The Mental Game

My last tournament before my knee operation (my next post) was the Bundaberg Open a few weeks ago. It’s quite a big tournament with a good history – back when it was the QLD Claycourt Title I lost in the final to Scott Draper, almost 20 years ago. My goal for the tournament was, no matter what, to keep a calm mind and play aggressively.

I failed.

Second round I was up against a dangerous floater, a cocky kid you don’t want to lose to but easily can. I won the first set 6-1 and knew if I got up an early break in the second I’d be off the court holding the balls in 20 minutes. Instead of taking my chances I tightened up, and then got down on myself for doing it. My goal had gone down the toilet and it was only 11 am on the first day. I lost the second set 6-3, and although I’ve got a pretty good 3-set record this one went his way, 6-4.

I was mightily peed off.

That night, instead of sleeping, I thought about where I went wrong. I listed some mental qualities you need to be successful and came up with two categories.

There are the emotional ones – calmness, looseness, focus, awareness (of self and opponent), a clear head under pressure.

Then there are the qualities that derive from self-talk – the constant chatter in your head between, and sometimes during, points. Self-talk affects enthusiasm, determination, motivation, positivity, and a never-say-die attitude. Self-talk can also affect physical qualities such as energy levels.

When you've got emotional control and positive self-talk and body language you can  sometimes find the most important quality of all - confidence.

But here’s the thing – emotions are tough babies to control. There are things you can do: diaphragmic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visualisation, meditation (best not done during the match!). But your subconscious mind can make your body tense up when you least expect it. If you’ve spoken in public you’ll know this feeling well – you’ll be doing fine and then a squash ball will start to bounce around in your throat for no particular reason. Or maybe there is a reason – like a TV camera pointing your way or a kid poking a tongue at you.

But what became clear to me at 2 am was this, when the nerves hit, you only collapse in a heap when your self-talk turns on you.

‘I can’t hit a forehand.’

'I always miss the return on break point.’

‘I don’t deserve to win.’

When you think about it, self-talk and body language are within your control. They're choices you make over and over again. Whether you’re winning or losing 6-0, 5-0 you can choose to say, ‘Quality serve next point’, ‘Attack his backhand’ or ‘Fight hard’ before every point. You can skip on your toes before you return serve, turn away from your errors and walk confidently to the other side, convince yourself a good shot will come from your racket next point.

For the doubles event, I changed my attitude. I didn’t worry about getting tight, I focussed on being positive. Things didn’t always go our way and we were two points from losing the semi-final, but somehow we were able to pull out the important points when we needed to. Josh Barrenchea and I beat a couple of young guns in the final, the ATP ranked Mark Richards and Andrew McLeod, 6-3 7-5. I faced three break points at 5-5 and hit three big first serves – unusual for me. Was it the positive attitude or just dumb luck? Who knows.

It’s too early to tell whether this will work in the future, but I’ll be trying it out. You won’t see this old bloke yelling at himself in frustration ever again. Well, not  too often, anyway.