Sports psychology

Valery · Social player

Sports psychology

Ratty · County player

Oh dear, here we go again.

Actually I don't feel guilty about arguing with you all the time, because I think it's slightly against the spirit of the message board, to use it to relentlessly promote your blog.

But anyway - I think that the singularly woolly statement "Points tend to be won and lost in streaks" is a load of tosh.

What evidence do you have for it?

Valery · Social player

How you can see there is a link to an excerpt from Allen Fox's book, not from mine :) Then he explains why he thinks this way.
My experience writing my own tennis blogs for many years (in Russian) shows that sometime it is good to post information from a knowledgeable specialist. You can't believe but I often meet tennis parents who have no idea what sports psychology is about and how it can help to a tennis player. Or why eating a steak for two hours before competition is a very bad idea which leads to loosing a match, and so on.

I try to use simple language to write about all this tennis stuff and hope that users find my information useful. So my English is not perfect :)

-- Edited by Valery on Thursday 17th of May 2012 04:27:37 AM

freerider · Futures level

knowledgeable experts are not always right, evidence can be greatly misinterpreted. I would not write a blog on the holocaust based on David Irving's opinion and 'evidence' alone (bit of an extreme example I know), a range of different opinions should be assessed and integrated if you want your blog to have any peer reviewed credibility.

Valery · Social player

I entirely agree with you. Nobody knows everything.

indiana · Tennis legend

Has there been any serious statistical study of winning points in streaks as against expectation ?

i.e. rather than theorise ( albeit even with regard to respected psychological sources ) what is the practical evidence ?

I'm not particularly challenging the theory as such ( indeed I must admit I have not at the moment read further than this thread ), because although maybe seen by some as "woolly" I would certainly not dismiss that players gain confidence and lose confidence as they win and lose points, maybe varying through different levels ( another thing that could be statistically looked at ). It seems intuitively quite likely, certainly with some players.

But it is quite possible to statistically investigate this based on probability, i.e. see if the facts back up theory. And if not, the theory would on the face of it be busted. If so, the theory woukld indeed seem a very possible explanation.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 18th of May 2012 09:37:25 PM

Valery · Social player

I think that it is a good idea for tennis players and tennis coaches to read good books from time to time. So I decide to posted some interesting thoughts from the book Maximum Tennis by Nick Saviano on my blog with the kind permission of the author. There is the secret 1 of the tennis champions.
Focus on only those things that you can control and disregard the rest.
This is the first and most important concept, and it must be the foundation from which to build your psychological approach to competition. If you can grasp and apply it, it will help you to free you psychologically to play the best tennis you are capable of.
Great athletes mention this concept all the time. Sometime they say it in fewer words, yet we often dont seem to hear them. Monica Seles (who I felt was one of the greatest competitors I had ever seen in any sport before her unfortunate attack by a crazed fan) said it before the 2000 French Open: "I truly will try to worry about things I can control and not worry about stuff thats really outside my control. Andre Agassi was quoted by USA Today before a tournament as saying If I come in here physically ready and hungry, then Im giving myself the best shot to win here. And perhaps John Wooden, the great basketball coach at UCLA, said it best: "The more concerned we become over the things we cant control. The less we will do with the things we can control.
If someone interested in reading more, you can find it on my blog.