10 Ways to Build Confidence on the Court
I don’t need to sell anyone on the importance of confidence in tennis. Simply put, it’s an absolute must because it separates the good from the great, and the elite from everyone else. Our 1-1 mindset program is all about practical tennis-specific exercises players can do to improve their mindset. Here are 10 practical ways to build confidence:
- Make a list of all the times you have succeeded on the court (i.e. best wins, practices, etc.). Confidence is all about what you focus on, so start focusing on all your successes. Tennis players are often critical of themselves, but it’s really important to focus on their success lists. The physical list will help you recognize all the times you’ve succeeded, hit new milestones, or exceeded expectations. It will help you remember that you are a talented athlete, especially during uncertain or unfamiliar situations.
- Make a list of elite players who have the same technique or game style as you. If your favorite elite player serves like you or has the same forehand swing as you, then you know you’re doing it the right way. You won’t doubt your techniques if you recognize it’s the right way to execute your skills.
- Improve your body language before games and practices. Find out what confidence looks like to you (everyone is different) and use that body language before and during practices and matches. Keep your head held high with a focused look on your face and, as a result, you will look more confident while feeling more confident. Make sure you have consistent serve and return routines!
- Create a Confidence Anchor. This is more a psychological tip to help you feel more confident. When you feel confident or win a point, do some physical gesture (i.e. hand clap, pump fist, etc.). Then, before a point, do your gesture to act like a prompt and remind you of all the times you’ve succeeded. This good old fashioned classical conditioning will help you feel more confident.
- Visualize yourself succeeding. Create a vivid image in your head by using all 5 senses and imagine lots of details. Don’t just visualize winning – visualize the whole process of the match like warming-up, spinning for serve, serving, swinging aggressively on your groundstrokes, moving quickly and efficiently, etc. Visualize all these things in a positive way and it’ll help you succeed in your matches. You can use this tool throughout your life to visualize success in other aspects of your life as well!
- Make a list of your best qualities. This list should include all your best qualities in tennis, school, and life in general. Seeing all your best qualities and positive contributions will help you realize your worth as a tennis player, student, and person.
- Pray and read Scripture. This should be number one because it will help you in every area of your life. Confident people know what they believe in. Your growing confidence is correlated with your growing faith.
- Make a small goal every day that you can accomplish. Make an attainable goal every day and put all your efforts into achieving that goal. When you consistently achieve your smaller goals, you will feel more confident setting and accomplishing a larger, long-term goal in the future. Successfully achieving the smaller goals will help you achieve your long-term goal.
Example: Do on-court sprints each day. Have a friend or teammate time you in various change-of-direction sprints and try to beat your times.
- Create a highlight real of yourself. Use this video and include all your best moments like best aces, most difficult wins, exciting match points, etc. If you don’t have them on video, use your visualization technique. When you watch the highlight video back, you’ll realize how talented you are and you’ll feel more confident in your abilities. You’ll be able to see yourself executing the correct techniques and dominating matches.
- Do something better than anyone you will play. Try to do one thing – like a small skill or technique – better than anyone else you compete with. Put all your effort into mastering this skill and you’ll definitely feel more confident in this skill in particular. Overall, you’ll feel more confident because you’ll have an “edge” on everyone else. This is essential because it’s difficult to master every skill needed in tennis – but mastering one of the skills will help you!
An example here would be to develop a really solid spin second serve using either topspin or slice. Many players have very weak second serves. You don’t need a partner to put the extra time into practicing your serve. You will have a reliable spin serve when the pressure is on!
*** 11. Do something other people aren’t doing. Whether it’s running, starting a nutrition program, going to bed early every night, daily mindset training, etc. When you are doing things that others aren’t willing to do consistently you will undoubtedly build confidence.