Tennis psychology is nothing more than understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind and gauging the effect of your own game on his/her head and also understanding the psychological effects resulting from the different external causes on your own head.

However, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own psychology. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under various circumstances. This is because you react differently in different moods and under different conditions.

You have to realize the effect on your game of the ensuing annoyance, pleasure, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction takes. Does it improve your prowess? If so, try for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, but if that isn’t possible, strive to ignore it.

After you have properly assessed your own reaction to conditions, study your opponents to determine their temperaments. Like characters react in a like way, and you can judge people of your own kind by yourself. Different characters you must try to liken with those people, whose reactions you are already familiar with.

Someone who can regulate his/her own mental processes runs an excellent chance of reading those of someone else for the mind works along certain lines of thought and can be examined. One can only control one’s own mental processes after carefully studying them.

The steady, unemotional baseline player is rarely a quick thinker. If he was, he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a pretty clear indication of his/her sort of mind. The impassive, easy-going player, who normally displays the baseline strategy, does it because he does not want to activate up his/her torpid mind to think out a reliably safe strategy of reaching the net.

Then there is the other type of baseline player, who would rather remain at the back of the court while directing an attack intending to break up your game. He is a much more dangerous player and a deep, quick thinking antagonist. He obtains his/her results by changing his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variety of his/her game. This player is a good psychologist.

The first type of player mentioned above simply strikes the ball with little idea of what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a definite strategy and adheres to it.

If you are interested in the psychology of tennis, you ought to visit our website called Tennis Tips for Beginners This article, Tennis Psychology (Part 1) is available for free reprint.

I trust that this first foray of mine into the world of literary work will find a place with both novices and experts in the tennis world. I am striving to interest the student of the game by a somewhat prolonged discussion of match play, which I hope will cast a new light on the game of tennis.

I will address the novice in my opening article and write of certain matters which are second nature to the experienced tennis player. The best tennis equipment is not a lot of use for the novice even if he really wants to succeed. Nevertheless, one has to purchase good quality; it is a saving eventually, as high quality goods far outlasts poor quality gear.

It is important to always dress in tennis clothes when engaging in tennis. The question of choosing a tennis racquet is a much more serious matter. I do not advise forcing a certain racquet upon any player. All the standard makes are excellent. It is on the weight, balance, and size of handle that the real value of a racquet frame depends, while good stringing is essential to obtain the best results.

After you have bought your racquet, make a firm resolve to use only good tennis balls, as a regular bounce is a great aid to advancement, while a “dead” ball is no use at all. If you really desire to succeed at the game and advance rapidly, I strongly urge you to see all the good tennis you can. Study the play of the leading players and try to copy their strokes. Read all the tennis instruction books you can get your hands on. They are a great assistance.

It is surprising to many people that more tennis can be learned off the tennis court in the study of theory and in watching the best players in action, than can ever be learned in one’s own actual play. I do not mean that you should miss opportunities to play tennis, far from it. Play tennis whenever you can, but strive when playing to put into practice the theories you have read about or the strokes you have seen.

Do not allow yourself to become discouraged by slow progress. The method of playing some stroke you have worked at over weeks in vain, will suddenly come to you when least expected. Good tennis players are the product of hard work. Very few players are born geniuses at the game. Tennis is a game that pays you interest all your life. A tennis racquet is a letter of introduction in any town.

The fellowship of tennis is universal, for none but a good sportsman can succeed in the game for any lengthy period of time. Tennis provides relaxation, excitement, exercise, and pure enjoyment to the person who is tied hard and fast to his business until late in the afternoon.

The following order of development produces the quickest and most lasting results: 1. Concentration on the game. 2. Keep the eye on the ball. 3. Foot-work and weight-control. 4. Strokes. 5. Court position. 6. Court generalship or match play. 7. Tennis psychology.

Concentration. Tennis is played first with the mind. The most perfect racquet technique invented will not suffice if the playing mind is erring. There are many causes of a wandering mind in a tennis match. The chief one is lack of interest in the game. No one should play tennis with any hope of real success unless he cares sufficiently about the game to be willing to do the spadework necessary to learn the game properly.

Pack it in immediately unless you are willing to work very hard. The weather, conditions of play or the noises in the gallery usually confuse even experienced match-players playing in new surroundings. Utter concentration on the game is the only cure for an erring mind, and the quicker that lesson is learned the more rapid the improvement of the player.

The surest way to keep a game in mind is to play for every set, every game in the set, every point in the game and, finally, every shot in the point. A set is merely a collection of made and missed shots, and the man who misses the least is the final victor.

If you are a beginner tennis player or are interested in tennis psychology, please visit our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.

The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing player is a creature of impulse. There is no real system to his/her game, no understanding of your game. He will make brilliant coups on the spur of the moment, largely by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.

The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her strategy from back to fore court at the command of an ever-alert mind. This/her is the player to study and 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 fighting to the end, with never a thought of change.

This is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to understand, but whose mental standpoint is hard to derail, for he never permits 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 determination of Johnston.

Choose your kind from your own mental pattern, and then plan your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are on the same level concerning stroke, strength and equipment, the deciding factor in any game is the mental standpoint. Luck, as it is called, is often no more than seizing the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own account. People talk a great deal about the “shots we have made.” But few people understand the importance of the “shots we have missed.”

The science of missing shots is just as important 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. Allow me to tell you why. A player forces you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard for it, and having reached it, you drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is surprised and put off his stride, knowing that your shot could 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 strive to play the ball, and may make an error. You have thus taken some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, all because of a miss.

If you had merely popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly 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, because he feels that he has thrown away a big chance.

The psychology involved in 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 poor. The only objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby holding his/her confidence.

If the second player pulls even or draws ahead, the inevitable reaction occurs with an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but coupled with the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The reverse is the case of the other player, who is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The collapse of his game plan soon follows.

If you are into the psychology of tennis, you should take a look at our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.