A Practical Guide to Peak
Performance

Jeff McCullough

In this article I want to present a simple, practical and easily applicable performance enhancement system, designed to take the uncertainty out of how to handle the pressures and challenges generated by competition. In my opinion, this guide gives players the best possible chance to play their best tennis and win more tennis matches.

Many tennis players—especially recreational players--have no substantive mental and emotional foundation for dealing with the rigors of competition.  Even some pros I have met have no identifiable or systematic approach to handling the mental aspect of tennis. These players, regardless of level, are “winging it,” and usually hoping that by just “trying harder” and “willing” a victory that it will be achieved.   I call this the “hammer method.”  If only that worked more often than it actually does.

There is also another class of players.  These are players who take the mental game very seriously, and who overburden themselves with so much information that they are unable to process the truly useful items when they are needed the most.  They have read every article and book and seen every video.  But unfortunately, just exposing themselves to more information is not a substitute for positive action on the court.

When it is five all in the third set, a player needs a limited number of tools.  Tools that are easily applicable and highly effective.  Tools that provide him or her with the best chance of walking off the court as a winner.

The psychic pressure of these tight situations often results in over stimulation, with the body swamped by adrenaline and other bio-physiological chemicals.  Under these conditions, it becomes very difficult to think clearly, construct a solution, or sometimes, even function on a physical level. This is not the time to try to recall and access everything you have read in the books of the game’s most renowned theorists of the mental/emotional game.

Less is More

I have a strong belief that tennis players can greatly benefit from a stripped down performance enhancement system.  This is because, as a working coach, I have seen so many of my own students blossom under its impact. 

One of its greatest advantages is that it does not take months or years to learn. It can be learned and applied in your next match.  And every time you use it, you will likely achieve increased levels of success. As it becomes habitual, you will realize the ability to play at your full potential. 

Especially if you are not inclined to read a lot of abstruse highly technical sports psychology books, this system is a terrific, serendipitous find.  It works extremely well with younger juniors who are just developing the capacity for abstract thought, and  is particularly valuable to players just beginning to compete, or to those returning to competition after a break from competition.  But it is just as beneficial to seasoned and inveterate competitors. 

Tools for Crunch Time

Regardless of age, ability, or experience, you will discover the most important tools you need in the crunch, tools that will free you to play your best and give yourself the best shot at victory.  Once you incorporate this system into your every day match play, you will win more matches than ever before, especially if you are amongst the legions of players who have a history of folding when the heat index is highest.

When you win a match, you'll be able to say, “Yes I think I know why I won and now I believe I can do it again.” And with more and more practice and experience with these new techniques, there's an ever increasing chance that this is what will happen.

When you do lose matches due to a mental/emotional element, you'll be much more likely to be able to pinpoint the reason(s) why you lost.  This opens the possibility of making the necessary corrections so that you'll then be less likely to lose matches in the future.

Jim Loehr, Alistair Higham, Allen Fox, Jeff Greenwald, Tim Gallwey (from left) —some of the major contributors to mental training, many on Tennisplayer!

James Loehr, Allen Fox, Rainer Martens, Vic Braden, Timothy Gallwey, Bob Rotella, Chuck Kriese, Jeff Greenwald, Alistair Higham, and John Yandell.  These are just some of the authors who have contributed to the body of knowledge in this field, and there is not a day that goes by when someone somewhere does not benefit from their wisdom.  Many of them are in fact Tennisplayer.net contributors in the Mental Game section.  (Click Here.)

8 Components

What I have done as a working coach is synthesize their most important ideas and condense them down into 8 Components, components that are accessible under competitive stress, and easy to apply and to manage. 

In this first article, we’ll address the first 4 components: Fun, Playing for Yourself, Going for Your Shots, and Looking Confident.   Then next month will look at the other four.  So let us proceed into the heart of this seemingly mysterious matter that we call the mental game.

Component # 1: Are We Having Fun Yet?

The primary factor that all the experts identify as a prerequisite to success and the antidote to succumbing to pressure is to have fun.  When I coach a young player who is ready for beginning level tournament play I always ask them the following question: “Why did you choose to learn how to play tennis?”

This is always an interesting exercise, because of the myriad of responses that I receive. If the real answer is not immediately forthcoming I probe a little deeper.  Eventually the answer is almost always the feeling of joy when the strings first contacted the ball, sending that fuzzy, yellow spheroid out into physical space.

Think back to the first time that you ever hit a tennis ball.  Was it fun?  If you are like me it was love at first hit.  That magical tactile experience is still buried somewhere in your memory banks. If you can access it, maybe you can recapture that ineffable exhilaration.

