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4 Tips from Tennis Players to Help You Focus

Mental Tennis

How strong is your mental tennis game?

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Mental TennisTennis Tools

Apeak tennis training app

by TN
written by TN

Have you tried the APEAK tennis training app? It is an interesting product to become more systematical around your tennis improvement.

APEAK Tennis

Apeak tennis is an “AI-driven science-based performance app.” It includes modules for goal setting, mental tennis training, and match preparation. Apeak tennis mental training is led by Jim Loehr, the world-renowned performance psychologist. Dr. Loehr has helped seventeen athletes to become world number one, twelve of which are tennis players, including Novak Djokovic, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, and more. He has served thousands of performers, including athletes, SWAT teams, the military, and Fortune 100 CEOs.

Mental tennis training is important

Mental tennis training has become more and more talked about, especially as tennis is such a mental game. I have worked with mental tennis trainer Filippo Gioello in the past and it has helped me understand some of the tools involved in developing a better mental tennis game. If you want a more hands-on, on-court approach, you can use the code TENNISNERD to get a discount on Mental Tennis training programs. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and you can insert the promo code.

Check out the Apeak app

I try most of the new tools on the tennis market. Everything from Gravity Belts, to Swingvision, to the Saber, the list goes on and on. I am currently also testing the Apeak app and will use it for my upcoming tournaments on the ITF Masters tour. I know that I tend to struggle with my desire to win or to be clutch in key moments. And I hope the Apeak tennis app can help me work on that.

Do you struggle with anything specific on the tennis court? We can always improve our technical ability or our physical conditioning, but we shouldn't forget the mental part. It is as important when it comes to achieving better results in competitions.

Try Apeak for free – if you decide up for the full membership, we get a small commission at no extra cost to you.

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Mental TennisTennis Instruction

Tennis drives me crazy

by TN
written by TN

The 2nd part of my mental tennis session with Filippo and Andrea from Mental Tennis is out on YouTube. It's called “Tennis drives me crazy”.

Tennis is a wonderful sport and I have great love and respect for it. But sometimes tennis drives me crazy. It can be extremely frustrating when things don't go to plan and you play (what you perceive is) way beyond your level. So much so that some players don't even want to play competitive tennis due to this aspect. Because competitive tennis and tennis practice are two different things.

When we are hitting with a tennis partner, we can find flow, rhythm, there is no tension and we can feel the ball well and hit freely. In a competition or a match with some (real or imagined) stakes, your arm can feel like lead, your feet can stop moving and gone is the flow and enjoyment you experienced while practising perhaps just an hour or a day before. When tension sets in, strange things can happen to the body.

I've experienced this more than once and that's one reason I was curious about doing some training with Mental tennis. I wanted to come to grips with how different I felt and played on the practice court versus a competitive setting.

Relaxed aggression

You play your best tennis when you are relaxed, but not too relaxed. You need to have intensity without being too nervous, agitated or fearful of missing. That's the balanced, relaxed aggression that pros do so well.

This might come naturally to you or it might require some hard work. For me, hitting a ball feels pretty natural, but hitting a ball in a competitive match, can feel quite different. I often put too much pressure on myself to perform and end up running around without a plan, without finding my game and losing before the match has started (in my mind).

I don't always do this. But it has happened enough times for me to really want to combat the feeling of chaos and being rushed on a tennis court. You need to control your nerves, not let them control you.

For most people, this might be related to the fact that they HATE losing and that winning is important. I don't care so much about winning or losing, I just don't want to let myself down. I am fine with it if I lose when I play decent tennis. If I lose when I play bad tennis, I feel like I want to smash the racquet.

Can you relate?

Is this something you have experienced? How has it affected your enjoyment from tennis? Have you tried to do anything about it? I felt like my zoom sessions and now also tennis training session with Mental Tennis has helped me understand my own fears and given me some tools for how to process them. Yes, I need more work, but at least I know the issue and have some ideas on how to battle it.

You can check out the mental tennis checklist for some ideas.

Here are some quick tips that I have started using.

