Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast, your place for free, expert, tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. Welcome to episode number 361 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about mindfulness, kind of intentionality, about where your mind is, where you're putting your mental energy, hence the title, Placing Your Energy, and you have much more of a choice than maybe you realize about where your mind is, where you're
placing your focus and your energy. So, quick story here to kick us off recently as I was trying to get ideas for new videos here at Essential Tennis, I went to the Facebook group, which is just a public group, an incredible community of people. If you go to Facebook and just type in Essential Tennis group, there's over 10,000 players in that group and really supportive and positive and we've worked hard to keep it that way. There's not many communities on the internet that
fit those descriptions, but this one is really amazing. We've worked hard to keep it that way. So, I highly recommend you join if you're on Facebook. So, I went and I posted a simple question there in that group. I simply asked, what is the worst way to lose a tennis point? So, a single point, what is the worst possible way to lose a point? I'd like you to go ahead and take a few seconds and answer that for yourself because more than likely your answer is going to be one that I'm going to
talk about in a moment. So, what is, what is, reflect on that for just three seconds? What is the worst way for you to lose a point? Okay. So, the most common answer by far was double faults. Totally understand that one. Like the point literally just doesn't even take place. The ball never goes in play. There is no exchange. There is no struggle. There are no tactics. There's no hustle or speed or strength or agility. Like the ball just doesn't even go in play. So, completely
understand where people are coming from with that one. Very frustrating way to lose a point. Now, the other three we're going to talk about, these three, I kind of grouped together both in the theme and they're very related and you'll see why in a moment. But also, they were the kind of second, third and fourth most common. So, these just popped up again and again and again, extremely common after the double fault. These were definitely the top answers and they all kind of have
something in common. So, I want you to listen to these three other answers. If you didn't say double fault is statistically very likely that you answered one of these three. So, the first one is a opponent gets really, really lucky and wins the point. So, there were many variations of this. Like a netcord, winner or maybe they shanked the ball and the ball just dribbles over the net. It was like an accidental drop shot or they shanked the ball and it spins in a weird way.
And so, you can't get it back. Basically, some kind of accident from your opponent. It was kind of answered number one. Number two, opponent hits an incredible winning shot. That like basically should have been impossible. You know, it was the type of shot that was like a once in a lifetime kind of shot from your opponent. And again, this could kind of come in a lot of different specific flavors. Whether it's like some ridiculous angle winner or over the shoulder,
like high backhand, volley, backhand overhead on the line or whatever. Some variation of opponent just hits an incredibly high level shot that they probably didn't have any business making. But they did. And so, you lost the point. And then finally, my opponent makes what I think is a bad line call. So, those were number two, three and four answers. When I asked the question, what is the worst way to lose a tennis point? So, what are those three having common? Go ahead and
answer the question. So, number number one, opponent gets really lucky. Number two, opponent hits an unbelievable shot. And number three, opponent makes what you believe is a bad line call. And I'm phrasing it that way. I'm purposed by the way. We've talked in the past on this show about line calls. What you believe is a bad line call is this super critical part of that. And sorry, I don't have right here the the episode number. But if you struggle with line calls,
definitely listen to that episode. And it's worth digging up. Just do Google search for essential tennis podcast line calls. And I'm sure it'll come up right away. So, what are those three things having common? Well, you can't control any of them. The lucky shots, the incredible winner, the bad line call, you have zero influence or control over any of those things. Your opponent is completely responsible for 100% of those three outcomes. And you have exactly 0%
responsibility for the outcome of any of those three things happening. So, why do they instantly come to mind for so many tennis players? When I ask the question, what is the worst way to lose a tennis point? Why do so many tennis players answer those things if they don't have any control over any of them happening? They have nothing to do with you. Why do they get bothered so much when those things happen? Well, on the surface, I totally understand. I as a competitor,
as a competitive person, I've experienced all three of those things. And I've been bothered by all three of those things. So, I completely understand and I can empathize as a competitive
