Free Your Mind-Set

Marcus Paul Cootsona

Is your attitude hurting your game? In a high-skill sport like tennis, attitude may not be everything, but it’s not nothing either. Like strokes, strategy, and movement, it is something. And it’s up to you if it’s something positive or something negative.

An improved attitude may not land you a down-the line topspin backhand, an ATP service return, or a courtesy car and appearance money, but it will determine how you learn, how long you keep learning, how you practice, how you compete, and how you progress. If your mind gets in the way of your body, your attitude isn’t working for you. For success on the tennis court, you need to free your mind-set. But first you need to know what your mind-set is.

Fixed For Growth

The idea of a mind-set comes from Dr. Carol Dweck’s slyly-titled 2006 book, "mind-set", and it’s a valuable seventh tool in any player’s six-pack bag. Like a fast recovery step, a fresh stringjob, or a triple digit serve, your mind is often the difference between winning, losing or fully grasping Hegel. In other words, how we view the world affects our success. In her book, Dr. Dweck says that we condition our view of the world by looking at it through one of two different lenses — The “Fixed” mind-set or The “Growth” mind-set. And this bi-focal worldview has big implications for tennis players. The good news is that a mind-set, like a mind, can be changed.

Dr Dweck writes that people with a “Fixed mind-set” believe in an unalterable, luck-of- the-draw, accident or providence of birth kind of natural talent. In this view, geniuses are simply geniuses, the gifted unalterably the gifted and all the exceptional performers and performances we see in any area of life or sports are so because of the native talent of the performers. According to this view, I am doomed to mediocrity and probably a lower seeding, if I am not in this group. And maybe, more significantly, if I am one of the chosen talents, then I am destined to be exceptional because of my innate gifts.

By contrast, those individuals in the “Growth mind-set” group look at talent as open- ended, improvable, and always evolving. For them, learning is a joy, failure is a challenge to be embraced, and struggle, uncertainty, and uncomfortableness are the necessary components of improvement. And not just in sixth grade, junior prom, or assembling IKEA bookcases. Improvement is open to all who will work for it in all areas of life, from the trivial to their tennis game. In the “Growth” mind-set worldview, greatness may begin with great physical or mental gifts, but it matures and takes hold because of a lot of darn hard work. Robb Strandlund and Jack Tempchin may have said it best a song they wrote for the Eagles, “Already Gone” —

• So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
  And we never even know we have the key.

As Glenn Frey sung back in 1974, a Fixed mind-set can be paralyzing and destructive for humans and especially tennis players. But the fixed mind-set, like bad line calls, eight- and-unders grunting on dropshots, and lack of turn signal use is prevalent. "Fixers" may resist trying to improve or may avoid playing opponents they think they "should" beat if it means chancing failure. They may have extraordinary natural talent, but don't take it very far or quit when they start losing or encounter difficult new skills. Fixers believe their natural talent should be great enough to guarantee their success and that having to practice to improve shows that they really aren't as gifted or as smart as they have been told. They can feel betrayed by the talent those around them have always lauded them for. In short, they have problems.  

In sharp contrast, the Growth mind-set can be liberating and empowering, and belongs to the players who practice well, improve, succeed, and banish self-doubt like a sitter overhead. "Growers" are "already gone." They take every opportunity to test and improve their skills, no matter how long it takes, or how it looks, or how it feels when they do. When they come up against a challenging stroke or match situation, they resolve to figure it out. They persevere, knowing that a skill like tennis takes tenacious, dedicated practice no matter how big your biceps are. They don't let their own walls hem them in.  

Of course, we mustn't be categorical or silly or categorically silly. The world is not black or white. Although, some shots are clearly in and certain lycra items should never be allowed in public. Rarely is any person or tennis player completely one or the other mind-set. Everyone is a blend, but seldom a 50-50 blend. One of these two mind-sets controls you and it's important to your improvement and well-being that you know which one does. And here's one way to find out.  

Natural Tennis Players and Other Fixer Jargon

You often hear a talented player described as a "natural." Even on HD TV, by announcers paid to be prompted better by their producers. But is there such a thing as a natural tennis player? Or is it simply the fixed mind-set at work at the court and in the broadcast booth?

I've met and taught and coached many fine athletes who excelled in other sports disciplines, and many of them became very skilled tennis players, but in thirty years of teaching tennis to every level player, I can honestly say that I've never met a "natural" tennis player. This is because tennis is an unnatural sport. Many of the most important parts of strokes (the service toss, for instance) or full strokes (the backhand comes to mind here) are dependent on mastery of motions we don't use much at all anywhere else in our everyday lives or even in most other sports.

And this is good news for tennis players.

Why? Because tennis is a sport that is only partially dependent on native athleticism. It's not a fixed sport, it's a growth sport. Good engineering, an understanding of physics and an interest in doing a motion correctly and repeating it correctly over and over, thousands of times are much more important than your time running the forty, your vertical leap, or how much you leg curl.

More than many other sports that depend on raw athleticism, tennis relies on technique. And technique, by its very nature, is learned. And must be learned. Nobody "naturally" perfects or even executes flawless technique. That's why it's called technique. So even the best, most gifted athletes begin this sport at the same place as all the other kinds of athletes — at the beginning. Everyone has to learn it. Tennis is an equal opportunity humbler. And an equal opportunity exalter. Not everyone can be a pro, but everyone can get good at it, if they practice enough and in the right ways. And, of course, you can always dress like a pro if you shop diligently. So, what does this mean for you as a player and as a student of the game?

