Concentration

When my students ask me what is concentration on the tennis court, this is the story I tell them. When I was growing up on the courts of Los Angeles and someone would say to me “come on CONCENTRATE!” I would see the word imprinted on the side
of an orange juice can, frozen in time and space. I really had no idea what it meant. Over my many years
of playing and teaching tennis I have come to understand what I think concentration truly is. And it is
much more than “Watch the ball!” Concentration is the direct link between what the eyes see and how
the body, feet, and hands REACT, JUDGE, and TIME the ball. Of course the ball is what we as tennis
players must focus on but in the correct state of mind.

As a kid, when I was told to concentrate, all I could picture was a can of frozen orange juice
with the word plastered across it in capital letters.

In order to focus your thoughts and perform at your best you have to tell yourself what to think about, rather than what not to think about. For instance, if you tell yourself…