The Value of Tennis Rituals in Serving

Rituals are automatic responses to a situation. In life we have rituals for getting up, driving our cars, eating and sleeping. In tennis we have rituals as well when we serve that help us to operate on an “automatic” or non-thinking level.

The value of rituals in serving are many, here are 7:

1. They remind us of sequences to performance
2. They create a comfort zone for us
3. They help prevent us from forgetting steps that can influence our success
4. They assist us in performing on an automatic level under pressure
5. They can calm us under pressure
6. They can prevent us from rushing during a match
7. They can assist in defeating the “Mental Monsters” of success and failure

Rituals are habits that we develop consciously or unconsciously. Depending upon situations and perceived results, they can become superstitions.

When they approach the superstition level we feel we need them to be successful. Tennis players will not shave during a tournament as long as they are winning, they will eat the same meal as long as they are winning, wear the same clothes, play with the same racquet, wear the same shoes, stay in certain rooms, avoid stepping on lines or certain parts of the court.

We have all seen Djokovich as he demonstrates some rituals of top level players. They can become quite unusual and almost funny when we see some of the steps people perform to ensure their success. I will bet you have seen some funny rituals in the players you have met as well.

Players rituals are mostly routines that they have been coached to follow or discovered on our own to provide a feeling of familiarity and consistency in their preparation for performance.

What are some of your rituals you use when you serve?

Related Posts

• Ken's Schedule for the Week of Feb 13-20 I will be in Hilton Head Is, SC participating in the PTR (Professional Tennis Registry) National Championships. All Adult and Junior Clinics are still on the week of the 15-20th either with Rudy, Jesse or Reno. I will be attending continuing education courses and on Sunday I will be awarded......
• What to do when things go bad? My forehand/backhand keeps missing wide? Select a target rather than just cross court. Select a safer target 2-3 feet inside the lines. Keep you eyes still until you see the blur of your racquet go past your eyes - looking up re-directs your shot. Align your feet to get......
• 4 Stages of Learning [/caption] Get the Competitive Edge with Ken DeHart Learning a new skill can be quite challenging.  There are 4 basic stages we often encounter to take a new skill from unawareness to an unconscious performance level. Stage 1 Unconsciously Incompetent – I didn't know I needed to know that or......
• How to Keep a Tennis New Year Resolution.... New Year's Resolutions are like a road map for success in tennis, business and life. Resolutions are challenging to keep - everyone seems to say. So is the pursuit of our dreams and ambitions in the face of living day to day. What is important is to make our day......
• Present Yourself for the Win - Posture and Attitude Whenever we enter into a competition, our greatest opponent can be ourselves. We will misguide ourselves into thinking we are doing something we aren't. For many, when faced with the realization that this is happening, will bridge the gap and improve greatly as an athlete and player. The one thing......

Related Websites

• Wii Tennis Tips And Thoughts on Two Weeks of Wii I had previously mentioned that we got a Nintendo Wii. I have two weeks of playing time in and I have to say that it is a winner when compared to watching television. In fact, I'd take the extra step and say it might be equal to an aerobic exercise......
• 6 Tennis Tips and Tricks Tennis tips and tricks are like small tweaks that you can make to your game in order to improve your play. If you are looking for a way to improve your capabilities as a tennis player, consider these tennis tips and tricks and then move on to look at other......
• Additional Tennis Serving Tips Here are some helpful tennis tips that will give you some perspective on improving your serve. Remember that different tennis tips are going to help different players in unique ways. The true key is going to lie in your ability to try out different tips and techniques until you......
• Top Tennis Tips from the Pros in Tennis The first thing that you are going to want to understand is that pro players are on a completely different level of playing in comparison to amateur players. Still, this is absolutely no reason for you not to look at pro players and take advice from them on how they......
• Top Ten Tips for Guiding a Successful IP Telephony Implementation Top Ten Tips for Guiding a Successful IP Telephony Implementation Often when an organization considers change that will impact every employee— such as an enterprise-wide IP telephony implementation—the process tends to focus on hardware, software, and getting the technology up to speed as quickly as possible. However, a company’s infrastructure......

This post involves:

automatic responses, cars, clothes, comfort zone, consistency, djokovich, familiarity, match, monsters, rituals, sequences, shoes, success and failure, superstition, superstitions, tennis players

... and focuses on:

Tennis Tips

Posted by Ken DeHart on April 9, 2009 in Tennis Tips. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.