Are you an Honest Tennis Player?

Having worked with 1000’s of tennis players you get a good idea of what makes players tick, what drives them, and what most players are chasing.

Typically, when we connect with a player we find out their goals and the end result they are chasing. Some players have big ambitions like winning a grand slam, while others are more modest like competing at some local tournaments. It is important to have something you are chasing, this helps add to your motivation bucket!

Here are some tennis tips on how to set a goal:

• Be clear on the goal. Make it specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and set a deadline to reach it.
• Have someone keep you accountable. This is an area where most players let themselves down, they have no one tracking their progress and pushing them along.
• Honesty. Most players can set a goal but come up with excuses along the way, they are not conscious enough of the reality of their actions. The goal can then change or become irrelevant. This happens easily without being honest with ourselves.

In this blog, I want to share how important it is for you to be honest with yourself and be willing to get uncomfortable getting feedback from those around you. The better you get at this, the faster you will improve.

When we learn to be honest with ourselves, we allow the reality of a situation to come out. The reality is what we want to know not what we think is going on, does that make sense?

An example could be you are following one of our Tennis Workouts but you are not doing them with high enough intensity, deep down you know you can be pushing more but you are not willing to go to that uncomfortable place. So the reality is you are training below your best and this results in you not becoming the best you can be. Simple right?

Now if you are honest with yourself and say “Yep, I need to rip in more in these tennis fitness sessions” I am going to do that and I will make sure my coach keeps me accountable, then you will not only improve physically you will also build self confidence by knowing you can set a goal and reach it.

The best way to apply honesty to your tennis life is simple. Take some time to think about what areas of your game YOU are holding yourself back in the most. Right these areas down and then sit down and speak with someone who knows you and your game e.g. tennis coach, tennis fitness trainer, tennis parent, doubles partner, or tennis mentor, and ask them to give you feedback. Working out the solution will be a natural process from there if you can get the honesty part right first. Then set the goal and be clear on it, then create your own honest reality and live it.

Are you an Honest Tennis Player?

I want to give you a personal example. I am 48, I train 6 days a week, and I am also active outside of my structured sessions, generally clocking up 20,000 steps a day. I sleep 8-9 hours per night, and I do at least 1 recovery session per day. My reality is that my life is active and personally I'm balanced. Now my weight had been increasing, so I did an honesty check and knew within 2 minutes that my diet was letting me down, everything else was working well, so I had to set some goals around that and allowed my wife to keep me accountable. My weight dropped slowly but not without little excuses along the way, but I kept checking in on my reality and straightened things out quickly. I was honest with myself and reflected on my reality. I am now happier where my weight is but know I need to keep checking in on this.

When we have a goal, when we are honest with ourselves, when we leave excuses at the door, and when we are consistent, that’s when the magic happens.

You are reading this because you are interested in improving your tennis strength and conditioning or maybe helping someone else; players you coach or your own children.

If the reality is that you need to improve how you move on the court, you need more stamina or you keep getting injured then you need to check out our purpose-built Tennis Fitness Programs. Don’t let something that you can control ruin your game and frustrate you.

Check out how we can help you here

OK, to finish off I want to give you some parting tennis advice:

• Find your reality. What is really going on? What is blocking your progress the most?
• Be honest with yourself. How are you contributing to the blockage?
• What do you need to change? Set some goals to change your reality.
• Accountability. Have someone keep you accountable and most importantly be honest with yourself. I mean keep on really looking at how you are contributing to your reality.
• Be a problem solver, not an excuse maker. The players who reach their maximal potential are the ones who are honest with themselves and find solutions for problems not excuses. Working your way through a problem will help you get to your goal, finding an excuse will stop you in your tracks!

OK, you have some homework to do, we all do. Be honest with yourself and find what needs to improve then get working on it!

Take care