Tennis Psychology (Part 2)
The fast, erratic, net-rushing tennis-player is a person of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her game, no comprehension of your game-plan. He will make brilliant rallies on the spur of the moment, largely by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.
The most dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the command of an ever-active mind. This/her is the player to learn from. He is a player with a definite intention. A player who has an answer to every query you present him in your game. He is the most subtle antagonist in the world of tennis. He is of the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the bitter end, with no thought of changing his gameplan.
He is the player whose psychology is rather easy to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never allows himself to think of anything except the business at hand. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the mental capacity of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.
Choose your type from your own mental processes, and then work out your game along the lines best suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is often grasping the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”
The psychology of missing shots is just as vital as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Let me tell you why. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you smash it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is shocked and put off his stride, realizing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will attempt to play the ball, and may make an error. You have thus stolen some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, just because of a miss.
If you had just popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt even more confident of your inability to get the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded for no reason.
Let’s just say that you made the shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible get. First it amounts to TWO points in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one you ought never to have had. Second it also upsets your opponent, as he feels that he has thrown away a big chance.
The psychology of a tennis match is very interesting, but readily understood. Both men start with equal chances. Once one player establishes a real lead, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental standpoint becomes weaker. The sole aim of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thus maintaining his/her confidence.
If the second player draws even or pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even more drastic contrast in psychology of the players. First, there is the natural confidence of the leader of the game, but it is coupled with the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a likely victory. The situation of the other player is the reverse. He is likely to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan soon follows.
