Tennis psychology is the same as understanding the workings of your opponent's mind and assessing the effect of your own strategy on his/her mental viewpoint and also understanding the mental effects resulting from the different external causes on your own head.
Nevertheless, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own psychology. So, you have to study the effect on yourself of the same thing occurring under various conditions. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.
You must understand the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction takes. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never give it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, or if that is not possible, try to ignore it.
After you have properly assessed your own reaction to circumstances, observe your opponents to determine their characters. Similar characters react in a like way, and you can judge people of your own sort by yourself. Other characters you must seek to compare with those people, whose reactions you are already familiar with.
Someone who can regulate his/her own psychology stands an great chance of reading those of someone else for the minds works along certain lines of thought and can be studied. One can only regulate one's own mental processes after studying them very carefully .
The regular, unemotional baseline player is rarely a quick thinker. If he were, he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a fairly clear indication of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually displays the baseline strategy, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe method of getting to the net.
Then there is the other type of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first sort of tennis player mentioned above just strikes the ball without much thought about what he is really up to, while the latter always has a solid, thought-out strategy and sticks to it.
Nevertheless, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own psychology. So, you have to study the effect on yourself of the same thing occurring under various conditions. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.
You must understand the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction takes. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never give it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, or if that is not possible, try to ignore it.
After you have properly assessed your own reaction to circumstances, observe your opponents to determine their characters. Similar characters react in a like way, and you can judge people of your own sort by yourself. Other characters you must seek to compare with those people, whose reactions you are already familiar with.
Someone who can regulate his/her own psychology stands an great chance of reading those of someone else for the minds works along certain lines of thought and can be studied. One can only regulate one's own mental processes after studying them very carefully .
The regular, unemotional baseline player is rarely a quick thinker. If he were, he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a fairly clear indication of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually displays the baseline strategy, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe method of getting to the net.
Then there is the other type of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first sort of tennis player mentioned above just strikes the ball without much thought about what he is really up to, while the latter always has a solid, thought-out strategy and sticks to it.
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If you are a novice tennis player or are interested in the general psychology of tennis, just visit our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners. This article, The General Psychology of Tennis (Part 1) has free reprint rights.
