Mental toughness in doubles is tricky- there are a lot of traps to fall into. However, mental toughness for doubles is as important as any other time in tennis!

How to handle it if your partner is playing badly:
If your partner is playing badly, the most common reaction is to get mad at them. We either do this out loud or to ourselves. We think about how they suck, what is wrong with them, they are bad, how they should play better… None of this helps them. It actually makes it worse for two reasons. If you have this mindset towards them, then it makes it 10 times harder for them to get into a useful mindset to win. The second reason is that if you let this go on in your head, then boom, you are going to be playing badly too because your focus is now on them sucking and how they need to change instead of you playing well. This leaves both of you upset and playing badly.

When your partner is down, you have to stay mentally tough. The way to do this is to not let yourself indulge in any of the above notions about your partner. Have your focus on bigging them up and playing great tennis yourself. This will give them the chance to get themselves playing well too. You have to be the leader for this. However, a pitfall is thinking they suck or some flavor of that and then doing things to try to support them on top of you being upset with them. You cannot fake this- they will be able to tell and it will not work.

How to handle it if you are the one playing badly and worried about letting your partner down:
As people, we are innately obsessed with being liked and admired. When we are playing doubles and do badly or miss, we often automatically start to focus and worry about this. We think about how we are letting the other person down, what they think about us and how we have to do better.

This is all in the effort to be admired. When this is what you are focused on, then you are trapped. You have to give up wanting to look good and make yourself focus on playing awesome. It is as simple as that.

The last trap of doubles mental toughness, which makes it so tricky, is that there is another person there on the court, creating the perfect target for you to blame. Do NOT blame your partner for anything. If you do, it is highly likely you will play bad and lose. Period.

David Groemping
Gemini Mental Toughness Training
www.Sports.GemExeCoach.com

We have all had matches where we lost and were really upset afterwards. In this article, I am going to go into how to not only deal with the upset of a bad match or loss, but how to make sure you grow as a competitor out of that experience as well.

When we lose, we love to do a few things.  We love to have pity parties for ourselves and we even invite others. We have tantrums.  We kick, berate and beat ourselves up.  Familiar? Keep reading!

First, none of these approaches are getting you anywhere. They only make you feel bad- so stop doing them. But how?

With each one of these, it is common to think how we “should have won, played better, suck…” We go on and on to ourselves and even others about how we are bad, suck and there is something wrong here- either with us or the sport or something. Then we dominate others around us by staying upset, pissed off, sad or dumpy. All the time we are miserable, but this is the best we think there is if we did not win- to beat ourselves up and not let anyone make a difference with us.  LAME!

We also think that we have to beat ourselves up, otherwise, we may not learn to “not suck so much” in the future and kicking ourselves will actually make the lesson sink in. Again, not true.

When you lose, it is not he loss that makes you upset, but the conversation that you have about yourself and about the loss that is so upsetting. This conversation comes from you and you actually have a choice to have the conversation or not. Again, your choice, but up until now, you have been choosing to do it- I recommend skipping it.

Here is what TO DO to deal with a loss. First, do not indulge in beating yourself up and kicking yourself, pity partying or upset. It will not get you anywhere, except expend energy, make you miserable and actually make learning harder.  What you want to do is take an HONEST and OBJECTIVE look at what it was that had you lose.  Here, you want to look at yourself, because putting the reason somewhere else gives you no access to improving.

Here, you want to look at physical and mental aspects of your game that may not have been strong enough to win- this time. Did you get tired or winded? Then get fitter.  Were you getting upset or choking during the match?  Were you tight? Then work on your mental game. Was your backhand inconsistent? Take a lesson on your backhand. In looking at this, you will know where to work on for the next match so that you never lose for that reason again. Use every match to learn, not be miserable.

Just like any other time, you have to use your mental toughness muscle to have this happen and it takes building like and other.  If it were easy, anyone could do it!

David Groemping

Gemini Mental Toughness Training

A pusher can be one of the most annoying types of players to be up against. Because of the way they play, beating them requires a great deal of mental toughness.