  • Take time in between points to empty your mind. Kind of like meditation.
  • When your mind is empty – try to visualize the next point. What do you want to happen?
  • If you're feeling stressed, breathe and jog in place to relax some of that tension.
  • Try to give yourself an honest assessment – what is happening in the match? Are you rushing? Then try to slow things down. Are you playing at your opponent's tempo – try to increase the intensity? What is your opponent doing to your game that you can counteract?
  • Stop and take in the moment. Have gratitude, even if you're playing badly, that you can enjoy such a great sport as tennis. Winning or losing is not life or death.
  • If you're talking negatively to yourself, stop it. You don't need to pretend that everything is going well, but rather react neutrally than negatively or positively.
  • Create a routine that helps to focus your mind. Count the strings, wipe your face with your towel, bounce the ball ten times. A small ritual that helps you focus. Pros do it all the time. Just watch them.

Are you using any of these tips? How is it going? What do you struggle with when you compete?

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Mental TennisTennis Instruction

Mental tennis training session

by TN
written by TN

I've spent the past week in Marbella and besides work, tennis and meetings, I also had a mental tennis training session with Filippo and Andrea from Mental Tennis.

This mental tennis training session was a follow-up to the mental training sessions over Zoom we had done over the past year. I had experienced great benefit from the sessions and felt I performed much better in match play over all with the tips and tricks from Filippo and his Mental Tennis program. I am a decent tennis player, but my match play is too often ebbing and flowing in between great shots and loose mistakes. This relates well to my mind as my emotions are rarely calm and focused during a match, but often more chaotic.

The state that Filippo tries to instill and teach to his students is that of calm relaxation. Be a warrior, but don't get aggravated and agitated about the match. I have always struggled with this balance. I almost feel like I'm acting ridicolous if I take a match too seriously (whether it's an Open tournament or the club championship). Tennis is supposed to be fun and we should be grateful that we can enjoy the sport, but doubts and poor performances can really disturb this balance.

Mental tennis training

I learned a lot from my session that was in part mental and in part technical. When your body tenses up during points play, it can start doing some strange things on the court. This happened frequently in my session. I played far below what I think is my level because I tightened up and let my mind play tricks on me instead of just hitting the ball and letting my instincts rule.

I think pretty much any tennis player can benefit from putting more attention on the mental side of the sport. It's tough but it can create some significant results.

Check out my podcast with Filippo here or the Mental tennis checklist

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Mental TennisThe Game

My Three Pillars Behind the Game-Day Mentality

by GP
written by GP

This guest post about Game-Day Mentality is from Rush Walters. He is a high school engineering teacher, boy’s tennis coach, and self-published author. He resides in Missouri with his wife Mia and Bernese Mountain dog, Zion. You can check out his self-published children’s book on Amazon.

Much preparation goes into getting a high school-level tennis player ready before game-day rolls around. As a coach, you build a player's physique, consistency, and strategy. Practice makes permanent, not perfection. There is always room to grow, always.

The day arrives, the first match of the season.

When faced with a challenging opponent of equal measure, what will give you the advantage?

I strive to instill in my players a game-day mentality of courage, perseverance, and the task of staying focused.

Being Courageous & Contagious

First and most important, courage. Courage is easy to overlook but vital to game-day success.

According to merriam-webster.com, courage is defined as “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous.”

Every player of every sport is bound to face difficulty.

Courage is the oil in the game-day mentality engine. For all of the multiple moving parts of an engine, you must have oil. Similarly, for all of the preparation and implementation of strokes, strategy, etc. you must have courage. You need to believe in yourself and your teammates. Believe that they are going to fulfill the roles that they are in. Believe that they can beat X team. Believe & trust that they will give their all.

Most importantly, believe in yourself, that you are capable of winning. That you are fully capable of having a down-the-line shot, of having your first serve in, of dominating the match. You need to believe that you can do it. Courage & believing in yourself does not always come naturally. The coach must encourage the player to continue to give their 100% throughout the entire match. When a player is a part of a team, your teammate must encourage one another. Every player approaches game-day differently, but every player can believe in themselves.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9 NIV.

