. It is not possible to be confident if you are not competent.
• Ensure success. Experiencing success builds confidence. Sometimes you need to enter competitions where you know you will do well. Many times tennis players want to compete “up” at the next level or age group to avoid pressure or to gain experience. Make sure you win 75% percent of your matches at the level you enter. Losing on a regular basis creates losing habits and makes you lose confidence.
• When you see your training and competition program planned, you are more likely to feel confident about what you are doing. Disorganization undermines confidence.
• Training partner. Train with people who are positive and have the same goals as you do. Your coach should be knowledgeable, organized and challenging. Train with people who are serious and have the same ability as you. If you train with people who are much superior to you, you can easily lose confidence when you continually compare yourself to them.
• Look and act confident. Always walk tall with your chin up. Be proud of who you are. Take care of the equipment you use and the clothes you wear. Be aware of your body language.

Remember, when you are confident, you expect to perform well. Many of these expectations stem from your beliefs. If your beliefs are negative, it is vital to become aware of how they undermine your confidence. Re-examining your beliefs, using self-talk, and using affirmations are some of the strategies that can be used to build your confidence. Confidence grows with competence and this is developed through regular and effective training and preparation.