It means that the players who seem like god-gifted, natural tennis players aren't, because there is no such thing. Burying this idea can take you a long way toward general happiness and a rejecting of the fixed mind-set. All fluid, skillful tennis practitioners had to work to perfect their beautiful, natural-looking game and so will you. And was awkwardness, uncertainty, and stumbles for them just as there will be for you. Just as there were and still are for Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray. And that guy you played in USTA last week who claimed he was a 4.0.

We all put our forehands on one follow through at a time. We just sometimes make the mistake of seeing the astounding finished product and assuming that tennis greatness is a divine gift and that this gift is immaculate, inviolate, and unearned and unearnable. It isn't. It's earned through sweat, mistakes, disappointments, and perseverance. And often lots of cash, since some instructors don't really like checks or any paper trail.  

So What About Your Instructor?

The instructor you are going to trust with your game as you succeed, fail, make mistakes, expose you ego, engage in self-doubt, and generally work through the learning process as you try to improve, needs to understand how all this works too. This person needs to support you and guide you as you get better. And most importantly, your instructor needs to believe that you can get better.

It doesn't matter how many pro matches they've played, it doesn't matter what academy or club or method they're representing, if they approach instructing with a fixed mind-set, they are going to limit your progress and your happiness. Instructors can be as guilty as players of orienting themselves to their students with a fixed view of their potential. You see it every time an instructor is impatient ("you should already know that"), critical ("no one with your skills would make that mistake"), or fatalistic ("I don't think you'll ever be better than a 3.5"). Really? They know that? If they're that good, get some stock picks, romantic advice, and lotto numbers while you're at it.

Don't accept limitations. Don't accept the fixed mind-set. Demand for yourself instruction that allows for unlimited growth without presuppositions about how far you can grow because of some alleged "natural" talent. And write a check if you want to.

Psychiatrist, Analyze Thyself

If you've identified yourself as a fixer, that's okay. You can change your mind-set and improve your game. Now's the time to decide to become a growther. If you have a problem learning new skills because of the discombobulating and anxiety inherent in the process, try to find small ways to challenge yourself, ways that won't be obvious to your practice partners and opponents. That way you can aim small and miss small and find out how to learn big. Here are some suggestions for mild, endurable change. There are many others.

• Change the racquet face angle on your backhand, even if it's just an incremental change.
• Adjust your finger position on your serve toss.
• Modify your footwork on approach shots.

Make small changes and see how they feel. And remember, it's all going to be okay. Despite the fact that you think everyone else on court is watching you and charting your progress, you are the only one who notices any dislocation in your game. Or cares. Your opponents and hitting partners are only watching their own strokes or shoes,or the supermodel on court six. And though you will be venturing out in a small way, the failures at perfecting a new micro-skill will be small also. In this way, you can accustom your ego to success and improvement coming out of trial, tribulation and occasional failure and thereby give yourself permission and leeway to fail much bigger and learn much more in the future.  

Reject the Plateau

Tiger Woods refused to accept plateaus, on the other hand, once you have a swing that can win the Open by 15 strokes, it may not be a great idea to tinker with it too much.

All of which brings us to a golf analogy and the poster athlete for both the fixed and growth mind-sets — Mr. Tiger Woods. Tiger's phenomenal improvement as well as some of his equally phenomenal public displays of poor ball-striking come because of his growth side. He consciously refuses to stay on a plateau. He has realized that the plateau is comfortable, safe, and known. But a great growth mind-set athlete doesn't want to stay there and risk becoming complacent and fearful.

To grow into the growth mind-set, it is important to recognize when you are on a comfortable, successful plateau and purposely challenge yourself to move off it and get better. Then, even when you don't get better, you keep your mental edge and reinforce your growth attitude.

But unlike the growth mind-set side of Tiger, his fixed mind-set side can lead him on some long, unprofitable journeys trying to find the perfect swing. The lesson here is that once you have a swing that can win the Open by 15 strokes, don't believe your talent is so great you can then do anything you dream up. Instead, focus on plateaus in other areas of your game and don't tinker with what is working. Otherwise you may get stuck at 14 majors. Or at 3.0.

How to Practice and Improve

These ideas will work for either mind-set. They will jolt and prod the fixer and challenge and delight the growther:

• Change your practice routine. Tennis players can often behave like mow-blow-and- go gardeners. They get routine-bound and their games get paralyzed. They go to the practice court, do the same warm-up routine every time, practice the same strokes they already do well, neglect strokes that cause uncertainty or discomfort and then complain that they're working hard and not getting better. Change is scary. Change is good.
• Work on strokes that aren't comfortable or grooved. Take your weakest stroke and try to improve it.
• Then take your best stroke and try to improve it.
• Practice your strokes in a different order.
• Spend two weeks just working on your serve. Or volley. Or backhand overhead. Then spend four or six or eight more.
• Work on movement or strategy that you have trouble with.
• Hit really hard.
• Hit really soft.
• Have a hundred-ball rally.
• Learn a new spin.
• Add the drop shot.
• Prepare yourself to be surprised in a match by surprising yourself in practice.  

How to Compete

Change your match tactics. If you are a diehard baseline basher, try adding in a serve and volley point every now and then. Or if you always try to close points early, prolong a rally on purpose and see if you can win a point on percentage or on defense. Not just to be different, but to astonish and confuse your opponent and keep yourself awake and stimulated.

On the one hand, this may seem like you're simply putting yourself in an uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing situation. On the other hand, it may be incredibly freeing if you remember that this is not your usual game and you therefore have no particular stakes in the outcome.

And read Dr. Dweck's book, mind-set, and learn more about the way this theory can improve your tennis. 

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Marcus Paul Cootsona's article by emailing us here at TennisOne .

Marcus Paul Cootsona

Marcus Paul Cootsona is a teaching professional and author of Occam’s Racquet – 12 Simple Steps To Smarter Tennis. Contact him at: marcuscootsona.com.