For most players, this initial ecstatic experience becomes clouded, lost through experience, and less and less accessible.  Eventually we are swept up and into the world of the competitive arena with all its expectations and extrinsic goals. That is inevitable and normal.  Unfortunately, too many players lose sight of the real reason why they originally decided to play.  

As we hit more and more balls we become progressively desensitized to the wonderment of our initial experience. As we progress in our journey along the tennis highway we replace this early, intrinsic joyful experience with a rising litany of external expectations.   These are the outcomes.  Did I win or lose?  How did I stand in relationship to my fellow players?   Is my ranking high enough?  And that is inevitably because we are competitive creatures living in a highly competitive environment.

Here is a fact: we must all come to the realization that we can't always win no matter how well we play. Your ranking may not always be heading north despite your best efforts.  You may never be number one in your division even if you realize your full potential.  So what is a player to do when extrinsic measures like rankings—which are much more tangible than intrinsic rewards—become more important as well?

Unfortunately, one accommodation is to devalue the experiences that don’t directly forward the external rewards.  In my time I have observed too many tennis players walk off the court after losing and report that they found nothing of value in the experience.

They lost and that is simply not fun. They cannot accept that they are not in complete control over the extrinsic realm. These players are destined to remain frustrated, unfulfilled and likely to throw in the towel in the long run.  Unless of course they rediscover that initial experience of joy.  Some never do.  We lose them from the game of tennis, and they lose even more.

Component # 2: Play for Yourself

The biggest impediment to “peak performance” on all levels is a fear of losing and how this will impact one's self-esteem. This is why players with the greatest degree of intrinsic self-esteem normally become our best competitors.

Imbued with a solid internal foundation, the prospect of losing does not terrify them the way it does some players.  Because of their natural belief, they are able to play with full commitment.  Win or lose they know they are going to be emotionally and psychically fine.  They tend to recover from a loss relatively quickly and are eager for a chance at redemption in the next battle. Rarely do they entertain thoughts of quitting the game entirely. 

After fear of losing, the next most powerful inhibiting factor is too much concern about the opinions of others. What are my friends going to think of me if I lose? Or my peers?  My wife?  My poker buddies?  My parents?  My coach? It’s the same with the pros, who are concerned about all of the above, plus the public and the media.

All these fears are a real challenge because we are social animals, naturally predisposed to be concerned about the reactions of others. We all have egos and prefer to be held in high esteem rather than in disrespect.  But for competitive athletes, these normal concerns can be perverted into a debilitating preoccupation with the opinions of others.  And this can have a very negative effect on performance.

For most of us this battle to establish a pure inner locus of self esteem is never completely won. But to the extent that we can keep these outer centered concerns at bay we are likely to perform better.

I give players two simple guidelines to stay focused during a match:

First, keep your eyes inside the court as much as possible. That may seem simple and obvious, but go to junior tennis tournaments and watch how many players are in constant emotional contact with their friends, family, or even with people who may be there for their opponent!  Often at critical points in matches you will see them studying what is happening in matches on nearby courts.

A ritual which furthers this goal is constant string adjustment. For most players, especially those with less confidence and experience, it is not a good idea at all to keep constantly looking around.

They need to strive to counter “tennis rubbernecking” by developing the discipline of “tennis tunnel vision.” Any number of things or people out in the visual field can cause distractions that suddenly plummet them down into a cycle of “negative intensity.”

“Oh, there's uncle my Mom's uncle Bob. I wonder if he still remembers that Christmas when I accidentally set his Christmas tree on fire?”  Or, “Suzy is playing next to me.  Why is her serve is so much better than mine?”  You don't need to go there on a break point so practice “visual discipline.”

Justine communicated with Carlos, but this was the exception.

There are exceptions, of course. Some players—Justine Henin was an example--truly find inspiration in the eyes of a coach or a significant other up in the stands. But this can be very risky business.  The people players turn to in critical moments may not have the superb emotional control of a coach like Carlos Rodriquez, who always seemed to send the right energy to Justine.

For most of us, I think it's best to keep your eyes and mind on the task at hand. These other things need to be “blocked out.” Sports psychologists label a player who is particularly good at this a “screener.”  “Non-screeners” are easily and continually derailed. Any bird, human being, sound, movement or seemingly imperceptible environmental alteration becomes a potential nemesis when the player insists on keeping tabs on everything happening around him. 

