| It is well known that to be a great tennis | | | | Finally, now you have your plan, start |
| player you have to use your mental as well as | | | | working towards achieving it. |
| your physical skills. | | | | |
| | | | SMART Goals |
| These tennis mental skills are as vital in | | | | |
| terms of your tennis training as hitting | | | | The best way to make goals more powerful is |
| forehands and backhands. | | | | to use the SMART mnemonic. |
| | | | |
| Let's be honest, the more successful players | | | | SMART stands for: |
| are mentally tougher than the others! | | | | |
| | | | S Specific (e.g. I want to improve my tennis |
| Is it a fluke that Federer and Sampras have | | | | rating from 6.2 to 5.2 NOT I want to improve |
| so many titles and Safin so few for a player | | | | my tennis. |
| of his ability? | | | | |
| | | | M Measurable (you must be able to measure |
| What do people mean when they say Nadal is so | | | | exactly whether you are reaching your targets |
| mentally tough? | | | | or not. |
| | | | |
| Can your mind game get you through matches? | | | | A Attainable (can you eally win all 4 Grand |
| | | | Slams this year?) |
| Is your mental approach more important than | | | | |
| than your technique? | | | | R Relevant (e.g. improving your 1st serve % |
| | | | WILL help your game but mowing the lawn on a |
| One of the most powerful tennis psychology | | | | regular basis wil not!) |
| skills is that of goal setting. | | | | |
| | | | T Time-bound (Give yourself an exact date to |
| Goal setting is a powerful way to turn your | | | | do things by as this will stop you wasting |
| tennis vision of the future into reality. By | | | | time!) |
| knowing exactly what you want to achieve you | | | | |
| will be able to concentrate all of your | | | | PLEASE NOTE - As you make progress please |
| efforts in the right directions as well as | | | | don't react wrongly to any goals that you |
| being able to quickly spot any distractions | | | | don't achieve. |
| that may pop up. | | | | |
| | | | These are NOT failures! |
| Also, you will find that well-set goals are | | | | |
| very motivating. | | | | Because everything you do provides you with |
| | | | valuable feedback, you just have to learn to |
| Your self-confidence will explode as you | | | | use this feedback you get to re-align your |
| start setting and achieving goals and get | | | | goals as necessary. You really need to |
| nearer to your overall target. | | | | realise that this is a normal process that |
| | | | you must follow. |
| How To Do Goalsetting | | | | |
| | | | By using the above system to set your goals |
| First create your "big picture" of what you | | | | followed by regularly checking progress and |
| want to do with your tennis. | | | | making any adjustments necessary you will |
| | | | find yourself hitting your tennis targets and |
| Second, break these down into smaller and | | | | your tennis goals on a regular basis - NO |
| smaller chunks that become weekly goals. | | | | QUESTION! |
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