Basic Tennis Psychology (Part 1)
Tennis psychology is the same as understanding the workings of your opponent's mind and assessing the effect of your own game on his/her mental viewpoint and also understanding the mental effects resulting from the various external causes on your own head.
However, it is true that you cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different circumstances.
You must realize the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, try for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible, strive to ignore it.
Once you have correctly measured your own reaction to conditions, observe your opponents in order to determine their temperaments. Like characters react similarly, and you can judge men of your own kind by yourself. Opposite characters you must seek to liken with those whose reactions you already know.
A person who can regulate his/her own mental processes stands an excellent chance of determining those of someone else for the minds works along certain lines of thought and can be examined. One can only regulate one's own thought processes after examining them very carefully .
A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. If he were he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a pretty clear indicator of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her torpid mind to think out a safe strategy of getting to the net.
Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first kind of tennis player mentioned above simply strikes the ball without much idea of what he is actually up to, while the latter always has a solid, thought-out plan and adheres to it.
However, it is true that you cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different circumstances.
You must realize the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, try for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it rob you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible, strive to ignore it.
Once you have correctly measured your own reaction to conditions, observe your opponents in order to determine their temperaments. Like characters react similarly, and you can judge men of your own kind by yourself. Opposite characters you must seek to liken with those whose reactions you already know.
A person who can regulate his/her own mental processes stands an excellent chance of determining those of someone else for the minds works along certain lines of thought and can be examined. One can only regulate one's own thought processes after examining them very carefully .
A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. If he were he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a pretty clear indicator of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her torpid mind to think out a safe strategy of getting to the net.
Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.
The first kind of tennis player mentioned above simply strikes the ball without much idea of what he is actually up to, while the latter always has a solid, thought-out plan and adheres to it.
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