Rhythm & Flow Tennis

“Pressure creates tension, and when you’re tense you want to get the task over and done with as fast as possible. The more you hurry in, the worse you probably will play, which leads to even heavier pressure.” Jack Nicklaus

When players perform under pressure, they may  experience stress, panic, and anxiety. Most players react to that stress nearly the same. The renowned sports psychologist Robert M Nideffer actually quantified that response in the mid 1970’s. His model consistently and accurately described the physical and mental reaction to stress in his subjects.

The physical response was already well documented. In what is called the “fight or flight response”. When you are under pressure, the body releases very powerful hormones including adrenaline. Within seconds the flood of adrenaline in the bloodstream speeds up the heart rate and breathing, effectively pumping blood into the larger muscle groups so you can fight or flee the stressor. This automatically deprives the smaller muscle groups of blood,  which causes you process lose fine motor control. Your hands and feet quit working because they have less blood. Your vision grows more narrow and you get “tunnel effect”. Tunnel effect is why you cannot toss the ball straight. Those butterflies in your stomach bordering on nausea? That feeling truly is in your stomach, not in your head. It’s the result of stomach acid flooding in to your stomach while blood rushes out to your limbs. Muscles tense, including your laryngeal muscles, so you feel you cannot speak – hence the term “Choke”.

Next the mind reacts, specifically the left hemisphere of your brain. The left brain is inclined to analyze, criticize, and distract with instructions to the right brain. The voice from this side of the brain is critical and judgmental. It’s the voice of doom. It does not see possibilities, only failure or perfection. It does not allow for mistakes. Your right brain is your intuitive side. This is where your instinct, training, and muscle memory are stored. Under stress, the left brain interferes with the right, so the right brain cannot do its job.

There are players who respond to stress differently and you can learn ways to control your hormonal and adrenaline firings. That’s what great athletes do, sometimes consciously and sometimes instinctively. They learn to control their bodies and their minds, which is the essence of good performance. Chris Evert sometimes played in such a zone that her hand would cramp around the racket and she had to pry her fingers loose. For people like Chris, stress can be a catalyst to optimal performance. You can be one of these players. You can take that nervous energy and direct it into a force that will coax out your best performance under tremendous pressure. Use it it to focus your energy, silence the sabotaging voice of the left brain and tap into the talent and training your right brain is ready to unleash.

How do you do it? I was taught this by a sports psychologist famous for helping professional golfers, Dr Bob Rotella. You have to learn to control stress through a process called “Centering Down”. Centering down works by switching from left brain to right brain thinking. You take yourself from words and instructions to images and sensations.

Your first task is to learn proper abdominal breathing. Lie on the floor with one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Breathe in slowly through the nose, let the air fill your belly so it rises without your chest moving. Breathe out through your mouth keeping the exhale slow and even. When you’ve mastered this, practice breathing abdominally in a sitting position. Once you’re able to do this, stand with your feet shoulder width apart, arms hanging at your sides. Now do abdominal breathing in this position. You want to feel balanced and relaxed. Before learning to center, it is critical to have mastered this breathing technique in three positions, lying, sitting and standing.

Step 1: Form a clear intention. What is it you intend to do once you’re centered? Determine exactly what you want to do as soon as you’re done centering. Focus on one action, one purpose, one goal: “I’m going to hit this next serve out wide with good spin”. Use assertive language like “I intend” or “I’m going to”. Never use the “don’t”, like “Don’t miss your serve”. The subconscious hears the word “miss”. The word “don’t “ should be avoided at all cost. It does not communicate a clear intention.

Step 2: Find a focal point. Find something to fix your gaze on that is below eye level. It can be a chair, water bottles (Nadal uses this method), anything as long as its below eye level. It is better to direct your focal energy downwards. The more upwards your eyes drift, the more actively you engage your left brain, which is what you’re trying to avoid. Under stressful circumstances or adversity, this is where you’re going to direct your focus.

Step 3: Breathe mindfully. Focus all your attention on your abdominal breathing so you think about nothing else. This will take practice.

Step 4: Release tension. With your eyes closed, scan your muscle tension. The hot spots are usually the shoulders, neck, jaw and face. Keep breathing deeply. When you find tension, consciously relax that muscle on the exhale. Imagine you are literally venting the stress.

Step 5: Find your center. Our performance stems from our center of gravity, which is about 2 inches lower than your naval. Take a moment to feel it inside. Stand with your feet shoulders width apart so you’re grounded. Leave your hands hanging by your sides and close your eyes. Move your hips as though you’re keeping a hula hoop going around your hips. Move your hips in tighter and tighter rotations, imagining that the hula hoop gets smaller with each rotation until the hoop is about the size of a bracelet inside your gut. What keeps the hoop going is your center, the point about an inch below this imaginary hoop. Now, try to remember what it feels like so you can locate your center sitting down.

The whole idea behind finding your center is to feel rooted, grounded, stabilized, and in control of your energy. Stress has a tendency to lift you up and away from this place of balance and control. Your shoulders lift up, your breathing gets high in your chest and sometimes you literally stand on your tiptoes. The exact location of your center is not as important as directing your attention downward towards it. Once your attention hits rock bottom, do abdominal breathing at least 5 times. Focusing on a sensation will quiet your mind. This process engages the right brain, and effectively quiets the left brain.

Step 6: Repeat your cues. You have quieted the left brain, now its time to call the right brain into action. A cue or trigger can be a word or phrase that summons an image or sensation. Better yet, they are actual images, sounds, or sensations you associate with performing well. Your cue could be words like positive, enjoy”, or rhythm. It can be a phrase like “Calm and confident, I play like a champion”. One of the most effective cues is a piece of music. A good cue used at the right moment can be the mental equivalent of throwing a switch – off with the left brain, on with the right.

Step 7: Direct your energy. Next, direct all your attention towards the focal point you picked in step 2. You are going to summon every bit of power in your body and concentration into one motion. The server has a clear intention – a spin serve out wide – and that is what he’s about to realize. At the moment of release, you’re going to trust your ability, instinct, and experience.

When you start to practice centering down, the goal is not to see how fast you can do it, but to accomplish each step in the process. Make sure you form a clear intention and pick a focus point. Once you have that, start proper breathing before scanning your key muscles for tension. Take as many breaths as you need to get relatively relaxed and find your center before repeating your intention.

Practice centering down three to seven times a day. It will take time at first, but your ability to center will improve with practice and repetition. Soon you will experience that centering will take you from a state of tension and over-thinking to a state that is much more suited for optimal performance.