You must take action to be courageous. You do not just wake up and have courage. God does not just sprinkle some magic dust and boom you have courage. No, being strong and courageous is an action. YOU, no one else, must take it upon yourself to be bold, to believe in yourself. When it comes to a team, believe in one another. Make being courageous contagious by encouraging one another. You need to trust that your teammate will play their best. Likewise, you need to be brave and dependable for others to rely on you as well.

Perseverance

Secondly, perseverance. Every single point needs to be played as if it was your last, no matter the match's game score. Without a time limit, players can be out there on the court for hours. Yes, the coach should talk to the player(s) on a changeover when needed. Also, players will get encouraged from cheers from the audience, but doubles or singles, they are out there on their own.

Every player throughout history in every sport will meet their match. Chances are they will experience a loss. What matters is if they are willing to get back up and keep punching.

“It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.” – Rocky Balboa

Yes, I know the quote is from a movie, but perseverance cannot be defined better than “keep moving forward.”

At the end of the day, seeing them literally give their all, past the point of exhaustion, whether they win or lose the match, is winning in my book.

Staying Focused & Channeling Frustration

Thirdly, staying focused, you have one goal when you are out there on the court: play in such a way to win. Winning is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to play in such a way as to win. Strive to be the best you can be.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” – 1 Cortihains 9:24

You must stay focused mentally, keep your eye on the prize. Tennis is a mental game as much as it is physical. You need to get inside your opponent's head without them getting inside yours. More importantly, you need to keep yourself from getting inside of your own head. In addition to playing your best, you need to keep your cool and be self-disciplined in doing so.

I have seen it time and time again. A player makes a few mistakes, gets mad, then their frustration turns into anger, and then they allow their anger to control them. They need to control their anger, they need to learn how to handle it. Keeping a fire under control in a fire pit is great. The fire pit provides warmth, an area to cook food, and light in the darkness. Once that fire jumps out of the fire pit you have a problem. If you're going to embrace your fire, you will get burned. If you can control your fire, you can channel it into motivation!

I get it. I've been there. You get mad at a mistake you made or even a dishonest call from your opponent. Instead of letting your fire run freely, channel it into motivation. Let it be the fire behind making a better shot, getting the next point.

These three concepts: courage, perseverance, and staying focused, all play their role in developing & strengthening a player's game-day mentality.

Again, much preparation goes into a player. Once game-day is here, you need to have the confidence that your player is going to implement everything he or she learned. That they are going to put it all together in their game-day mentality.

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Mental TennisPlayers

Annoying habits of tennis players

by TN
written by TN

This is where I need your input! What are some annoying habits of tennis players? What on-court behavior have you encountered?

If you play friendly matches, local leagues, or high-level tennis, you are sure to encounter some annoying habits of tennis players. We're all different and approach competitive tennis in various ways. Some want to win at all costs and use forms of gamesmanship to increase their chances, while others just have some annoying habits that can frustrate the opponent.

I will list a few of the habits I have encountered and then I like to hear your take.

Taking a long time in between points

 

Some players move at a snail pace in between points. They take their time and sometimes excessively so. This can really throw you off your rhythm as you're waiting to receive serve or hit your serve and your opponent is never ready. A pro example of taking a lot of time in between points is Rafael Nadal. His OCD usually forces him to go through a whole sequence of things before he is ready to start the point. Federer is kind of the opposite, he likes to get the ball started asap and keeps up the tempo.

Excessive bouncing of the ball before serve

This is a famous or infamous one that we see some top pros do occasionally. Cilic likes to bounce the ball aplenty before his serve, Djokovic is also prone to doing so when he is tight and needs to focus. Maybe it's a way for them to reach an almost meditative state of focus, but it can throw you off your rhythm as an opponent. I've faced players that do this ahead of every point and it can sometimes make me lose my focus as I like to keep a high tempo in between points.

Loud grunting/screaming while hitting the ball

This has been more of a factor of the WTA tour than the men's game, but I am sure you can find club or tournament players also on the men's side that also grunt loudly while hitting the ball. There is an excellent video about this on the Cult Tennis YouTube channel.

The most famous offenders of the loud grunt/scream are Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, but there have been others that have even louder “exhales”.

