The Tennis Zone Described
First published on 9-09-2009. Bookmark & share
by Randy Lynn Rutledge - a previously certified USPTA Tennis Teaching Professional
( Note: retired in good standing, but stopped making USPTA dues payments )
( Note: retired in good standing, but stopped making USPTA dues payments )
This article explains being in the tennis zone.
We Consciously Think About Executing Actions to Make Habits
In the past, you have purposely engaged your conscious mind to think about how to best execute progressive tennis actions so that you could learn repeatable tennis strokes and hits. All of your previous acts of combining thought with action have resulted in all of the tennis habits that you currently possess. You have confidence in your tennis playing ability. Now it is time to understand what to do with your conscious mind during an actual tennis match.
The conscious mind has two specific functions while playing tennis in the zone:
1. Trust the subconscious mind to perform tennis skills as programmed.
2. Accurately perceive what the eyes are seeing.
1. Trust the subconscious mind to perform tennis skills as programmed.
2. Accurately perceive what the eyes are seeing.
Trust the Subconscious Mind
The conscious mind must trust the subconscious mind to control and coordinate the execution of all tennis habits, functions, and processes based on accurate visual information and perceptions of the conscious mind.
Accurately Perceive What the Eyes Are Seeing
During a tennis match, or during serious practice sessions, the primary function of your conscious mind becomes to accurately perceive the pictures being processed in the brain from a constant stream of input being sent there by your eyes.
Using Stored Visuals to Make Plans for the Future
During tennis play, it is often necessary to change tactics against an opponent. What is happening in the match (immediate tennis feedback) must be compared against tennis feedback stored in long-term or short-term memory; the conscious mind of a tennis player must partially abandons its primary function of accurately perceiving what the eyes are seeing (perceiving visual information about the present moment) and take on the task of sorting through visuals stored in memory (perceiving visual information from the past) in an effort to find and retrieve stored information and useful feedback to formulate plans and strategies for use in the immediate future.
Returning to the Present Moment
To return to the zone, after necessary tennis thinking, allow the conscious mind to resume accurately perceiving the pictures being processed in the brain from a constant stream of input from your eyes.
Entering the Zone
The hard work of your tennis training program has allowed you to develop desirable tennis habits, self-confidence, and a high level of tennis play. You have prepared above and beyond what is required for you to be successful in your next match and every match of a tennis tournament.
Before entering the zone, your conscious mind develops a trust (self-confidence) that your subconscious mind is capable of automatically controlling and coordinating all of the tennis habits which have been programmed into the entirety of your tennis game.
You have come to know that the perfect tennis player resides within you. The reason you can play your best is because your attention in the present moment is extreme and you are trusting your subconscious mind to perform as programmed, so doubt does not exist.
Entering the zone requires that you have prepared (mentally and physically) beyond what is necessary, both mentally and physically, for the job you are facing. The hard work to prepare yourself is behind you. You possess a supreme trust in your conditioning and tennis abilities. You have prepared for anything that might happen. You KNOW that you will win the last point of the match. Your attention is in the present moment.
This knowing (confidence) frees the conscious mind to trust the subconscious mind to do what it has been programmed to do. This freedom allows the conscious mind to flow in the present moment of the match.
Staying in the Zone
Remaining in the zone requires that the eyes send, as closely as possible, a continuous stream of visual input to the brain and that the conscious mind be 100% available in the present moment to formulate accurate perceptions.
Barriers to Entering the Zone
Poor conditioning, improper nutrition, a lack of proper sleep and rest, worry, and doubt are a few of the barriers which can contribute to inattention and prevent you from entering, or staying in, the zone.