Allen Fox PhD is a former world class player, a coach, a psychologist, and one of the most original and insightful analysts in modern tennis. A top 10 American player from the glory days before Open tennis, Fox played many of the legendary greats,
among them Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Stan Smith, and Arthur Ashe. At Pepperdine he developed the men’s tennis program into an elite contender for national titles, and gave Brad Gilbert the insights that became the foundation for “Winning Ugly”.
His book Think to Win is a modern classic. He has also starred in a series of acclaimed videos, including Pro Secrets of Match Play and Allen Fox’s Ultimate Tennis Lesson.
Allen Fox, PhD
Strategy
In the first article we analyzed the basic geometry of the doubles court, saw how doubles is fundamentally different than singles, and analyzed the patterns and strategy for your team's serving games. Now let's look at the other half of...
Strategy
Why is it that you see successful doubles teams regularly beat players that they would have no chance against in singles? In singles you might see a player stay on the baseline hitting moonballs and lobs, but in doubles he...
Mental Game
The fight or flight response: good for dealing with bears, but not useful in tennis. Choking is one of the truly unpleasant parts of tennis competition, and it happens from time to time to everyone, from beginners to world champions....
High Performance
Successful coaching: making players do what the coach wants. When people are asked what attribute of the successful coach is the most important, answers usually include "knowledge of the sport," "personal relationship with the players," "organization," "commitment to the team,"...
Mental Game
Michael Chang and Brad Gilbert: models of optimism. Dr. Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that optimists differ from pessimists in that they think negative or bad things are temporary, while pessimists think...
Mental Game
Hope can be the basis for apparently miraculous wins. The most valuable commodity a competitor can possess when things are going wrong is "hope." Confidence or self-belief, as helpful as it may be, is not always achievable nor is it...
Mental Game
Michael Chang at age 17: precocious, fast, underpowered, optimistic. An optimistic attitude gives you tremendous advantages –on the tennis court as well as in life. It helps you maintain your drive and a productive emotional state in the face of...
Mental Game
Robbie Weiss: a great talent with a bit of a serve phobia. In my 17 years coaching the Pepperdine tennis team I saw many strange things, but none stranger than the serving affliction that Robbie Weiss suffered in his first...
Tennis History
By developing heavy topspin on both sides, Rod Laver challenged "the big game" and forced tennis to evolve. Rod Laver was a pivotal figure in the history of tennis, a quiet man who's impact changed forever the way the game...
Mental Game
Confidence is a key to reaching your potential. In the last article we looked at some ways to increase confidence. Increasing your confidence over time should be a part of developing your potential as a tennis player. The idea is...
Mental Game
Some individuals seem born more confident than others. Underlying the confidence of victory is your basic confidence level. This is the confidence level that you were either born with or that was formed during early childhood. Nobody knows for sure...
Mental Game
What kind of self belief does it take to win the Australian final and defeat Rafa in 5 sets? Most of us lack the self-belief of champions. As competitors we are all told, "It is crucially important to believe in...
Tennis History
Pancho's substantial head housed a huge and calculating tennis brain. Pancho Segura, born in Guayaquil , Ecuador , was deceptive in every way, short and unimpressive physically, but smart, tricky, and a tennis genius. Just looking at him you would...
Mental Game
Jana Novotna: one of the great chokes in tennis history in 1993. Many great champions have been chokers but winners, suffering from shaky nerves on important points. What these players all realize eventually is that nerves come and go. They...
Mental Game
A common problem: falling apart on the verge of victory. In my consulting with aspiring young tournament players and even with touring pros one of the most common problems I hear is, "When I am serving for the set or...
Tennis History
Pancho, age 20, after his first U.S. Championships in 1948. Pancho Gonzales was, arguably, the greatest player of all time. His career at the top lasted an incredible number of years. He won the US Championship at Forest Hills in...
