The Four Biggest Mental Blocks In Tennis…And What To Do About Them

Over the last thirty years, I have treated hundreds of tennis players and others ranging from local teenagers to those at the top of their profession. No matter if they’re a Wimbledon champion,  a PGA and LPGA golfer, pro basketball player, Olympic gold medal winner or a major league pitcher, they all eventually succumb to performance anxiety, burn out, perfectionism or identity confusion.

In the following article I will define the signs, symptoms, causes and treatment for these four issues, any of which can produce self-defeat and frustration.

Performance Anxiety

Performance anxiety is ever present and must be coped with if the player is to succeed. The signs of performance anxiety include the yips, choking, racing thoughts, shallow breathing, difficulty sleeping, dry mouth, muscular tension, nausea before matches, migraine headaches, back pain, tremors, dizziness, and fatigue. Performance anxiety is a primary cause for failure and the causes are many.

The player may inhibit their aggression and power. Inhibition of aggression is an internal problem that is unconscious. This type of inhibition is caused by reaction formation or always being nice and never angry. Performance anxiety is also produced externally when the athlete feels pressure to perform in order to live up to expectations. Recent wins, good press coverage, pressure from parents who are spending a small fortune in lessons, are all felt as pressure to perform and this leads to anxiety. So you see there are many reasons why athletes get the yips, choke and feel anxiety. The treatments the athlete initially grab for include taking drugs like marijuana or cajoling a hapless psychiatrist for tranquilizers.

Research tells us that with the exception of coffee, there is not a single drug on the market that enhances performance and, in fact, most inhibit performance. The athlete may feel calmer when under the influence but their reaction time, focus, motivation and overall performance declines. Generally what is recommended is a twofold approach which includes gaining insight into the cause of their performance anxiety followed by instruction in coping skills which may include relaxation therapy, breathing techniques or positive self-talk. Coping skills alone are not enough and insight alone is not enough but a combination of these two processes together is the most effective and long lasting treatment.

Burnout

Burnout is another common problem with elite tennis players  who often train beyond their bodies ability to recover. This causes flat performance, slumps, and eventually  injuries. Here are the three phases of burnout.

1) The athlete’s performance begins to flatten or decline, they enter a slump which then prompts them to train even harder.

2) In phase two they begin to have more frequent illnesses like colds, sore throats or flu. This is due to exhaustion which weakens their immune system.

3) If intense training continues one will then  see the athlete get injured with ACL tears or shoulder or elbow problems.

Elite athletes are highly competitive, have a high pain tolerance and are driven; this combination of factors brings on burnout. One would assume that treatment is easy. Just tell the athlete to slow down and rest for awhile. But often they ignore this guidance given the players driving ambition and workaholic nature. Treatment involves explaining to them the three phases of burnout so they begin to understand the career ending dangers of over training and then have the coach insist on rest and recovery.

Perfectionism

Most athletes strive for perfection in their strokes and since perfection is never possible their drive to be flawless will cause them to over analyze, overthink, get mechanical and change what does not need changing. They enter the rabbit hole of doubt. When things go bad for the perfectionist the stroke loses its freedom, power and accuracy. The perfectionist uses the splitting defense which demands they be perfect and if they make a few mistakes they devalue themselves with harsh self-criticisms. Our world encourages perfectionism and we are bombarded with perfect images every day.

An example of this is seen in the famous Mercedes commercial with the slogan “the best or nothing at all.” If you’re not as cool as Matthew McConaughey, as rich as Elon Musk  or as pretty as Angelina Jolie, you’re a shameful failure in life. A primary treatment strategy I use when working with perfectionistic athletes is to focus on forgiveness. After matches we discuss at length their anger and self-attack after making a few mistakes, and move them towards an understanding of forgiveness. It is helpful to point out that whatever religion they were raised with has an extremely forgiving element to it. Overtime they will become more self-observant of their demanding self-attack and learn to become less angry with themselves and more self-accepting. One does not have to be perfect in order to win matches. “Good enough” is usually all it takes.

Identity issues in sports

Identity, self-worth, body image and self-belief are all crucial to an athlete’s success and are unconscious. No matter how much talent one possesses and how much work is put in, victory is often dictated by self-image. Self-identity or self-image is established  in childhood and is related to birth order, parental treatment and high school experiences. If ones identity is compromised or diminished in any way during childhood it acts like a magnet which keeps the athlete away from winning. As an example, it is common for a middle child to be ignored as a kid since the parents are preoccupied with the newborn. This means the middle child develops an emptiness within and an intense drive to win in order to gain love and recognition. Low self-worth hurts confidence and produces higher than normal levels of performance anxiety. We treat these identity issues by enabling the athlete to first gain an understanding of who they are versus who they believe themselves to be. A careful review of childhood and high school experiences helps gain self-understanding. As they begin to see the difference between who they were then and who they are now, they are enabled to resolve this conflict. We then teach better defenses so that they remain focused and aggressive until the end of the match and avoid choking or self-defeat.

I hope I was able to explain a bit more about the four major psychological issues that all athletes must face in order to finally achieve their fullest potential, have more enjoyment and feel better about themselves. Tennis is a great joy  but sadly as players move up in ranking, they often lose this joy and instead become stressed, exhausted, angry and sometimes depressed.