Mental routines and game plan

Dieter Verhofstadt Asked 10 years ago

Hi guys,

Last training session our coach taught us the mental device of discharge-relax-recharge between every two points. We applied this during some sets and i found that all sets begapen closer, for better or worse opponents. I also found i was less focussing on the tactical plan. And i had a hard time completing this routine against players who serve immediately. Btw i hate cho-ing so i use different musical themes for each part of the routine.

How to enforce your mental routine on players who are not impressed, how to combine with following or changing your game plan and is it worthwhile developing such routines?

Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago

Hi Dieter,

It is good to establish a pre point routine.  However, make sure that routine is only a few seconds otherwise you will start to put yourself under pressure to get through the routine.

In those few seconds some things that you should cover are taking a breath or some other way to find some relaxation and then focus on the tactic you want to implement for the next point and then focus on the ball.  This can be done in just a few seconds.

The routine is something that you should practice regularly during your training sessions.  It is not good enough to just try to use them in matches.  The more you use them, the more efficient you will become and the more effective the routine will be.