Mental Imagery: Synthesizing the Physical and Mental Games

What are top pros thinking when actually striking tennis balls? What should be going through your mind when you are hitting a tennis ball? It's a big question--possibly the big question. Yet it remains unanswered and usually unasked. Writers such as Allen Fox and Jim Loehr have done brilliant work on the mental game over the last several decades. Their work has defined many of the mental, emotional and even moral and philosophical issues players must deal with in tournament tennis. They have explored the nature of the competitive experience, the unique aspects of the tennis scoring system, and how to analyze the myriad situations that occur in match play. They have also created specific strategies for managing the natural challenges of the game. These include how to think about and mentally frame difficult situations and problems. They also include specific physical and mental rituals for the time between points and games designed to help players stay emotionally positive. (Click Here to see their work in our archives.) The Critical Mystery But all of these strategies and techniques don't address what happens during actual play. I once asked Pete Sampras to describe how he produced his running forehand. Sampras's running...