

Playing in the "zone." This is the very highest personal level of stroke production. Three generally accepted levels of tennis performance are: 1.
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We're sure you could come up with many local examples of tennis opponents that, for some mysterious reason, know how to bring out your worst game! To better understand this psychologically damaging situation, let's examine the typical player performance conventions of match play.

These "tantrums," some of which are legendary, have, at least in the early stages of his ATP career, frequently distracted his opponents stroke rhythm to the extent that the game and ultimately the match dynamics were altered to McEnroe's competitive advantage. John McEnroe has been known to lose his temper in close matches on occasion. Her perspective being that if things aren't going right, change the pattern. This is allowed by WTA rules and she has every right to such an interruption. In the unusual case of discovering a scoring deficiency, and particularly being one set down, she will invariably call for a bathroom break. Possessing every shot in the game, Martina will routinely alter the flow and stroke emphasis of her matches. Martina Hingis is a good example of competitive strategic persistence. Why is it that some players just seem to have our number? The competitor hits out all of the time when we prefer a slice and dice kind of exchange. However, all of us have, at one time or another, identified a competitive nemesis - they play serve and volley when we prefer baseline. The majority of experienced tennis players rarely succumb to the initial effort of clever opponents to crawl inside their heads. It is how you choose to respond to these strategic subtleties that results in a successful response or a stroke failure, aka VMC! The aforementioned examples don't necessarily cause a mind cramp and thus they may or may not be voodoo laden. Examples are numerous and include: a baseliner going to serve and volley a baseline top-spin game suddenly including generous slice an aggressive-minded opponent suddenly offering you a steady stream of moon balls, etc. How many times have you found yourself deep into a set and you suddenly (for no apparent reason) realize you have yet to double-fault in the current set? Once you have interrupted your tennis service focus with this side thought - a "voodoo-like" mind cramp occurs and the double-faults proliferate! In this situation, you have met the enemy of tennis success, yourself!Īnother example of flirting with VMC comes when your clever and ever-resourceful opponent alters his playing style. VMC is debilitating and will hinder your tennis result, be it "internally generated" or exported to your end of the court from a cunning competitor. This article explores some of the various aspects of this irritating and ever-present phenomenon and provides a remedy for reacting to it.

Similar strategic skills are evident in the ATP, WTA, ATA, ITF, Challenger, USTA and playground matches around the world. This inspired or desperate action by Chang exemplifies the innate power of a peculiar mental malaise we shall refer to as "Voodoo Mind Cramp" or VMC. Chang eventually became the first American French Open singles champion since Tony Trabert. The unorthodox serve fractured Lendl's composure causing a string of unforced errors.

Tennis fans agree that this was a crucial moment in that great match - a moment where Chang, on the verge of cramping from exhaustion, pulled out one last, desperate mental trick to swing the match in his favor. August 2000 - How many times has Ivan Lendl replayed in his mind the 1989 French Open fourth round match against Michael Chang? Let's return to that pivotal moment in the fifth set, 3 games each when Michael served underhanded to the great Czech intimidator.
