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Mental preparation: TENNIS MASTERCLASS by Patrick Mouratoglou, EPISODE 9

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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.
Title:
Mental preparation: TENNIS MASTERCLASS by Patrick Mouratoglou, EPISODE 9
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
BYU Continuing Education
Project:
SWELL-182 (BYUO)
Duration:
06:40

English subtitles

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