Professional tennis – much like any sport – is a highly competitive realm of top level sportsmen striving to be better than any other player in the world. The same goes for football, golf, and on the less physical side, even snooker, darts, and chess!
Does it strike you as strage that I should draw comparisons between football and chess? Sure it does… so allow me to adapt the statement a little.
Top level competitors strive to outplay every other competitor in the world.
Does that make more sense? If you analyse any sport, you’ll find each player has their own unique technique. To build a picture, let’s look at three modern tennis players, all claimants to the #1 rank in the world at some point in their recent history. First of all, we have Andy Roddick, reliant on his menacing serve. Secondly, Rafa Nadal with his aggressive baseline game. Then there’s Roger Federer with his excellent all-round game. All three players have completely different techniques and styles, yet have all experienced the ultimate status of holding the #1 rank.
This does raise an interesting point. If there’s no “ultimate game style”, then there must be another factor in sports performance. Something that doesn’t directly boil down to the capacity for technique and style. The hidden factor I speak of is morale.
How does Form/Morale work?
Whilst Form and Morale are intrinsically linked, we’re going to focus on morale today. Form is a measure of relative performance over a period of time, where as morale is a measure of mental state and focus. Form can affect morale, and morale can affect form. We will cover this in more detail another time, however for now we will draw on the external factors affecting morale.
Morale is comprised of several influences. Of course fitness plays a part in both form and morale. Without being in peak physical condition an athlete will quickly lose a considerable portion of their performance and a resultant factor would be a dip in form and possibly a dent in confidence (morale). So let’s assume all the participants in this year’s Wimbledon are of similar quality both technically and physically. Someone has to win, and often the winner will be victorious by a resounding result. How could this be? On paper they’re relatively evenly matched.
What we’re left with is mental state (morale). If a player is in peak physical condition and has the “perfect technique”, they are still likely to fall if they’re not in the right frame of mind. You’ve probably observed althletes performing fantastically and completely dominating their opponent, only to suffer a dramatic twist in fate following an interval.
A great example of this is during Wimbledon, the English Tennis Open. Players will spend hours prior to a game getting mentally prepared, running through a whole host of mental techniques to ensure they have the best possible chance of winning. By the time they get on court they’re brimming with confidence. They’re in the zone and ready to take the match by storm. They win the first set 6-2 and the second set 6-1, and then in true English fashion, the rain starts to fall (or if we’re lucky and have good weather like the 2009 Wimbledon Open, darkness may stop the game). They’re cut in their tracks, and head back to the dressing room holding a comfortable two set lead. When the court is ready to resume play, the tables often turn. The leader has time to reflect and is detached from their previous positive state, and nerves may creep in. Conversely, the player chasing the game has time to recompose and gear themselves up for the gargantuan task ahead. It then becomes a battle between nerves and desire. It is at this time when we can see some big upsets.
Examples of morale in action
The 2009 Wimbledon Open has had a good spell of weather, so the only real distrution has been nightfall. However with the weather unusually reliable, we’ve seen more quick and straightforward games than we’d have expected. Here’s a few examples:
17 year old Oudin (124) beat 6th Seed Jankovic
After the game, Jankovicwas critical of Oudin, claiming she lost due to heat exhaustion and “women’s problems”. Regardless of this, Oudin proved headstrong and focussed in defeating Jankovic. Oudin’s streak came to an end on 29th June, just one match away from reaching the quarter finals in her first ever Wimbledon tournament.
5th Seed French Open Champion Kuznetsova defeated by #37 Lisicki
19 year old grass court novice, Sabine Lisicki has been incredibly optimistic and headstrong about her mental game, and it’s truly paid dividends as she defeated 5th Seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 3rd round of the Winbledon Open. After the game, Lisicki commented “It’s a huge win for me because before Wimbledon I had not won a match on grass”.
How does morale affect the game to this extent?
Wimbledon can cause many upsets due to the unpredictable weather conditions. Players get mentally prepared and often have their games affected by stopping for rain. When back on court they often lose their supremacy and concede to a slump in form.
Mental focus and Neural Programming is not only a decision that we make for our life ethos, but also a tools that we can utilise for an immediate and temporaryperformance enhancement. The same is true for almost all facets of our lives. Motivational speakers and performers often use such techniques to enhance their delivery on stage. In football, Liverpool FC’s Anfield Stadium has the slogan “This Is Anfield” at the pitch entrance – a slogan which breeds confidence and passion in the Liverpool players, and in equal measure induces fear and nerves in the opposition every time they walk down the tunnel.
How can I use these techniques?
There’s a popular quote by Henry Ford as follows:
Whether You Believe You Can, Or You Can’t, You Are Right
There’s a whole range of techniques we could use to demonstrate this point. I’ll go into them in quite some detail in a future post. I’m sure you would find them very interesting to try on your friends and colleagues. They can be applied to illustrate the importance of mental focus and positivity in all areas of life. Whatever you’re doing, the same rule applies: If you unconditionally believe that you can achieve something, then you standa much better chance of achieving it.
Naturally, this only applies to things within the realms of reality and your remit. Clearly no matter how hard you tried to believe it, you could not reach the moon just by flapping your arms, nor could you sprint unaided faster than a Formula 1 car.
Where can I learn more?
We will publish a follow up to this post detailing some techniques for you to use to demonstrate morale in action, and also some tips for you to use to carry forward into your daily life. I’m sure that these tips will improve your life and have the capacity to have a resounding impact on your own potential for success.
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Have you got any stories of your success through mental focus? If you have, we’d love you to share them with us below.
