PSYCHOLOGY

A player’s state of mind is one of the most decisive factors to their performance in competition. Evidence from studies consistently shows that elite players are often the most psychologically strong subjects amongst the experimental group. Rather than feeling anxiety, elite players embrace each match with excitement or determination. Top elite players also tend to have elevated self-confidence, attention control and motivation during training and competition. Undergoing a personal psychological profiling process would benefit tennis players, as they would identify specific psychological skills that they need to refine. As well, as psychologists deem psychological skills as skills that need to be learned and practiced, educating junior tennis players would greatly benefit their performance as they grow older.

[Objectives of Psychological Training]
[Performance Profiling]
[Junior Development]

OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAINING

The reality of the human mind is that an individual only has a limited capacity to store or process information at a time. Therefore, when a tennis player fills his or her mind with negative thoughts, they are distracting themselves from performing to their full ability (figure 4). It can, thus, be concluded that in order for a tennis player to perform to their full potential, they must rid their mind of negative thoughts and only envision themselves succeeding. Through clearing the mind, a tennis player can, then, process information from the tennis match with greater spontaneity. From this philosophy of psychological strength, psychologists have concluded that the two major objectives of psychological training are awareness and control. Awareness is being able to recognize an appropriate response to situations. Control is the ability to change in accordance to the awareness process. Through the development of these two abilities, a tennis player will be able to respond to the fast-paced competition in a more positive and effective manner.

Figure 4; Thrown Racquet
In the heat of competition, tennis players have a higher probability of getting carried away with their anger. It is not uncommon to see frustrated tennis players breaking their racquets on the ground during the match. achieving the objectives of psychological training, awareness and control, a tennis player will more likely be able to contain their emotions in order to clear their mind of negative thoughts and better concentrate their mind on the match itself.

PERFORMANCE PROFILING

Many sports psychologists have devised ways of profiling athletes’ psychological being. G. Jones had published a method of psychological profiling that involve quantitative values to better assist the athlete’s awareness of the degree at which they need to improve in several psychological skills. The following are the steps to G. Jones’ method of psychological profiling. (Hughes et al., 1995)

1. In a list, identify psychological skills that you believe have some relation to performance.
2. Rate the importance of these skills on a scale of 1-10, 1 being not important and 10 being the very important.
3. Beside this, rate your competence in each skill on a scale of 1-10, 1 being bad and 10 being excellent.
4. Beside this, write down your goal of the extent of competence that you would like to accomplish on the same scale of 1-10.
5. Subtract your rating of competence (from step 3) from your goal of competence (from step 4) for each skill.
6. Multiply each number (from step 5) by the rating of importance of each skill (from step 2).

The completion of this self-analysis will assist psychologists to diagnose for the skills that need to be refined. The intent of involving the athlete is meant to increase the athlete’s motivation to monitor progress and make necessary changes. The interactive page of this website includes an interactive version of this assessment.

JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT

In an attempt to educate junior tennis players in regards to psychological development, the Rover L.T.A. School of Bisham launched a five-step psychological development program in 1987 for junior tennis players. The five steps include: assessment, education, implementation, problem solving and evaluation. The following outlines the components of the program.

1. Assessment- Junior tennis players take psychometric tests, are paid personal interviews, take self-assessments and observe their own psychological reactions from videos of themselves playing tennis. Psychometrics deals with the testing of the psychological being of individuals. Tests that the junior players take may include the Tennis Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style, Eysenck Personality Inventory and Movement Imagery Questionnaire. Self-assessments and self-observation are meant to motivate the individual to make necessary changes to improve their psychological being.
2. Education- Skills are taught at weekly lessons in groups of six to twelve junior tennis players. During these lessons, relaxation, stress management, attention control, body language and motivational skills are taught. The players monitory their own progress and report their progress to the appropriate personnel monthly.
3. Implementation- The learned skills are applied to competition. There are simulations of unfavourable situations typical in a competition to assist players.
4. Problem Solving- Players attend individual counseling at a monthly basis.
5. Evaluation- At a yearly basis, the program is evaluated. This is done through examination of objective data from psychological assessments administered by the psychologist, player reflection upon the usefulness of the program and the coach’s insights on the program. If the coach feels that the program does not benefit their pupil, they may request to withdraw their pupil from the program.