Bad line calling

In most friendly or club-level tournament matches, you call your own lines. This opens up the door for some “bad line calling”, which can also be called cheating if it's intentional. Unintentional poor line calling can be due to bad eyesight and can result in the opponent calling in-balls out and out-balls in. That's another story. But the most common occurrence is players wanting to win so badly that they don't hesitate in calling even pretty obvious “in-balls” out. I think we've all experienced this and I've even seen it result in harsh words or fistfights between the players!

Excessive celebrating

You're allowed to be happy when you win a point and showing emotion can strengthen your inner resolve as a player. But when this results in your opponent doing somersaults after your double faults, it's another story. Then we're entering the realm of trolling. Tennis is a mental sport and how you deal with things like that will be key to your competitive success as a player on any level, but for many, it can be so annoying that they lose their appetite for match play.

What annoying habits have you faced on a tennis court? Perhaps you are or have been guilty of some of these yourself? Please let me know in the comments below. 

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Mental TennisTennisnerd Academy

A Mental Tennis Checklist

by TN
written by TN

My friend Filippo Gioello of Mental Tennis has created a mental tennis checklist for you to use when you play matches. There are a lot of good points here that I use myself.

If you are interested in improving your mental tennis, Filippo offers mental training through his website Mental Tennis. I have tried his methods for over a year and it's definitely improved my competitive tennis level. Many players underestimate the anxieties and mental challenges that come with competitive tennis matches. That's why I find the tips in this mental tennis checklist very useful. Still, it's not a magic wand, there is a lot more to this topic and if you want to become a warrior on the tennis court, you need to do the work.


I have talked about mental tennis with Filippo in my podcast here. And below you can find a vlog about mental tennis I created a while back.

The word back to Filippo and his mental tennis checklist.

EMBRACE THE PERSPECTIVE TO ENJOY THE COMPETITION!

Before going on the court to compete, when you are preparing your bag, try to remember that you are not going to the slaughterhouse. You are just going to play a tennis match. It is a choice that you made because you like to feel those emotions mixed with the adrenaline when you are competing – so just play and enjoy it!

To calm down, you must understand deeply that in tennis, the more pressures and expectations you put on yourself, the worse you will perform! Before starting to burden yourself with anxiety, remember that tennis is fun and that you are not going to the mine to feed eight children who would otherwise die of hunger.

Do me a favour and enjoy this great opportunity you have and remember that you play better tennis if you are positive with yourself and have fun!

PRE-VISUALIZE EMOTIONAL AND GAME SITUATIONS YOU MIGHT FACE DURING THE COMPETITION.

Remember that if you want to compete in tennis, the first and perhaps the most important rule I teach when I talk about mental soundness is that whatever happens, you will never and ever have to carry your frustrations or negative thoughts of the previous error to the next point!

You will have to strive to erase that pain (this is where you need to produce the effort with your mind, that is why it's called mental training) by taking full advantage of those 25 seconds between one point and another or during the changes of the sides, to start as if it were the first 15 of the game! Impossible? No, it takes training, but it can be done! Remember that if you cannot integrate this anti-discouragement process, you'd better not step on the court to compete because you will end up hurting yourself with that kind of attitude! Remember, do not get into this vortex of discouragement process:

1. Mistakes-> 2. Nervousness-> 3. Disgust towards yourself and your performance-> 4. Emotional depression-> 5. Exit from the match.

FROM CLARK KENT TO SUPERMAN! BEFORE STARTING THE MATCH, ENTER INTO AN EMPOWERING STATE OF MIND.

Before stepping on the court to compete and starting the pre-match warm-up, make sure you have changed the state of your mind. “Changing the state of your mind” means to enter an enhancing mental state of concentration, adequate to the performance you are about to sustain. It is a state of mind different from the one you normally have when you eat french chips at McDonald's ;). You have to be focused, determined, ready to fight and compete.

Start the procedure with a charged mind and body. Spur internal dialogue to tackle every point, every adverse situation with determination from the first 15. Listen to music that powers your warrior spirit with headphones, visualize the possible game situations you will have to face, and visualize the technical anchors you will need to have when you are playing. For example, in my case, I often say to myself:” Go down with your knees when you have to make the one-handed backhand loop. Or you want to put the first serve with more margin? Throw the ball higher and jump higher. Do you want to make an effective volley? Then hold the racket in front of your body with the head faced up.

