BHG Articles

Tennis psychology is the same as understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind and assessing the effect of your own strategy on his/her head and also understanding the psychological effects resulting from the various external causes on your own head.

However, it is true that you cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.

You must understand the effect on your game of the resulting annoyance, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction takes. Does it improve your prowess? If so, strive for it, but never give it to your opponent. Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible, strive to ignore it.

Once you have correctly assessed your own reaction to conditions, observe your opponents in order to determine their temperaments. Like temperaments react similarly, and you can judge men of your own kind by yourself. Other characters you must seek to liken with people whose reactions you already know.

Someone who can control his/her own mental processes stands an great chance of reading those of someone else for the minds works along definite lines of thought and can be examined. One may only regulate one’s own thought processes after examining them meticulously.

A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is rarely a quick thinker. If he was he would not adhere to the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a pretty clear indication of his/her kind of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe strategy of reaching the net.

Then there is the other kind of baseline player, who would prefer to remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intended to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.

The first kind of tennis player mentioned above simply hits the ball without much idea of what he is really doing, while the latter always has a definite plan and adheres to it.