How Tennis Coaches Can Teach the Mental Game To Their Players.

My coaching philosophy for teaching the mental game to players is this…

They are not playing tennis, they are playing the mental game.

And.

Their match play results will be depending on how well they learn how to play it in their future matches.

Also.

They can never take their mental game for granted.

Because.

At one point, they may have it, and the next they won't, or one game they may have it and the next they don't!

With this being the case.

Here is the best way to teach the mental game to them.

First.

Introduce Mushin training to them.

This is a Japanese mental training philosophy to free the mind from thought through deep breathing.

Here is some more information here.

The great thing about Mushin is they can use it off the court as well to improve other parts of their lives.

Next thing to introduce to them.

Warrior meditation.

This is when they get into a deep meditative mental state and then mentally picture themselves performing at their best in future matches.

The more they do this before the match.

The better they will perform during the match.

It's important for them to get in the Mushin Training daily before they start doing the warrior mediation.

Because.

If they don't, they won't be able to focus or hold their attention to effectively use the warrior mediation to preprogram them for success.

In other words.

Mushin is going to help them develop a more present mind, and then warrior meditation....

Is going to start the preprogramming phase in this process for getting them mentally stronger.

Last thing.

Imprinting the subconscious mind.

Okay.

You have freed them from those negative thoughts that are holding them back and prepared them for success.

Now comes the imprinting phase.

This is where they should be verbalizing, emotionalizing, and affirming that they are already the tennis player that they want to be.

Get them to use the law of assumption at this point in the mental transformational process.

Then.

And this is very important.

After they have imprinted the image on their subconscious mind.

They have to get out of their own way and allow the WHOLE process to take place and unfold on its own!

I can tell you that, many players will try to force this part in the process, and it backfires on them.

So.

Make sure they get out of their own way.

Well.

Hope that wasn't too deep for some of you coaches.

You may want to print this out and read it and refer back to it as you are teaching them.

Also.

If you can add anything here that you think I missed, please do!

By the way.

Make sure you download the free report here.

Author of the book- you are not playing tennis, you are playing the mental game.

Thomas Daniels is a PTR/ MTM tennis pro coach with more than 29 years of experience teaching all ages and levels of the game in Kansi.

He is now a tennis writer and online tennis consultant based in Osaka.

To hire him for seminars, clinics, or workshops, call 0798-51-4481 or email [email protected]