A friend of mine Sara hooked me up with some tickets to go to the Salt Shed. It is a new venue in Chicago that I had never been. It was some group I’ve never heard of Drama and a DJ that I love Derrick Carter. I took a disco nap and woke up around 9pm or so and headed out to the show. They were going on at 10:15pm.
It was packed.
I was in the premium seats but I wanted to go down and get a feel of the crowd and get closer to the show. When I got to the stage I took a few pictures and then someone tapped me on my shoulder. It was an old friend Kristine. Oh my god! We hadn’t seen each other in years. We go way back to when we were in our 20s and dancing to house music at Zentra nightclub. Then she pointed in a direction and said, look who else is here. It was my buddy John, we partied til 7am and later in our 20s and 30s.
We just picked up were we left of. It must of been at least 10 years. And we started reminiscing about the good old days and how we use to party and our friends used to party. And we talked about how some people still party and some people found a reason to change the course of their life and are now in a new direction. And we talked about how some of those old party friends are no longer with us. It’s a reminder to cherrish our life now and that all that stuff that we did will catch up to us unless we change course.
In tennis, just like in life, if we’ve created a pattern of losing and we want to now create a pattern of winning, we must change course.
Dr Joe Dispenza in his Live talk series talks about transformation language and when we want to change something or create something we must embody it and start doing different things, the things that create the change. He’s really big on meditation and visualization.
If you’re on a losing streak or find yourself always on the losing end, here’s a couple of tennis mind hacks you can try…
- Meditation… Take a little time each morning or in the evening or both and just meditate. It can be a minute, or 10. Keep it simple. I literally just close my eyes and I breathe, keeping my mind quite. when the thoughts come I accept them and I either let go or I go with them. There is no right or wrong here. The fact that you’re taking time for yourself and the meditation practice is what matters. Sometimes I even start vocalizing, letting go of what’s inside of me. breathing the good and breathing out the bad. I laugh at the noises that comeout of me sometimes. Sometimes it feels really powerful. Sometimes I see things and I invision myself winning and I invision the things I want out of life. Try it..
- Visualization… I once heard that Michael Phelps (one of the greatest olympic swimmers) would visualize every stroke of his races. You can try this with your tennis game. Maybe you just practice one point at a time, like seeing the return go crosscourt and then the ball comes back softly, you move forward and around to your forehand, focused on the seems of the ball you get your racket back set up and see it all the way to your racket, bam, you crush it crosscourt and Yes!!! forehand winner. You’ve just won the US Open finals. You are a champion!!!
- Language… it’s important. the words we use on a daily basis matter. Whatever you tell your brain over and over will happen. What are you saying to yourself before the point. Don’t miss this shot, Don’t fuck this up, I suck??? If this is going on your head lets change the course to something a little different… I’m going to make this shot! I come through in the clutch! I’m freaking awesome and I can handle any situation that comes my way!!!
Now you’ve got 3 different tools that you can use to change the course. It’s time to start winning. It’s time to start believing in yourself! It’s time to be the best version of yourself on and off the court!
I believe in you!
Coach Greg
If you need a little help in this I coach clients on winning and we can walk through the steps you need to change course. Email me to greg@betweenthepoints.com and we can discuss how you’re going to crush it on the tennis court and life!
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