The process of improving your tennis game and ability to win matches depends largely on cultivating discipline. Although it's one thing to learn the fundamentals of strokes and strategy, consistent devotion to a regimen of practice, diet, workout and sound sleep habits pays dividends that can make the difference between winning and losing.
Defining Discipline for Tennis
Sports psychologist John F. Murray identifies discipline as it applies to tennis as acting in a consistent manner on a regular basis, despite situational changes or feelings. He concedes that discipline may not be glamorous or exciting, but that it plays an important role in preparation. Among other benefits, discipline helps you to reduce distractions by attending to the right things at the right time.
Practice and Play
Murray also points out that organization and discipline in a tennis player serve to provide the structure necessary to realize strengths and make the most of them in critical situations. The discipline to maintain constant effort during practice insures that skills will be reliable once it comes time for a match. The match itself demands players to be in control of emotions and focused on the point at hand -- never holding onto the past or thinking about what's to come.
Dietary Discipline
USPTA Master Professional Jim Loehr describes diet as a part of discipline for tennis players that many might not connect to a player's success or failure. Inadequate blood glucose levels, however, cannot feed the cells of the brain sufficiently to get them to operate optimally. Loehr points to crucial moments in the heat of the match where such deficiencies can cost a player the ability to properly execute a shot as a strong reason to exercise discipline when it comes to what you put in your body.
Sleep Habits
Similarly, Loehr identifies sleep habits as an area where you must apply discipline to maintain a consistent pattern of rest. He describes sleep as a recovery mechanism that allows you operate with precision and patience on the court, maintaining focus through the ups and downs of a match. Like dietary issues, you won't necessarily be able to directly tie the effects of poor sleep or diet to a missed shot or defeat in a match. But Loehr insists that these shortcomings will ultimately result in problems on court.
Member Comments