Mind
Training for Tennis
Tip 2
http://www.tennispsychology.com
The
Zone
One
of the most powerful terms used in world sport for decades is the
mental state called 'the zone'. This is the mental
state which produces super-human performances, amazing shots and
winning streaks.
Any
tennis player who is in this mental state is virtually unbeatable at their respective
level of competition - and at the elite level, you witness some unbelievable shotmaking.
A
player who is in the zone experiences an unusual feeling of effortless power,
allowing them to feel as if their racquet and body are powered by a turbo-charged
engine, and they find their body gliding across the court and hitting with awesome
power and minimum effort.
The
strange part about this is - this powerful performance does not feel as if it
is being controlled by the actual player! In fact, they'll often report feeling
as if they weren't responsible for some of the amazing shots at all - as if their
body was being guided and directed by a more powerful force (and this is exactly
what is happening).
Almost
every player at some stage in their career has experienced this
feeling to some extent, and then wondered afterwards "how did
I do that?"
This
is the mystery that surrounds the zone - why does it appear so fleetingly,
and then disappear just as quickly as it came? And most of all -
why can't we access it all the time?
What
is the powerful force which is guiding the body when you hit an unbelievable shot?
The answer is the sleeping giant that resides inside all human beings - the subconscious
mind, the source of all bodily movement which also stores all past tennis memories
and experience.
When
a player is 'zoning', their conscious mind becomes quiet (the normally busy, chattering
mind we use all the time), and this allows their more powerful subconscious to
run their performance on 'automatic pilot', in the way a computer runs software.
This
allows their strokes to flow with effortless reflexes and power in a way that
could never be matched by conscious thought.
This
means that when you are in the zone, you have virtually no thought going through
your mind whatsoever, your body is just playing on automatic-pilot, powered directly
by your subconscious mind.
This
is not to say that your body is playing without instruction, on the contrary,
it is simply getting its instructions from a more powerful and reliable source.
So
how do we get into the zone? Everyone must find the method that
best suits their needs, but one of the main ways is to simply
practice (in your daily training) thinking absolutely nothing
while you are hitting!
This
prevents the weaker conscious mind from giving your body
incorrect instructions, and allows your powerful subconscious (the
sleeping giant within you, and control center of all bodily movement)
to run your tennis on auto-pilot, as it is meant to.
Of course, if you are having a lesson, doing this is not possible,
as your coach will be asking you to consciously try different things
on court.
But once you are practicing away from your lesson, allow some time
where your mind goes completely quiet and see if your standard
or level increases. It almost always will.
A
classic example of the Zone is where someone serves a rocket at
you at 200 km/hr - and you reflex back an amazing return for a screaming
winner down the line. This is the subconscious at work!
Yet
if someone hits a slow second serve to you, where you have
all the time in the world, these are often the returns a
player will miss, because they have too much time to think!
These
are the times when the weaker conscious mind gets involved, and
it's never very pretty when this happens!
The
zone is a very powerful state that can help you reach beyond your limitations
to achievements you may have never realized were possible. Try it, explore it,
master it, and then show the world what you can do!
