What does it mean to believe in yourself? When you believe in yourself, you have complete confidence in your physical skills and the ability to take shots in tennis. My definition of confidence for Tennis is how strongly you believe in your ability to execute successful shots or win matches. Don’t confuse believe in yourself (self-confidence) with self-esteem. Self-esteem is all about how you see yourself and how you value your self-concept (how you see yourself), it is also called self-worth.
How To Improve Self-Confidence In Tennis
Self-confidence stems from the baseline of past success in match, practice, preparation, and the mentally strong game of tennis. For example, an early tennis player has little or no confidence in his or her ability to perform services in tennis. But with practice, he became competent in service skills. By increasing competence or expertise in mastery of skills. You can also gain confidence from the belief that you are physically gifted, which reflects the definition of belief.
When working with my personal coaching students, I discuss two different types or levels of belief. The first is a general or broad belief in your abilities as a tennis player – the feeling that you can win or do well. The second type of belief is a certain belief in your ability to nail a successful overhead or hit a winning serve. Both broad and specific beliefs are equally important and they influence each other.
In more than 20 years as a mental game coach, I have come to learn that many athletes have “practiced confidence,” which comes from working hard at practice to develop your skills. However, these same athletes do not necessarily transfer confidence from practice to match play. They lack what I call a “confidence tournament,” for many reasons. A match or tournament of confidence is very important to your success in the match.
Tennis Confidence Report
It seems irrational that you can gain a high level of confidence in your practice, but it can’t transfer that confidence to a tournament. Most of the time, this problem is due to mental games getting in the way and how you practice, which I’ll cover in another article.
One reader recently asked this tennis psychology question: “What’s a Checklist to Get Confidence Before a Tough Match? However, I’m going to give you the top four strategies every player should implement:
- Check your expectations on the parking lot. I believe that expectations (the demands you place on your play) are dangerous to high self-esteem. You want to believe in your skills and practice, but without demanding how the match should go.
- Review the reasons why you deserve to do well before each match. You may default to your practice, your experience, or your superior talent.
- Prepare five positive self-talk statements that you can use between points when you need a confidence lift. This statement can be as simple as “I deserved to do well today.”
- Cut last minute doubts. Doubt is the opposite of belief. When you engage in doubt and allow for the Pasundan in your mind, you confidently suffer. Acknowledge any pre-match doubts you have and practice upholding your own doubts.