This type of disciplined “screening” is a very difficult skill to master because as humans we all having an innate “orienting response.” We are very sensitive to the environment in which we operating because such vigilance has strong survival value.  

Learning to stay truly “focused” is thus an acquired skill with a significant learning curve. Few people ever achieve total “absorption” for sustained periods of time.  Nevertheless, mastery of maximal, extended concentration is something every player should work toward.

So just as players need to avoid a preoccupation with things outside of their complete control—such as outcomes—they also need to avoid attending to any and all other distracting or inhibiting factors outside of themselves during the course of a match.

When we talk about performance as opposed to outcome goals, there are many that are highly technical in nature such as to “put more topspin on your backhand,” or “get 70% of first serves in,” for example. There are also tactical performance goals such as “hit the forehand deeper and down the line to their backhand,” “come in to the net more often,” and “use the drop shot when you have the opportunity,“ for example.

These play a very important role in both organizing one's approach to a match and assisting the player in remaining more in the present and less in the immediate past--where your mistakes may taunt you mercilessly--or in the future where a preoccupation with demon outcomes may await.

Full Commitment

Ultimately, however, there is a more general goal that I think is paramount: Chuck Kriese says that, “teaching athletes the value of the risk of making a Full Commitment is often the greatest gift a coach can give to his players.”   Too many players are willing to make only a partial commitment in order to eliminate risk and protect their self-image.   Without this in place, setting other more specific performance goals is likely to be ineffective.                 

If a player has not made a full commitment and loses, this is less of a threat to his self-esteem, because the player can then abdicate responsibility.  This is why creating an “excuse” for a poor performance is a common strategy. 

Only when one makes a full commitment can he or she be fully responsible for the outcome. Players must be willing to live with what happens and accept the outcome regardless of what anyone else may say or think. This is the best way to eliminate external influences and to make sure that you are really the one in charge of what's occurring in your matches.
 
As Chuck Kriese puts it, “Play to express, not impress.”  The primary goal is to play for yourself.  This is what full commitment is about.   Nearly all sports psychologists agree that establishing an “inner locus of control” in this fashion is a major factor in competitive success.

Component #3: Hit Out and Go For Your Shots

Jim Loehr tells us that when we are not playing our best, we are either choking, self-destructing with anger, or tanking.  (Click Here to read all his amazing articles on Tennisplayer.)  These negative consequences are all related to a lack of full commitment.

In my experience the biggest culprit day in and day out is the bogeyman of choking.  But in observing my players I also see various shades of anger and tanking in the mix .

When players are playing in fear they are prone to timidly “push,” “chip,” or “dink” the ball around the court.   Because their systems are over aroused by various stress hormones, they do not move well or think clearly. Typically, they are unable to generate enough controlled power to attack or even neutralize the opponent, and their performance tends to progressively deteriorate over the course of the match.

Under these conditions, players sometimes walk off the court with their head down.  They are not only losers, they sense that because of the predominance of this fear factor, they were not able to give their best effort.

This is different scenario than walking off the court as the official “loser,” but with your head held high and with the firm conviction that you have truly made a full commitment.

When I was playing competitively I would counter the neuro-physiological effects of the “choke response” by taping my performance goals on the side of my racket. When my muscles were tighter than an 80 pound string job, when the next breath was hard to find, when my mind was racing, when my feet were like lead weights, I took great comfort in being able to look down and read “Hit Out and Go For Your Shots.”

Suddenly there was a release of tension. I was better able to move my feet, get into better position, generate more racket head speed, and improve the targeting of  my shots.  I moved closer to full commitment, and I was certainly having a hell of a lot more fun.

As they used to say in the Old West: “If you're gonna go down, it's best to go down with your guns a blazing.” And on the tennis court if you're going to lose it's best to go down attempting to play your game, rather than a game which is a hollow facsimile.  In this way, full commitment can become the secret to overcoming choking. The more you go for your shots, the better the chance you will make them at critical times.

But there is a caveat.  “Go for your shots” can be a problematic and dangerous goal for some players.  Rather than bringing you back to full commitment, some players can use it as an excuse to tank a match when the pressure becomes simply unbearable.  Rationalizing that they are hitting out, they will commit a slew of errors to remove the discomfort of choking.

“Hitting out” doesn’t mean over hitting.  If you have this tendency or coach someone who is prone to this sort of self destruction, then it's best to keep this performance goal under wraps at least until a greater level of self awareness is attained by the potential recipient.

