Play Smart Tennis – MIND YOUR GAME – Anticipate! Don’t participate
by Milos Dimic, Sports Neuroscience PhD
Personality is a strong foundation for the athlete’s development and managing of thoughts, emotions and behavior in general. As such, it determines the athlete’s levels and types of motivation, self confidence, perception and attitude as well as many other psychological components of the athletic performance
How do the athletes respond to the training dosage may differ most likely due to the difference in their physiological (genetics) and psychological (personality) characteristic
The center of the mass of the body is directly connected with the centering of the athlete’s mind. As centering of the mind makes the athlete more grounded, calm and relaxed, it lowers the levels of anxiety. Centering the thoughts, the athlete can be fully aware of the body’s position and to be exact – it’s center of mass and transfer of weight around it
Implementing breathing in the tennis practice routine will enable players to:
1. Rely on the kinetic chain as the source of power and control
2. Have more constant timing of the strokes
3. Relax the muscles during the contact point
4. Perform with effortless and fluent follow through
5. Decrease the levels of anxiety and stress during and after the points
6. Increase the levels of concentration and confidence
7. Stabilize the core
8. Move efficiently
9. Delay the Feeling of fatigue
10. Reduce the chances of injuries
The purpose of the warm up is:
To increase the muscle and body core temperature
To improve the blood flow circulation throughout the body to the working muscles and joints, making them ready for the physical activity
To improve the oxygen delivery which results in better fuel utilization by working muscles
To enable the muscles to contract and relax at the faster rate
To protect muscles and joints of any type of strains or injures
80% of total carbohydrate is stored in skeletal muscle and about 14% is stored in the liver (6% in the blood in the form of glucose), therefore it’s understandable the importance of nutrition to delay the onset of fatigue
Play Smart Tennis - MIND YOUR GAME - Anticipate! Don’t participate 