Mental Game
"Perfectionism" allows players to keep getting angry over mistakes. Let's take a closer look at the concept of "perfectionism," which I see as substantially different from the common understanding. When people label themselves as "perfectionists" they usually do so with...
Mental Game
Highly motivated players can be too hard on themselves. Unrealistic perfectionism is stressful. It is, unfortunately, quite common amongst the driven super-achiever types that populate the high-performance tennis academies where high goals can leave them anxious and stressed. These players...
Mental Game
Stress can lead to powerful counterproductive emotions. Changing your perspective on competition can reduce stress. As we have seen, serious tennis matches involve fears of failure and are often stressful, and this stress can give rise to powerful counterproductive emotions....
Mental Game
According to Freud, defense mechanisms are useful in normal situations. Sigmund Freud pointed out that defense mechanisms, such as the excuses described in the last article (Click Here), are normal and often serve useful and protective purposes. Unfortunately, competitive tennis...
Mental Game
Darwin's theory of emotional response is at odds with what happens in tennis matches. Emotions are often counterproductive in tennis. Most counterproductive emotional responses during tennis matches are driven by subconscious fears of failure and urges to escape the stress...
Mental Game
Like all social species, we are programmed to compete. Human beings evolved to live and work in groups. We are a social species, like wolves or chimpanzees, and as such there is a social hierarchy. It is a pecking order...
Mental Game
Personal antagonism almost never pays off in tennis. It almost never pays to get personally antagonistic in a tennis match. It will hurt your game. But like many things that involve emotions in tennis, this is easier said than done....
Mental Game
Cliff Richey: a champion with secrets fellow players never suspected. I thought Andre Agassi's book was unusually honest and insightful, but it pales in comparison to Cliff Richey's new book, "Acing Depression." Cliff was a near-great player in the 1970's,...
Mental Game
Cocky? Yes. But did she deserve the death penalty? Let me be clear to start with that I am not advocating that athletes or anyone else indulge in cannabis, cocaine, or any other recreational drug. The health hazards of most...
Mental Game
Who doesn't like to see Roger Federer happy? I mean no disrespect to Andy Murray, who handled himself with greatly increased maturity, but really, who wouldn't pull for RogerFederer (other than people from England) in the Australian final? I enjoy...
Mental Game
What makes the scoring system in tennis diabolical? The tennis scoring system is different from most other sports. It uniquely increases the stress of competition, because throughout the match some points are substantially more important than others. In fact this...
Mental Game
Even for great players, winning a tough match is a prolonged mental struggle. Anyone who has played tennis for any length of time knows that winning a tough match involves a prolonged and often agonizing mental struggle. The match may...
Mental Game
What are we to make of Andre's recent revelations about his drug use 10 years ago? The following is my take on the recent revelations of Andre Agassi in his new book, based on his People Magazine article, his 60...
Mental Game
Click Here to watch Jeff Tarango's bizarre Wimbledon meltdown. The champions never forget where their best interests lie. While the winners do not consciously focus on their ultimate goals at all times, they never lose track, at some lower level...
Mental Game
Are strong emotions useful in winning tennis matches? What do strong emotions do to your tennis game? Many people think that it's useful to get hyped-up and emotional in order to play their best tennis. It seems to help Rafael...
Mental Game
Establishing dominance is a matter of will, strength and character. A closely fought tennis match is a not just a physical battle. It is a struggle of will, mental strength, and character. It is a pervasive personal and emotional contest...
Mental Game
In the first set Roger was shaky and on edge. In addition to a display of great tennis by two of the classiest champions in the modern game, the 2007 US Open final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic held...
Strategy
The latest strategical evolution; transition volleys. Over the years the game has evolved many times into many different forms. And it seems to be evolving yet again. The volley is beginning to reappear and assume, at the highest levels of...
Mental Game
Surprisingly few people are great natural competitors, but the average person can learn their techniques. Surprisingly few people are in this world are great competitors. A study done of fighter pilots in World War II found that less than 5%...