The General Psychology of Tennis (Part 2)
Posted on July 15, 2009
Filed Under Tennis
The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing tennis-player is a creature of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her game, no comprehension of your game. He will make brilliant coups at the drop of a hat, largely by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an fascinating type of character.
The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her strategy from back to fore court under the command of an ever-active mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite intention. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of slavish determination that sets his/her mind on one strategy and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the end, with never a thought of changing.
He is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never permits himself to think of anything except the business at hand. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the mental capacity of Brookes more, but I admire the determination of Johnston.
Pick out your sort from your own mental processes, and then plan your game along the lines best suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is often seizing the psychological value of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”
The science of missing shots is just as important as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Allow me to explain. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you smash it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is shocked and shaken, realizing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to attempt it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will attempt to play the ball, and may fall into error. You have thus taken some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, all because of a miss.
However, if you had merely popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt even more confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would only have been winded for no reason.
Let’s suppose that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible achievement. First it amounts to TWO points, in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one that you should never have had. Second it also worries your opponent, because he feels that he has lost a big opportunity.
The psychology involved in a tennis match is very interesting, but readily understandable. Both men begin with equal opportunities. Once one player establishes a real advantage, his/her confidence rises, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes poor. The sole objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby holding his/her confidence.
If the second player pulls even or draws ahead, the inevitable result is an even greater contrast in psychology of the players. First, there is the natural confidence of the leader of the game, but it is boosted by the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The case of the other player is the reverse. He is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The collapse of his game plan soon follows.
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