Working Memory and the Tennis Score
A sports psychologist I spoke with shared a key to winning: "ignore the score in sports, stay in the moment". I would like to posit that mental toughness advice is extremely important but may need to be geared towards the audience: top pro versus everyone else and the particular sport.
For example, a top pro in golf has a caddy with whom he can discuss strategy. A weekend player has friends who might only tease him. A top tennis player has line judges, scoreboard, and a chair judge to call out the score. All that other tennis players have is an adversary.
The score in tennis tells a player where to stand, if he will play another point (ad scores), when to switch sides in a tie-break, and when to go sit down. So ignoring the score to achieve an optimal state of mind is not an option for 99% of tennis players.
Psychology researchers at Bielefeld University in Germany have looked into the relationship between planning and executing athletic movement and working memory. They found that keeping information in working memory, such as repeating the score to oneself every 4-10 seconds, comes at a cost. It interferes with planning and executing athletic movement. Their study has been so groundbreaking that more MOMEC studies are in the works (https://www.cit-ec.de/en/coordination-motor-planning-and-memory-processes-working-memory).
Many inventors have recognized the need for tennis players to be able to mark and read the game and tie-break score so that the player could focus on athletic movement and planning. These inventions all involved small knobs and buttons and hard to read output. That is why I invented izzers?. An easy to mark and easy to read game and tie-break scoreboard on the throat of the racket. The 8 straps together only weigh 3 grams (0.1 ounce) at the center of the racket. The method of marking, re-positioning a strap, keeps the player performing more of a gross motor movement instead of a fine motor movement pushing tiny knobs. When a player uses izzers, his tennis trainer or mental coach can then decide whether the athlete should focus on the score between points or mark and ignore the score. The trainer can work with the athlete to decide what works best for the player. Izzers give a trainer more options in what should be running through the mind of the player during the match.
A top over 50 player uses izzers to "reset his mind after the point". I am not even sure what he means, but I am glad that izzers helps him. A top academy in Jacksonville, the Saint John's Academy, uses izzers with all their juniors so that their juniors can intuitively learn how to keep score and more quickly incorporate the pros' teaching into their game.
When I play tennis, I am able to anticipate where the ball will land when using izzers, and I get there faster. If I use a racket without izzers, my response time is slower. At a recent USTA L7 event, I listened as elite Juniors called out "what's the score?" as fatigue set in. The two players who had izzers on their rackets had an advantage. What would your tennis players say to themselves to improve their athletic movement if they could free up the brain power devoted to the past score?
See us on instagram @izzers_tennis and at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/izzers-Tennis-Scoring-System-tie-Breaks/dp/B07HLHC86L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539859163&sr=8-1&keywords=izzers