person as a competitive tennis player. I understand where people are coming from. But as I continue working on my mental toughness, my mental resiliency, my effectiveness as a competitor, I know that those three answers are leading to bad tennis because if you're energy and your focus and your emotion are being directed towards things that you cannot control, how likely are you to play well? What chance do you have of playing good tennis if your energy, your focus and your emotion are being
directed towards things that are completely outside of your control? How likely do you think you are to problem solve effectively when you're mentally and emotionally preoccupied with things outside of your control? How about crafting a winning game plan and setting up winning plays and strategies and being able to deconstruct your opponent and figure out like, oh, they like this, they don't
like that and coming up with a winning game plan? How likely do you think you are to do that, at least well, when your emotions and your thoughts are preoccupied and directed towards things that you can't control? How likely do you think you are to focus on what you can control? When every time there's a bad line call or your opponent hits an incredible shot or your opponent
hits a really lucky shot or you can add in all kinds of other things. There's a dog barking or it's kind of windy or it's kind of sunny or there's people watching their spectators that are kind of bothering you and making you uncomfortable. You can't control any of those things. If that is where your mind is placed, how likely do you think it's going to be that you actually
perform well? So of course, the answer to that question is it's not very likely. You're likely to play poorly because your mind is occupied with things other than what you can actually control. So what can you control? Here's just a few examples quickly. You can control your efforts and your hustle and your intensity. That's a controllable. That's something that only you can influence. You can control your targets where your aiming. Are you aiming for smart targets or
not so smart targets? Are you giving yourself margin? Are you making the same mistake over and over again? You control your strategy. Why am I playing the style that I'm playing right now? And how does that relate to my opponent? Are the targets I'm choosing and the patterns I'm playing, do they actually line up and make sense with the reality of what my opponent is doing? And that type of problem solving is next to impossible when your mind is preoccupied with a bunch
of other things that you can't actually control. And how about your focus? Now this is the big one and this is just kind of the big climb hex at the end here. Focus. You have a choice. You can control what you focus on. Now can you be 100% effective at only focusing on what you want to focus? No, you're going to get distracted. You're human. You're not a machine. You're not a robot. There will be distractions. There's nothing you can do to stop distractions from happening. There's
nothing you can do to stop negative thoughts from popping in your head. And there's certainly nothing you can do from your opponent doing annoying things. Whether it's how they call the score or forget the score or the line calls they make or the lucky shots they hit or the incredible winners that they shouldn't have been able to make whatever it is. You don't control any of those things, but you also have the choice of whether you become preoccupied with those things and focus on them
or if you don't. You have that choice. Now that doesn't mean it's easy. You know, just because you're hearing my voice right now and you understand and you're nodding your head and saying, yes, I get it. Wow, it makes so much sense. Hopefully, that's what you're saying. Just because you're hearing my voice and understanding, it doesn't mean it's just going to happen automatically. And it doesn't mean it's easy just because you know that it's better. But please know that you do have that choice.
And so the next time you're in a match and you're faced with an annoyance or an obstacle or any of those three really common things that I talked about, please know that it's up to you. It's up to you whether the next five minutes, ten minutes, the next hour. Your mind stays focused on those frustrating things or if your mind moves on and focuses on what you can control. It's a discipline
and it's a habit that you can develop. And I know this from personal experience. So being more mindful, being more aware of these things and purposefully training my ability to say, no, I'm going to let this go. I know it's outside of my control and instead this is more valuable. I'm going to place my energy, my focus, my emotional output on this instead. The more times you consciously make that decision, the better you'll become at it. And the more effective of a competitor, you'll
become. Thank you for listening today. I hope this has been helpful to you. And if it has been, do me a favor and share it with a teammates or a practice partner or some other person that you know loves tennis and wants to improve as well. Thank you so much. For more free, game improving instruction, be sure to check out essentialtennis.com where you'll
find hundreds of video, audio and written lessons. Also, be sure to subscribe to essential tennis on iTunes and YouTube, where we are the number one resource in the world providing passionate instruction for passionate tennis players. Thank you so much for listening today. Take care and good luck with your tennis.