Component # 4: Looking Confident

I would maintain that good pre-match preparation begins at the very latest when you walk into the venue. For certain players it needs to begin earlier on that same day, or even several days before.  Certain players will find that reviewing their performance goals and using positive self-talk and visualization well in advance of matches are necessary to create full positive intensity.

In any case, it is extremely important that once you walk through the door of the club you project an image of confidence not only to your opponent but to the world at large. Remember, the world is your mirror. If you are look confident the world will reflect that confidence back to you and that will serve to enhance and increase your level of experiential confidence. Give your opponent and the spectators in this drama of your match ample opportunity to validate the way you are attempting to feel inside.

Maybe you are not really as confident as you would like to be.   Most players aren’t.  No matter. Look confident and you will begin to feel confident.  Inevitably over time you will generate genuine confidence. As the old saying goes, “Fake it 'til you make it,” and I would add to that, “If you fake it you will eventually make it.”

With time and effort you will own that confidence whether you are the Underdog or the Favorite. You will develop the belief in your ability to prevail from either of these positions.   (For more on playing from the Favorite or Underdog positions, Click Here.)

By looking confident you greatly increase your chances of prevailing. The mind-body connection is so powerful that if your physical being projects an unshakable confidence, then your mind will eventually come along for the ride. 

All of the experts give homage to the importance of body language and afford it a prominent place in their respective work.  The seminal research was done by Jim Loehr.  His presentation of the stages of confident physical presence between points is required reading to develop your own unique positive body language. (Click Here to read Jim’s articles, including his brilliant recent analysis of Rafael Nadal.)

As Allen Fox and others have noted, in a close tennis match, half of the things that happen will be negative.  That is, you will lose roughly half of all the points you play.

Losing a toughly contested point at a critical time can be very painful and discouraging.  But if you truly have control of your body language, you can purge yourself of these negative emotions and recover a positive physical presence in the time between points. 

Watch Ana Ivanovic physically morph from negative to positive after a tough lost point.

Watch the amazing sequence from J. Gregory Swendsen’s new portrait of Ana Ivanovic. (Click Here to see the full portrait.)  Incredibly she goes from the depths of frustration to a look optimism and physical confidence in the space of 6 frames, probably less than 15 seconds.  Your body doesn’t lie and great players learn to control what it communicates.

Breathing

In addition to body posture, good breathing is critical to creating and sustaining confidence.  It is difficult for anyone who has never played competitive tennis to understand how stressful it can be, at least at certain times in certain matches. 

You could fairly describe a player in the throws of the choking response as a human being with an anxiety disorder who happens to be wearing tennis clothes.  And when you are in this state, it also is readily apparent to your opponent.  And that can give him an emotional boost that could swing the balance.

Choking, literally, is the inability to breathe.  Overcoming choking, then, requires that you reestablish that ability to breathe normally and deeply.

Breathing, relaxation, confidence, and performance are closely tied.  Oxygenation of the blood and brain leads to both mental and physical changes.  Suddenly the feet are moving better, your brain is once again communicating with your “elbow,” and you not only remember that you came in with a game plan but can attempt to implement it.

Your heart no longer sounds like a sonic boom in your head and the perspiration has decreased to the point where you can once again be fairly certain that you can serve without the racket flying out of your hand and meeting its possible demise on the hard court in front of you.

When the competitive tennis player is under the gun the best thing they can do to bring the physical, mental and emotional systems back into balance, is to breath. I'm not talking about the ordinary breathing which merely insures our physical survival. I am talking about purposeful, deep breathing.  This technique was first used by psychotherapists decades ago as a corner stone of stress-management.

This type of breathing needs to be rigorously incorporated into your between point and changeover routines. The more fearful the player becomes the more deep breaths he or she will need to be fully prepared for that next mini-battle we call a tennis point.

I always remind my players that there is no limit to the number of breaths they are allowed to take within the twenty seconds that they are allotted between points. “Take as many as you need,” I say.  “Fill up your lungs to the top and hold it for a good long moment, and do it in a way that it does not call too much attention to the fact that you're doing it. “

Even though you're “playing for yourself” and you wish to be oblivious to what anyone else (including your opponent) may glean from this breathing exercise, an important part of appearing confident is not revealing that you may be struggling with anxiety. 

You should breathe in deeply for two full heart beats of time.  Breathing in this manner needs to become an automatic response to psycho-physiological over arousal.  Practice it meticulously whenever you find yourself starting to become fearful or to choke.  Eventually you begin to do it naturally and without conscious effort when your body needs to relax.

So there we have it for the first four components of our practical guide!  Stay tuned next month as we work through the next four components in developing and sustaining peak performance.