How many times you have lost matches because you are not confident enough? We all know that at the end, your performance in any tournament boils down to only one thing – Confidence. Everyone one struggles with this vicious cycle of ups and down in the confidence levels.
Confidence is cyclical and tends to build on itself because it comes largely from winning. It is an unconscious expectation of success, and since most of our expectations come from past experience, winning in the past makes us expect to win in the future. Of course it is circular in that confidence helps you win and winning makes you confident, but this explains why confidence tends to be cyclical. When you win you become more confident, you play better, and your results cycle upward.
But eventually the streak ends. Maybe a poor night’s sleep, a bad diet, a loss of motivation, or just random human variability causes you to take some losses. In any case something changes, you lose; your confidence slips; and your results cycle downward.
Patience is a virtue which many players are asked to have, when they are in a situation where their confidence is trembling.
When we suffer those inevitable periods of low confidence, we will not be content to passively sit back and wait for it to return. Fortunately there are steps you can take to speed things up.
You will need to replace the missing confidence with emotional discipline.
This is because when you are not confident you will tend to become angry or discouraged more quickly and choke more often than usual. Knowing this and recognising that the confidence process is cyclical, your objective should be to avoid self-destructing while you rehabilitate yourself in the following ways:
Doing this will at least keep your game functional, and it will give you a chance to get those few wins that are crucial to turning things around and starting your level of confidence on the upswing.
If you have any more techniques that you would like to share or those which have worked for you. Kindly share them in the comment section below
Confidence is cyclical and tends to build on itself because it comes largely from winning. It is an unconscious expectation of success, and since most of our expectations come from past experience, winning in the past makes us expect to win in the future. Of course it is circular in that confidence helps you win and winning makes you confident, but this explains why confidence tends to be cyclical. When you win you become more confident, you play better, and your results cycle upward.
But eventually the streak ends. Maybe a poor night’s sleep, a bad diet, a loss of motivation, or just random human variability causes you to take some losses. In any case something changes, you lose; your confidence slips; and your results cycle downward.
Patience is a virtue which many players are asked to have, when they are in a situation where their confidence is trembling.
Tips To Conquer Low Confidence Periods
When we suffer those inevitable periods of low confidence, we will not be content to passively sit back and wait for it to return. Fortunately there are steps you can take to speed things up.
You will need to replace the missing confidence with emotional discipline.
This is because when you are not confident you will tend to become angry or discouraged more quickly and choke more often than usual. Knowing this and recognising that the confidence process is cyclical, your objective should be to avoid self-destructing while you rehabilitate yourself in the following ways:
- Be more determined, before you walk on court, to remain emotionally stable and controlled regardless of what happens during your match. Don’t wait until the match starts to make this decision because your amped-up emotions will make your judgment unreliable.
- Play high-percentage tennis. This means you should be prepared to work the points longer and grind your opponents down rather than trying to blow them out quickly. Get more of your first serves in play, and hit more cross courts rather than going for aces or quick down-the-line winners.
- Have a strategy of attrition in the back of your mind. Be determined to outlast your opponent mentally by conserving your own emotional energy while draining the mental strength of your opponent with long, tough points and a minimum of errors. Yes, this is hard work, and you are more dependent on your opponent’s errors and weaknesses than you might like. But it’s better than forcing your game to function above its comfort level, “hitting and hoping,” missing, and losing.
- Play easier opponents to get some wins and allow your game to stabilize when it is not under high pressure.
- Reduce your focus on winning by concentrating on getting into position early, staying relaxed, watching the ball, and enjoying the competitive experience.
- Spend some additional time on the practice court working on fundamentals.
Doing this will at least keep your game functional, and it will give you a chance to get those few wins that are crucial to turning things around and starting your level of confidence on the upswing.
If you have any more techniques that you would like to share or those which have worked for you. Kindly share them in the comment section below
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