Tennis Mindset

The aim isn't to make a player emotionless. Nerves, frustration and excitement are normal parts of competitive tennis. I want players to understand those feelings and learn how to experience them without letting them decide what happens next.

Mental skills are part of playing tennis. Every player experiences frustration, nerves, doubt and pressure; those things happen to everyone. What actually varies from player to player is what happens next, and that response is what Tennis Mindset is built around.

I work with players on the mental side of their tennis in the same practical way we'd work on technique or tactics. We identify what happens to them in difficult situations, understand the patterns, and then work on better ways of responding. A player may become frustrated after a missed shot and carry that frustration into the next few points. Another may become nervous when serving for a set. Someone else may start playing too safely once the score gets tight. These aren't simply personality traits; they're things we can work on.

Recognise → Reset → Refocus → Commit → Learn

The process follows five steps: recognise, reset, refocus, commit, learn. Recognise what's happening, what you're feeling, thinking or doing. Reset by letting the previous point go and regaining control. Refocus on what matters now and where your attention should go. Commit to the decision and play the shot without hesitation. Learn what you can take from the situation without getting stuck in it. The aim isn't to make a player emotionless; nerves, frustration and excitement are normal parts of competitive tennis, and I want players to understand those feelings and learn how to experience them without letting them decide what happens next.

Confidence and Concentration

Confidence is an important part of the work, and I don't believe it comes from simply telling yourself you're good enough. A player becomes more confident when they have real evidence that they can handle difficult situations, so we create those situations deliberately: practising when the score matters, introducing consequences, putting players into uncomfortable moments where they learn to stay with the process. Over time, a player starts to think: I've been here before, I know what to do. That's a far more useful form of confidence than reassurance alone.

Concentration works the same way. Players don't need to concentrate intensely for an entire match; what they need is to know when to focus and when to let go. We work on between-point routines, changeovers, refocusing after distractions and bringing attention back to the next task. The crowd, weather, opponent, umpire, score and previous points will all sometimes demand attention, and the player learns how to acknowledge what's happening and then return to the tennis in front of them.

Handling Pressure and Difficult Moments

Some of the most useful mental work happens when things aren't going well: a player is losing, has missed several easy balls, the opponent is playing better than expected, the score is getting away from them. This is where habits become visible. Instead of trying to eliminate every negative thought, we work on what happens next: can the player reset, identify what matters, make a clear decision, and commit to the next point. The objective isn't to control everything that happens in a match. It's to get better at responding to it.

That work continues after the match finishes. We look at difficult matches and ask what actually happened: did the player panic, become negative, stop following their plan, or become too focused on winning? Or perhaps they handled the situation well and simply lost to a better player, a distinction that matters a great deal. The purpose of reflection is to understand the player better, not to criticise them.

Building Independence

Ultimately, I want the player to become less dependent on the coach during difficult moments. I can't step onto court at 4-4 in the deciding set; the player has to recognise what's happening and know how to respond themselves. That takes time, and the goal throughout is to build routines and habits the player can use independently, in training and in competition.

The aim isn't to create a player who never gets nervous, frustrated or doubtful. It's to develop a player who can recognise what's happening, regain control, make clear decisions and keep competing when the match becomes difficult. Better control, better decisions, better tennis under pressure.