An Inner Game Lesson in Body Presence

Sean Brawley

One of the core principles of The Inner Game of Tennis (Click Here) is to rediscover how to learn from your own experience. And the key to that is self-awareness.

Becoming more aware of your body and what you are doing generates high quality, highly relevant feedback and enables change or learning to happen quickly and effortlessly. This feedback occurs, of course, internally through your feelings and body sensations rather than from outside sources such as your coach. Neuroscientists call this proprioception.

In essence, with proprioception you tap into the billion plus sensory receptors you have throughout your body and nervous system. Most of these receptors are located in your muscles, joints and tendons. When you move, the receptors send detailed messages to your brain about your body's position in space, your balance, and your actions.

Neuroscience studies show that awareness and the focus of awareness is the key to optimal learning and performance in any activity. So where and how we focus our attention is crucial.

So where optimally should we put our attention to become biomechanically more efficient and improve our technique in tennis?

There are four places that are helpful in this regard: your body, the ball, the racket and the court (for ball placement). In this article, we'll focus on body presence and provide you with five exercises that will help you improve your body presence.

Body Presence

Tennis is a highly dynamic sport. We are constantly moving our bodies in order to make solid contact with the ball and hit it to our ideal target. Improving your body presence will help all aspects of your tennis. But if you are a "thinking" player, you might find these exercises challenging as over-thinking and judging yourself tends to interfere with becoming more aware and feeling what you are doing.

Here are five "awareness" exercises that will help you develop greater body presence:

Exercise 1: Warm-up Practice Swings

To get yourself out of your head and into your body can happen immediately by simply taking five or six practice swings and really noticing different aspects of your swing such as the flight path (especially where the racket ends up), your balance, tempo of your swing, and your grip tension. The beauty of this exercise is that you can do it at home and prior to the start of any warm-up.

Exercise 2: Relaxation/Tension

I always find it interesting when I see a player warm-up doing mini tennis who is very loose and relaxed, but the minute they start hitting from the baseline they immediately tense their whole body in preparation of hitting the ball. One could say that they have lost awareness and are now subject to their conditioned habit. If that's you, this exercise can help.

In the warm-up, if you use mini-tennis, pay attention to how relaxed or tense you are. Notice on each shot. For some this simple approach is eye-opening. Now continue to focus your attention on your relaxation/tension as you start hitting from the baseline.

To help facilitate this exercise continue hitting at 20% of your normal pace just like you did during mini-tennis. You might also notice that you will hit higher over the net in order to hit the ball with less pace if you want to hit it deep. Hitting at a slower pace will help you track and see the ball more clearly and will help you stay more relaxed while hitting. After you hit 10 or more balls in a row without missing, experiment with hitting with more pace. As you do, notice what happens to the level of tension in your body.

Exercise 3: Dynamic Balance

Dynamic balance is critical for developing consistent, effective strokes and for ideal contact on each and every shot. I use the term "dynamic balance" because it is rare that you will ever be completely stationary when hitting a shot.

This exercise is simple: notice your balance as you hit each shot. First notice how balanced you are after you hit the ball. Are you off-balance and perhaps fall over a little? As you become more aware, go ahead and include how balanced you are before and during the shot.

For this exercise it is helpful to use a 1-to-5 scale as a tool to bring greater discernment to your awareness. As you prepare and then hit your shot, simply notice your balance without worrying about the result. Give yourself a rating for your balance with 1 being not very balanced and 5 being optimally balanced. After just 10-15 minutes you should find your numbers increasing, Discerning the difference in the balance numbers inherently means you are learning!

Exercise 4: Rhythm 1-2-3-4

This is one of my favorites. Rhythm is inherent in all movement. It is, therefore, possible to discover and feel the rhythm of your body as well as the rhythm of the ball exchange with your opponent/partner on each and every shot.

The problem, of course, is that our minds are usually so busy and preoccupied with other things--mostly unimportant things--that most players never get a chance to feel their rhythm.

Rhythm seems to be part and parcel with relaxation. It is hard to feel the rhythm of your swing if your body is really tense.

To discover the rhythm of your swing simply focus on the rhythm that is already there. As you do you will notice that it begins to take center stage in your attention and grows. As Tony Robbins reminds us over and over, "energy follows focus and what we focus on grows." Stay with your rhythm as much as you can and notice what takes you away from it. Then come back.

To discover the rhythm of the ball exchange, count out loud "one" when the ball bounces and "two" when you hit the ball. When you become proficient at this add "three" when the ball lands on the other side of the court and "four" when your opponent hits the ball.

This, of course, is a variation of the famous "bounce-hit" exercise, but the numbers seem to make it easier for players in my workshops to feel the rhythm. A friend of mine who is a music professor thinks it could be because it is easier to hear the four-count beat.

In my experience, feeling rhythm is a pleasurable and enjoyable experience.

Exercise 5: Stillness

I seriously thought about leaving the space blank for this one as stillness for me comes out of silence. Another oft used word to describe stillness is "being centered." There is a center point within all of us which can be found through our focus. In fact, the original meaning of the word focus is "hearth" in Latin and the focal point of a curved lens is in the center.

In my experience, this is the most challenging of all Inner Game exercises. There is so much happening and moving it's hard to believe that there is a still point, but there is.

The best way to start this exercise is to look at a photo of a cheetah running or even better a slow-motion video. Its body is moving at a fantastic pace but its eyes are completely focused and its head is still. As you look at the photo, notice how it makes you feel inside. It is possible that it will evoke your own centeredness and still point. You might notice your breath slow and your body relax.

Next do the same thing with photos of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Notice their heads are also still at contact and even after. For most of us our heads are looking up quickly to see where the ball is going. Keeping the head still has a direct impact on the rest of your body. According to the Alexander Technique, taught for over a hundred years primarily to dancers and actors, the head and neck lead the rest of the body.

Finally, as you are hitting in the relaxed way that you have learned, focus your attention and see if you can find your still point or center. Is it in your head and shoulders? Your belly button? Where is the point around which everything else turns for you?