How do you be mentally tough enough to beat a pusher then?  Well, let’s get into it!

Why is a Pusher SOOO Annoying?

Pushers are a huge threat to us and the way we are used to playing.  They make us work really hard and challenge our patience. They thrive on us missing and making mistakes.  Probably the biggest reason pushers are so annoying is because their style of play pits us against ourselves. Additionally, they not only make us play against ourselves, but oftentimes make us beat ourselves- we especially hate this. Lastly, they are a threat to our fun and winning when we are on the court with them.

The Mental Trap When Playing a Pusher:

It is easy to get angry and upset when playing this type of player.  To really play well against them, we have to avoid allowing our focus shift to several different things.

The first is thinking how they are wrong for playing they way they do. You can resist and think the way they play is bad as much as you want, but they are not going to change and the only thing that is going to happen is your mental toughness will suffer. Something that goes along with this is you have to give up thinking that you are playing the right way (real tennis) and they are playing the wrong/invalid way (not real tennis).

Lastly, when we get mad at the pusher, we get ourselves off of the hook from having to play well and off of the hook from any mistakes that we make (we use them as an excuse).  We tell ourselves that we are playing badly because we are against a pusher and it is their fault that we are missing. To be mentally tough and beat a pusher, we have to give up this notion. Otherwise, we have no chance.

How to Win:

So once you have given this garbage up, what there is to do now is to really flex that mental muscle, and it really is a muscle, to make yourself focus on mastery, or excellence or your game plan, or whatever it is that you keep focused on during your match.
Side note- if you do not have anything that you keep in mind when you are playing or anything to focus on while playing, I highly recommend you do.

On top of that, the pusher is going to do what he is going to do, you cannot control him and you can’t change the way he plays. I promise. And no matter what you think about him, how he should or should not play, he will not change. You can get as mad as you want at the traffic, but it will still be there. Same with pushers- and this goes for any type of player that annoys you- grunters, cheaters…. All of them
Just accept that he is going to be this way, you cannot do anything about it and focus on what YOU can do to win, which starts by keeping your head in the game.
Lastly, this is a process, something that you have to practice, and something that you will probably have to do many times during a match with a pusher.

David Groemping

We see extremely mentally tough players all around us- at our club, in tournaments and among the pros.
What is it that they have?  In this article I am going to break down five of the top specific traits players have that make them mentally tough.

1) Mentally Tough Players Play One Point at a Time

To really be in the zone, you have to be in the moment.  This includes fully having your attention on the task at hand.  One thing that gets in the way of us accomplishing this is having our focus on what happened in past points or what may happen in the future.
Mentally tough players are only thinking of the point at hand, like it is the only one that exists.  They do not dwell on old pints, however good or bad they were. Additionally, they do not think of anything beyond the current point, how great it is going to be to win or how far they are from getting there.

2) Play to Win

Mentally tough players know that the only reason they are out there is to win.  Nothing else.  They are not out there to be nice, gain admiration, be liked or mess around in any capacity.  Winning is the job to be done here. They not only know this, but act in line with it. Additionally, mentally tough players do not play down to others or give themselves breaks during a game or match. This includes having a workman like ethic towards achieving victory.

3) They Leave the Drama Aside

Mentally tough players have no interest in drama.  They avoid getting angry or upset. They do not tolerate letting themselves get down in the dumps, having low morale or kicking themselves.  They also do not whine or complain. Mentally tough players do not indulge in any of these things, but stay focused to win.

4) Mentally Tough Players Keep Their Opponent Down

Once a mentally tough player gets the lead, they not only keep it, but expand it- relentlessly. They do not give their opponent any window to get back in the game or match. Once they have the lead, they not only keep up the same focus and intensity that got them winning in the first pace, but take it up a notch.  By staying at the top of their game when they have the lead, mentally tough players keep their opponents down and out.

5) They Are Closers

Mentally tough players do not choke. They capitalize on opportunities when it matters the most. When it really counts and the pressure is on, they are able to perform and produce the result. Mentally tough players are comfortable and effective in finishing out a game or match.