FINDING THAT RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN BEING A LIONHEART AND FEELING RELAXED

US Open 2019 Men's Final Predictions

Remember that a true tennis player is an athlete who has found the right balance between being relaxed, calm but with a sacred inner fire that burns inside and that represents his competitive spirit. You could choose two great examples between the calm samurai Roger or the Warrior Rafa, who instead seems agitated from birth. But if you observe him carefully when he prepares himself to play the next point, he does a whole series of rituals that allow him to find calm, concentration without giving up the grit and competitive nastiness that distinguish him.

Having a solid game means, first of all, not to give away a lot of points because you are too agitated. I am not telling you to be a pusher, far from it! I am only telling you to find the right measure to play without giving points away, use more spin and less speed, for example. You should normally play at your 70% by first visualizing where to hit your shots, to defend when you have to defend, to maneuver when you have to and, when there is to attack because the ball goes in the middle of the court, then you have to explode it without thinking twice instead.

AUTOGENIC TRAINING AND EXOGENOUS TRAINING: DO A CAREFUL CHECK AT EACH CHANGE OF SIDES!

Check your emotional state (autogenous training) and game plan (exogenous training) at each change of sides. If something does not work, change it! Are you too afraid? Are you blocked? Are you in a panic? Ok, we have given you a whole series of tools to overcome these demons. Use them, and you will also train your mind in addition to the forehand and the backhand! Does your game plan with this opponent not work? Well, how about changing it? How about thinking about a pattern before starting a new point? You have 25 seconds (which can easily become 40 if you are not a pro) that you can use to become a “thinking tennis player!”

What do you want to happen when you are going to serve or receive? If you pre-visualize a pattern, you might have a better chance of winning the next point, don't you agree? Remember that playing tennis means keeping your game identity but also defusing the opponent's game!

DO THE RIGHT THING! TAKE THE RIGHT ACTIONS TO WIN THE MATCH AND DISCONNECT YOUR MIND FROM YOUR FEARS!

When we are competing, what does matter in this sport is to disconnect our minds from our ghosts and take the right actions to win the match! So, select your thoughts and choose the proper patterns to win one point at a time, staying with your mind in the present moment! So, do the right thing and try to defuse your opponent's game plan! If you have to take more risks, do it! If you have to be more cautious, be! If you have to play dirtier, play! If you have to play flat, do it. If you have to use more spin, do it! If you have to use more slice, do it! If you have to go on the net and put more pressure or take the initiative in the rally, do it and stop your paranoias because, in tennis, fear is just an illusion. To keep yourself focused and feel the right sensations while you are playing, use the power of the hops! A simple tool that dramatically increases concentration and reactivity!

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Mental TennisPodcasts and Interview

Podcast with Filippo Gioiello from Mental Tennis

by TN
written by TN

Filippo Gioiello is a mental tennis trainer and founder of Mental Tennis. He has created a process to strengthen your approach to tennis.

The idea of Mental Tennis is to make you enjoy competitive tennis more and create a strong mental foundation to play better, increase your love for the game, and win more matches. I have worked with Filippo for a few months and I have really learned a lot from it. I think the mental part of the game is often overlooked when it comes to training and I find this area of the game fascinating. I hope this podcast can give other players an idea of how important mental tennis is. If you want to find out more about Filippo and his company, check out Mental Tennis here.

Mental Tennis is all about practical tools to improve your tennis and it's based on learnings from the professional tennis tours and players like Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer. It's also about an approach to the sport that will help you reduce tension and anxiety around tennis competition and enjoy it more. This is an area I have struggled with personally. I sometimes get so tense around a tournament that I don't find the fun in competing. It's something I have worked on a lot and thanks in part to Filippo and Mental Tennis, I look forward to playing matches and tournaments now.

I can only expect it is much worse for players who compete for prize money and ranking points!

