Even though it’s rarely talked about, guilt is one of these hidden emotions that influences many athletes, whether they are amateurs or pros. Guilt is felt when a tennis player pities are weaker opponent, or when a player fails to win a match and chastises themselves with self-ridicule. If a player is guilty about…
Every year I receive numerous calls from college freshmen who seemingly out of the blue have lost their feel, instincts and confidence. Their mental game used to be reliable but now they are experiencing anxiousness, anger and an unstable attitude playing for their new team. They can’t believe what they are experiencing: some describe…
In any sport, all the greats have one thing in common: an iron will to win. Tom Brady in football, Wayne Gretzky in hockey and Michael Jordan in basketball are all examples of players who were not physically imposing, but they all had that fire in the belly that makes for greatness. Roger Federer…
When watching professional tennis, there are so many great players to watch and emulate. Conversely, there are also other players not worthy of copying especially regarding the mental game. This article is not about calling out professional players that sabotage their games by disrespecting themselves, their opponents and the game by throwing rackets, smashing…
We have all experienced it…that time when our game was just not clicking and you felt a little off. Maybe it was your serve? Maybe it was the forehand or volley? So what did you do? If you’re like most players, you went out to the courts with a hopper of balls and drilled…
This article is Part Two in a 10-part series from Dr. Tom Ferraro. Click Here to read Part One. Over the years I have learned a key intervention that helps tennis players in their effort to win is anticipating any and all problems that will occur during an event and preparing a reaction to…
Tennis fans were treated to a special Men’s Singles Finals at the 2022 Australian Open between Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev; we all witnessed an incredible comeback. Nadal was down two sets and faced triple breakpoint at 2-3 in the third set. Nadal was clearly being pushed around by Medvedev. However, the Spaniard then…
In order to win on the courts, there are many skills one must have. After working with professional athletes and coaches for thirty five years in the fields of tennis, golf, soccer, football, baseball and more, I’ve learned that there are ten secret ingredients to winning in tennis. Over the next year, I will…
In the book, The Competitive Buddha, written by my colleague Dr. Jerry Lynch, he speaks about the importance of patience. He says “patience is an important virtue for those of us in athletics, we want success, and we want it now…and we do not want to wait. This makes us tight, tense and tentative,…
Just like a dancer needs music, or an actor needs an audience, an athlete needs a rival in order to grow and develop. There are many well- known rivalries in sports. We have the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, which pitted Ted Williams against Joe DiMaggio and climaxed in the 2003…