There are just a few minutes left before the game starts and your heart is beating out of your chest. If you are a professional, it has surely happened to you before, but don’t worry because we have the solution. Specifically, four possible solutions to avoid anxiety.
Since this community is so read and understood, there is no need to repeat the jewel that it represents.Winning Ugly‘, the masterpiece of Brad Gilbert where he recounts, through his experience on the circuit, some of the keys that helped him rub shoulders with the elite despite not having the same talent as his contemporaries. A document from which we can extract numerous lessons, such as the one we will present today in the form of an article.
How to avoid nerves in the moments before a game? To a greater or lesser extent, we have all experienced this situation, a reality that young professional tennis players suffer more than veterans, although it is not a question of age. Gilbert also had to cross that bridge and that is why he later dedicated himself to helping others cross that same abyss. Below we review the chapter in his book where he lists four tricks to follow to avoid drowning in anxiety minutes before setting foot on the court.
1. BREATHE AS IF YOU HAVE ASTHMA
When you get nervous, your breathing pattern changes. This is the first thing you should check. Your breathing tells you the level of anxiety. And most importantly, your breathing can help you control your anxiety. When you are nervous, you breathe short, shallow, and fast. That’s exactly how you feel, more excited and a little out of sync. When this happens, control your breathing, breathe softly, rhythmically and deeply. You can start even before entering the court, before a really tense match make sure you breathe correctly: deep, smooth and rhythmic. As if you have asthma, that will help you reduce nervousness.
Footwork is the most important part of tennis, it is everything. Nerves can destroy you, as good footwork will always get you into the right position on time. If you arrive on time, you have a better chance of winning the point. If you have bad footwork and you are late to the ball, or you are not in the best position, the options decrease, your timing decreases. Your balance, power and consistency decrease. The pre-match tension can completely destroy your footwork, causing your feet to stick to the court as if the soles had Velcro. Nerves make you stop moving, your legs become slow, short and light steps become long and big steps. Consequently, the blows are bad. This is how your confidence evaporates because you are hitting at the wrong time, although the problem begins with your footwork.
How to solve it? Thinking about the toes. If you stand on your tiptoes, you will take light, quick, short steps. Your heels will only serve to dig into you and carry the load. Nerves cause you to stay rooted for too long, so think like you’re a ballet star: stand on your tiptoes. Order yourself to continually move your feet, jump all the time, stay light. That will help you get out of nervousness. When you feel good and confident is when you move more naturally and fluidly. The player who is tense, scared and bound by tension ends up being exhausted. To combat this tendency to freeze, it is best to remind yourself to stand on your tiptoes and be light on your feet. Above all, remember in the warm-up and at pressure points, seeing yourself active will also affect the opponent’s mind.
Another little trick to combat nerves. According to Gilbert, in moments of tension during warm-ups, he would rely on reading the marking of the ball when it came toward him, whether it was Wilson, Penn or Slazenger. Trying to see that writing helps your eyes follow the ball and at the same time takes your mind off your nerves and focuses on something else. At first, you probably won’t see anything. As the minutes go by, your eyes will improve, the important thing is that your mind is distracted, that it puts the problem aside. The nerves are no longer what occupies your head, but the mark of the ball.
Although it may sound a little strange, this point also helped Brad on more than one occasion to distract himself from his nerves. Something as simple as singing quietly during the beginning of the warm-up. Think of a song, focus on the lyrics and try to stay calm, complete this simple task to get started. Believe it or not, this little trick works.
IN SEARCH OF ‘IN THE AREA’
Known as ‘The Zone‘, we are faced with one of the basic concepts of the professional athlete. What does it mean to be in ‘the zone’? We would define it as that state where the player reaches such an extraordinary level that it seems as if he is possessed, intoxicated, driven by a deep trauma that prevents him from making mistakes or failing. There are examples every week in the tennis players who occupy the top 15 in the world, days in which they reflect having absolutely all the factors tied up. You just have to watch them a couple of games to know that they won’t lose that afternoon. Even they themselves know it, they are aware of the absence of pressure that makes them flow like clockwork. It happened to Pete Sampras with Andre Agassi in the 1990 US Open final. That day, no one on the planet would have beaten ‘Pistol’. He passed to Michael Stich with Boris Becker at Wimbledon 1991. Boris could have stayed home that afternoon, his rival was invincible. For the millenialsRemember the final of Roland Garros 2008 or the Australian Open 2019. Simply, finals devoid of emotion.
Gilbert remembers the moment in his career when the spirit of Roger Federer, during the summer of 1989. After finishing in Washington, the American chained titles in Stratton Mountain, Livingston and Cincinnati. He arrived at the US Open like a shot, but food poisoning reduced his chances in the first round, although that is another matter. history. Bad luck, that ended a 17-0 streak for Brad. All tennis players have been in ‘the zone’ at some point, although it is not the most common, in fact, mortal athletes will admit to experiencing that sensation no more than 3-4 times per season. What they all share is the essential requirement to achieve it: jump onto the court calmly and leave your nerves outside. Now that you know the manual, you already know the steps to follow.
2024-01-11 15:30:13
#avoid #pregame #jitters #Brad #Gilbert
