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How many times per year do you lose a match and you end up in the match thinking
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that your opponent was much too strong and that you had no chance to win the match?
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Not many times.
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No,
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no,
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no.
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Most of the time you end up in the match thinking that you could have won.
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And when you say that to yourself,
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I hear
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"I should have won."
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So, what should you have done to win?
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You might think that you should have played better on the most important points.
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You should have stick
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the tactics.
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You should have stayed focused on every point.
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Take more your chances when you have the opportunities.
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Avoid feeling angry and frustrated.
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Does this ring a bell?
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This being said,
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most of the elements that differentiate a victory from a defeat are
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mental,
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and what is true at the leisure level is also true at the highest level.
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This brings to the main question: How do I progress on the mental side?
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There are two key moments that as a player
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you should use to be mentally efficient in matches.
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Before the match,
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what I would call the preparation,
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and during the match,
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which is between every point and at every changeover.
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Today, we're going to talk about how to prepare mentally for a tennis match,
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and later I'll do a video on how to be strong mentally during the match.
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Compared to other sports,
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tennis is providing a lot of breaks and time to think.
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Did you know that the time
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that you actually really play tennis during a
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match represents less than 20% of the time.
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That just says that 80% of the match time
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could be used to be mentally ready to perform.
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Unfortunately,
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it's used by most of the players as a distraction time.
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What I mean is that players speak to themselves in a way that makes them weaker.
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A lot of coaches speak about the body language.
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They want the players to have a positive body language.
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The only problem.
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The problem with that is that the body language translates what you tell yourself,
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what you think deep inside.
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Can you imagine a player thinking,
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I play so bad,
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I'm such a loser,
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and at the same time have a positive body language?
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Of course not.
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Body language won't change the way you think
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and won't change the way you speak to yourself.
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I don't believe that.
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But on the other hand,
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if you are able to modify the way you speak
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to yourself and emphasize it with the adequate body language,
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then the combination becomes the most powerful tool that you can build.
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When you get ready for the competition,
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you need to have clear goals.
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I'm sure that the immense majority of you just go to the match without any goal.
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If you do so,
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you have no grip on whether you'll win or lose.
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If you are on a great day,
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you'll probably win,
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and you'll probably lose most of the other days,
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which actually are much more frequent.
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Too many players focus on the wrong things.
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Winning.
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Winning is not a goal.
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Winning is a reward.
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This is not a good goal.
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Forget it.
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Playing well,
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it doesn't depend on you.
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You can't decide to play well.
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So, it cannot be a goal.
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It's interesting to see that players who care too much about playing well
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end up frustrated most of the time.
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They are the guys that you hear saying,
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"I don't feel the ball today."
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When you set up your goals,
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there are four elements that you have to consider.
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First,
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those goals have to depend only on you.
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For example,
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you decide that you will pump your fist on every point.
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Or
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you decide that you will stay maximum 1 m away from the baseline the whole match.
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An example of a bad goal would be,
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I will play deep.
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You can decide that you will play every shot with the goal to play deep,
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considering that it's better to play out
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to deep
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than in the service box,
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but you cannot decide to play deep because this is only a wish.
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Two,
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they have to be realistic.
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Set goals that you know you have a good chance to be able to make.
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Three,
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you have to set goals that if they are completed,
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you consider that you have a big chance to win the match, and at the same time,
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it's very important
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that your goals develop your style of tennis for the future.
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Four,
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set up a maximum of three goals,
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not more.
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If you go to a match with too many goals,
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you'll forget half of them and you'll get confused.
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When to prepare for the match?
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I would say as late as possible.
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I hate to do it the day before with the players because they kept thinking about it.
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Most of the time, they don't spend a good night.
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They kind of overthink.
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They can come with too much stress,
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less energy because they burn a lot of
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energy thinking and overthinking about the match.
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The morning of the match,
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write down your goals,
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and I would say 30 minutes before entering the court,
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read it
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and make sure they are
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in your mind.
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And promise this to yourself,
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I know that those goals are ideal to win the match,
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but it's more important for me to leave the court having respected my goals
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than winning.
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The goals can be tactical or mental.
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It can be,
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for example,
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I will stick to my opponent's backend until I get a short ball,
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and then I will attack.
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This is a tactical goal.
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But it can also be something like,
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every time I have a negative feeling during the match,
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I will tell this sentence to myself.
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Sometimes you go to the match and the level of stress
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is so high that you are unable to play your tennis.
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You have this level of stress all the time
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because your focus is not on goals that only depend on you,
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but on other things that you cannot control.
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When your focus is there,
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the
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fact that you don't have control on it
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brings the level of stress to a very high level.
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Easy to understand.
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Somebody drives a car 200 kilometers per hour,
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you are
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super scared.
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You drive the same speed,
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but you have the wheel,
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you are much less scared.
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Because in one case, you feel you have the control; in the other case, somebody else
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has it. Once again,
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the only way to lower your stress level
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is to stay focused on things that you
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control all the exterior factors like the weather,
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the surface,
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so many things that can enter your mind.
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You
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put them out.
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You focus only on what makes you
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perform
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well.
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We're done for the match preparation.
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Now if you have any question regarding it or regarding any mental question,
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feel free to leave me a comment, and I will be happy to answer.
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Get ready for the next video about the mental,
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which will be about how to deal on the mental side during a match.
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And if you like my videos,
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subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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See you.