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October 1, 2010
In Tennis, Principle Trumps Emotion

RAMBLINGS!

Welcome to all the new subscribers to my email tennis lessons.  You will receive one long lesson on the first of every month and some quick tips in between.

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STROKES ARE BASED ON 'FEEL' NOT MECHANICS!

Remember the basic principles for learning tennis with my system is to develop a 'feel' for different strokes along with developing mental skills through REPETITION.  Repetition of simple procedures create that 'feel' NOT an over emphasis on the technical skills and mechanics.  Click here for an article that I wrote on 'feel' vs 'mechanics' in April 2001

Tom's Online Tennis Lesson
In Tennis, Principle Trumps Emotion

When tennis players fail on the court, they immediately have a problem. To move from their problem to a solution they must make a choice, and at that crucial moment of failure and adversity there are two opposite paths they can choose. One pathway is subjective, leading through you and how you feel, and the other pathway is objective, leading through principle and reason. One pathway leads you to mental stability, the other to emotional instability.

The mental pathway most players choose is to mentally move from the problem (the failure), to their emotions (themselves and how they feel), to a solution. When arriving at a solution filtered through themselves and their feelings, a distorted view of what has occurred takes place. These solutions are subjective. They blame others for their mistake, they blow the mistake out of proportion, they make excuses (it was the sun, my shoes, I didn't get enough sleep, a bird flew over, and so on). As you can see, thinking this way creates a negative environment and is not mentally healthy for the ongoing match battle. Players can slowly become an emotional time-bomb that is ready to explode, and often they do!

Many times I have discussed staying out of your own way to allow your physical game to develop. In your physical game you get in your own way by focusing too much on mechanics instead of following the correct repetition principles and letting your game happen. The same is true for your mental game. When failures occur you tend to get in your own way by allowing how you feel to override the correct mental principles. Your emotions skew your mental focus which throws you mentally off balance. To solve this problem of emotionally getting in your own way you must learn to choose principle over emotions when you fail.

Tennis pros like Federer, Nadal, and Clijsters operate on mental principles as the source of their mental strength. They do not rely on their feelings or emotions. They have an arsenal of mental principles to select from when confronted by adversity and failures. Most top players rely heavily on these principles when under pressure.

Over time, all players should develop their own mental arsenal of principles to rely on in the heat of battle in match play. "The next shot is more important than the last mistake" and the principles behind this phrase should be a major part of this mental arsenal. Thinking in these terms of principle and reason is the key to combating incorrect emotions.

At the crucial moment of failure, the correct mental pathway is to move from the problem (the failure), to a principle (arsenal of mental principles), to a solution. The solutions derived from this mental pathway do not involve emotion and are compatible with mental toughness. These solutions involve taking responsibility for failures, controlling emotions, keeping a clear objective mindset and staying focused on important match strategies. With your cool, calm and relaxed mindset devoid of any emotional stress, you will perform more instinctively and spontaneously under any match play pressure.

As you learn to shift your mental pathway from the "problem-emotion-solution" to the "problem-principle-solution" you will begin to effectively handle adversity and failures. This concept is beyond learning how to control your emotions on the tennis court. This is taking your mental game to the next level. Take you and your emotions out of the equation, correctly replace them with principle, and you will overcome any match play pressure with ease.

In your best players in the world, in your mentally tough competitors and in all Tennis Warriors, principle always trumps emotion.

Your tennis pro,

Tom Veneziano

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TESTIMONIAL

Hi Tom, hope you are well and enjoying a good healthy life. As always I enjoy your comments and try to use them in my matches. I would like to share with you one little tip that I use to help me. On my tennis racket I stick little notes for myself, and the one I like best, apropos your latest letter is: FORGET IT -NEXT SHOT.

So between each point, whether I win or lose that point, I stare at this note, refocus, and get ready for the next shot. That's all I think about. When I play doubles, and my partner misses a shot, all I say is, Forget it- next shot. It seems to work for me, and of course, I was guided into this thinking from your teachings!!

Take care,
Charles Feber
London, England

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ADDENDUM:  I teach a total system of thinking in regard to stroke production and mental attitude which I cannot explain in one email.  Although each lesson can stand alone you will derive tremendous physical and mental benefit by understanding the total philosophy.  These emails, my web site, books, and tapes are part of a course in tennis, not just isolated tennis tips.  They all fit together into a system.  A system that once understood can help you not only learn tennis at a faster rate, and develop mental toughness, but also give you the knowledge necessary to help guide you and your children to a better understanding of the developmental process.

Click here for more information about my books and tapes

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