GRAND OPENING!

My web is up and running at www.tenniswarrior.com  All the transcripts for the tennis lesson hotline from 1998 are posted there under "Archives." You can also learn more information about my system by clicking on "Warrior System." I have developed a complete thinking system in regard to learning mental toughness and stroke production. It may take some time for you to understand what I am teaching and put many of the pieces together. Stop by my web site and pick up a few more pieces. Your tennis game will love you for it!

All new tennis buffs that would like my free email tennis lesson can go to www.tenniswarrior.com to sign up.

QUICK TENNIS TIP!

Remember when you are learning tennis you need much more repetition than you need technical information. Do not over think the technical end of the game. Tennis is base more on Timing, Judgment, and Reading the ball than it is on traditional technical skills. I call this the TJR factor. Timing, Judgment and Reading the ball all improve with REPETITION. As your Timing, Judgment, and Reading the ball improve so will the technical skills. Focus on just one or two main things that a pro may have told you and then let REPETITION work its magic!

Welcome to the Tom's Online Tennis Lesson, sponsored by TennisWarrior.com, "your link to professional thinking."

One of the most frustrating things for me as a teacher is to try and keep players positive in the face of negatives. In certain situations I even tell players negatives will occur yet they still have difficulty dealing with them.  Handling negatives, mistakes, and failures is tough for everyone.  When it comes to negatives most people have a short term focus. Players become so preoccupied with the immediate problem they become mentally blind and do not see the solution. The solution being a long term focus that understands the principle that negatives, mistakes, and failures are part of the success process. In fact, as I have mentioned before success and failure are the same, the only difference is success gets up and keeps moving.

The question is - why do players have such a short term focus in the face of these negative obstacles? The one word answer is - emotion! Their mentality is being controlled by their emotion. Here is a principle you should remember. When emotions control your mentality you will make decisions that offer only short term solutions, but when your mentality (with the correct information) controls your emotion you will make decisions that have long term solutions. Do not let your emotion dictate to your mentality, instead let your mentality dictate to your emotion.

For instance, you are learning something new and making a lot of mistakes. Immediately you begin thinking, I hate doing this, I will never learn it. If I went back to the old way I could do it much better.   Now, do you think this makes a lot of sense? You have been working on a new technique a whole five minutes and you just cannot do it correctly so you might as well go back to the old way. This is a typical emotional response of choosing a short term solution. You are more interested in protecting yourself from failure and feeling good about yourself, than you are about learning and improving. Obviously this is counter productive. You may feel better about yourself for a moment, but in the long run, because you have not learned correctly it will catch up with you - and then what?

In a match or when you are practicing you must learn to override the terrible feelings you are experiencing when you fail.  How can you do this? By constantly choosing to control your emotions with your mentality. That is why they call it MENTAL toughness. You keep the correct perspective by using your mentality. The next time you are in a match and experiencing negative feelings practice controlling the incorrect emotional response with your mentality. Remember, you control whether or not the negatives, mistakes, and failures will affect you.

If you are controlled by your mentality your response will be "the next shot is more important than the last mistake," but if you are controlled by your emotion your response will be "the last mistake is more important than the next shot."  It is your choice!  Stop letting your emotion dictate to your mentality and you will begin experiencing the mental control that champions must exert over themselves to play at their optimum level.

Your email tennis coach,

Tom

Copyright © 2000 Tom Veneziano.  All rights  reserved.

"Tom deals with the thinking end of tennis like no one else. It's almost too difficult to explain, you have to experience it. He has an uncanny knack for getting right to the heart of the matter. You come away thinking, that's right: it makes sense!"

Colleen Cremer, Houston, TX.

"It's interesting to note that everyone can use these tapes from beginner to championship level. You can apply the information to whatever level you play on."

Dan Hanusa, Houston, TX.

" Tom's audio cassettes have changed my thinking, aligning it with the correct information needed to improve my game. He's right there with you, inside your head, challenging you to make those changes. It's like having your own personal coach! I highly recommend his tapes for everyone."

Linda Zimmerman, Houston, TX.

"On the way to my HLTA match I listened to Tom's tape, "Some Before Match Pointers." Call it a coincidence, but I won my first HLTA match ever! I just seemed to be in a better frame of mind. Thanks, Tom."

Mary Ogden, Houston, TX.

"Tom and I have been friends for over twenty years. It's not surprising to me players talk so positively about his tapes. He's always possessed exceptional athletic ability along with an unusual analytical mind. Tom simply likes to think! At times he would drive me crazy, but he was the driving force behind my journey into tennis. I'm 6'1" and Tom is 5'6" but I could never beat the little imp! All joking aside, if Tom's thinking is on audio cassettes, you should listen! You'll never view tennis the same way again!"

Sam Lacava, Tennis Professional, Stewartsville, N.J.

Thank you all for the testimonials! I appreciate it!

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