Podcast with Filippo Gioiello from Mental Tennis


You can listen to my podcast with Filippo via the embedded Podbean player below or you can check it out on iTunes or Spotify. If you like my podcast, I would love it if you subscribed. And if you want to listen to more podcasts than what I have currently published on Podbean and YouTube, check out my Patreon page where I do a members-only podcast every week about various topics. I hope to be able to write and talk more about the topic of mental tennis in future podcasts and posts.

Thanks to Filippo and his team from Mental Tennis: Andrea, Marco, and Francesco.

 

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Mental Tennis

How to Develop Your Human Psychology in Tennis?

by TN
written by TN

No matter how intellectually and academically profound you are, sports can be an equally important aspect of your life. Playing and understanding sports does not just help build physical strength and fitness but also helps to gain skills that will help develop your personality.

One of such mentally and physically engaging sports is tennis. A game of tennis involves different types of play like serving, rallies, fast movements, strategy planning, and more. While it can be a recreational activity between family or students for a competition, it also does a great job of burning calories. Like any other sports, you will need to develop your psychology as a player to strategically make the most out of your time playing and eventually winning. In this article, we will give you a few ways to help you build your tennis psychology:

1. Control Your Thinking

While you may not realize it, a negative mental state can affect the mind game of tennis when performing in the field. Although you may not be aware of it, you could be evoking feelings that affect your physical performance. Reading the psychology of human development essays and other educational materials can help you be conscious of your feelings. Be focused and spend your time working on the elements that you can control – attitude, effort, physical strength, and more. You can get more information on this by reading human development psychology. Knowledge of these topics can ease the player to be fresher and approach the game with solution-based thinking. Your positive mental state can visibly be seen in your performance

2. Building Up On Your Beliefs

One of the tennis psychology tips is to perform better in any game by getting rid of pre-conceived beliefs. Although you may have competitors trying to lower your self-esteem, your subconscious thoughts can affect your performance even more. You can get ideas of how your thoughts are sabotaging your game from many examples of essays related to this. Siebold, the author of “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class,” says that if you are strong enough to lose and keep fighting, you can be mentally tough and confident that you will do better. The first step to reach this level of mental toughness is by accepting your strength without being driven by anyone’s negative beliefs. It is a progressive way to develop the mental game of tennis.

3. Determining What You Can Control

In a game where you are competing with someone else, there are often little things you can control. A player may show regret and get upset if s/he cannot control or influence a game. When playing tennis, many things like court conditions, wind, luck, noise, and more are generally not under your control. While this regret can push you to lose your confidence, you need to have a clear vision of determining the things you can control. Strategizing and understanding your approach is far healthier on your tennis psychology than blaming the rain or the wind.

4. Improving Visualization and Concentration

When you start a match, you have the highest amount of energy. Your determination pushes your concentration to be at its peak level. However, with time, outside pressure, and emotional reactions, your concentration levels can drop. Do not let the outside world affect you but instead learn how to refocus efficiently with the mind game of tennis and give your best performance. One of the most active tennis psychology tips is to refocus your priorities by imagining and visualizing all aspects of your game. These aspects include technique, physical abilities, mental wellbeing, and strategy planning. Another approach is by being able to recognize and understand your mistake during a game. Try reading a good essay about imagery and visualization to get a better idea.

5. Don’t Be a Perfectionist

A big mistake that many people make when approaching a specific skill is aiming for perfection. This is true not just for the world of sports, but also for entrepreneurship, business, tourism, and more. A perfectionist tends to shut down if they cannot do something right and have a difficult time dealing with adversity. A great way to build upon this is by focusing on improvement rather than perfection. Instead of loathing yourself for not being the best, focus on a few things every day or week that you could improve on. Study the mistakes you made in the matches you lost, and focus on not repeating it. This is equally important when self-talking. Although self-talk is a very effective way to develop your psychology as a player, being self-critical, and judging yourself can be very harmful. Instead, be positive and talk with confidence and commit to doing better.

A successful tennis player is about being physically fit and being able to balance your mental health. As a tennis player, you will want to develop the psychological aspect of your games so that you enjoy what you do. You can implement many of these skills in many aspects of your personal life as well. Following these tennis psychology tips can push you to develop your psychology as a player.

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Mental TennisSelf-improvement

ATP Mental Health Initiatives

by TN
written by TN

ATP sent out a press release today announcing that they have partnered with Sporting Chance and Headspace to support the mental health and wellbeing of its player members and staff.

The new ATP mental health initiatives and partnerships have different focuses. It is nice to see more connections between mental health and sports, and it is a timely venture in fragile times like these.

Sporting Chance is a leading mental health provider working exclusively with professional and elite sports participants to give them a safe and confidential space to discuss emotional wellbeing and mental health. ATP Player members will be able to contact a 24/7 helpline and be referred onto Sporting Chance’s network of therapists, all experienced at working with elite sportspeople. They will help the players deal with any issue they may be struggling with, from the psychological effects caused by COVID-19 and not playing tennis, to coping with anxiety and depression or the effects of a sporting injury.

ATP Partners with Headspace

Headspace is a global leader in mindfulness, meditation, and mental fitness. Its products are available through an app and online content. This partnership will provide free Headspace Plus subscriptions to all ATP player members and employees, giving them access to all 1200+ hours of meditation and mindfulness content, including sleep, kids, and mindful movement exercises. It includes access to a new specially curated collection of material to support people’s mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic called “Weathering the storm.”

Today’s announcement highlights ATP’s increased focus on supporting the mental health of its players and staff.

“Being mentally strong is just as important as physical strength in tennis, and looking after the mental health of our players and staff is a key priority for us,” said ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi.

“Everyone has been adapting to periods of self-isolation and decreased physical activity during the pandemic, but this can have a particularly detrimental effect on professional athletes who are used to particular training structure and playing day in day out. We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support our players and staff during this time, and I’m proud of the partnerships we’ve been able to announce in recent weeks and months, which allow us to do this.”

Read the press release on the ATP website. 

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FitnessMental Tennis

Health Benefits Of Tennis

by TN
written by TN

Various Health Benefits Of Tennis

The health benefits of playing tennis are often undiscussed versus other traditional activities like swimming, cycling, and running. However, many people do not realize that playing tennis for an hour can burn around 600 calories. Thus, this is an effective exercise like cycling and jogging. Moreover, tennis can challenge your mind and body.

The tactical aspect of the game makes your mind occupied. Meanwhile, your body gets a good workout. Your short term goal of reaching that yellow ball will provide you with rewards and limitless challenges in the end. In this article, we will discuss the various benefits of tennis to interested players:

Brain Development

Tennis is based on physics and geometry, and can help players improve their tactical thinking (which is the same as when you play chess or casino online). Because a large proponent of tennis involves tactical thinking and alertness to create shot patterns, this sport will help you generate new connections between the nerves in the brain.

If you play tennis for many years, it can help improve brain development. This will keep you sharp and alert until your golden years.

Improve Cardiovascular Aspect

Tennis is equivalent to a thousand little sprints and involves anaerobic movement which can help you burn body fat. It can increase your heart rate and promote one to have higher energy levels.

Body Coordination

The more you play tennis, the more chance of you developing fine motor skills which are needed in gauging distance, striking, and personal coordination.

Indeed, tennis will test your speed, balance, footwork, and hand-eye coordination. This is because the sport requires various movements and techniques. Improve your performance on the courts, and you will see improvements in various aspects of your life.

Develop the Muscles

Apart from the cardiovascular benefits of tennis, it combines rigorous strength training which is good for your upper body, arms, and legs. Furthermore, this is not just for a static and repetitive group of muscles in your body.

In a tennis match, it requires that the players move from side to side, up and back, and at different speeds. This can test the different muscles of the legs. The movements involved in a typical match can help improve the back muscles. It develops the core and builds power and strength.

Boost Self-Esteem

In a study done by the Southern Connecticut State University, it has been found out that tennis players scored high in optimism, self-esteem, and vigor. They score low in anxiety, tension, confusion, and depression.

Indeed, if you regularly play tennis, it can help you keep motivated on your professional path. It will help you overcome the challenges that you can encounter every day.

Some sports can provide different levels of health benefits to you. For example, swimming is good for the development of the upper body, running is for leg power, and soccer is for tactical reasoning. But none of them can offer an efficient and effective package as what tennis can offer to interested players.

 

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