One of the tasks that our tennis academy puts a special emphasis is on instilling into our players the on-court habit of relying on routines. More specifically, we want our players to have at their disposal pre-game routines, a set of match routines aa well as post-match ones. Altogether, routines build players’ mental game which is a combination of actions, thoughts and self-talk sequences helping them to isolate themselves from the outside world, effectively manage energy levels and maintain point-by-point focus.

The start point is the development of various performance focus plans functioning as mental checklists - things to do at every stage of the game. The next step is their over-learning through daily practice of mental effort. The idea behind it is that when players have a plan for what to do and what to think about during each part of the game, not only does it help them to tune out all types of distractions, but, most of all, it prompts the right focus on task relevant cues automatically. Routines as a tool enable them to stay absorbed in the activity. As a consequence, they may lose themselves in their familiarity and execute their shots with feel and automaticity. 

The building blocks of routines customarily consist of triggers and cue words aligned together to form fixed sequences of actions. 

When Rafael Nadal arranges his bottles on the court invariably at the same tilted angle in the midst of all the commotion accompanying a match play, it acts as a spatial type of trigger separating his own personal space, the zone of competing, from the rest of the world with all its noise and chaos. He subjects the surroundings to match his preferred mental-scape, to sustain his internal order and impose it on the outside space. He builds a wall around himself,  a special type of setting where you’re shielded from any negative influence from the outside. On the psychological plane, this enhanced narrow focus relies on the use of triggers, an array of your own special movements, gestures, words, images which set off this perspective switch from your daily type of focus to performance focus marked by intense concentration and prolonged alertness. 

Players also need to find cue words or phrases reminding them what to think about, what to do, orient you to the process during practice or a match. For example, “see the ball, hear the ball”; “just look at the ball”, “don’t let the ball drop”, “bounce-hit”. All the triggers and cue words relevant and helpful for a given player should be combined to form plans for every part of the game. Then, they can work as fixed scenarios of patterned actions, which with time function as habits.

We like to divide the between-point time of 25 seconds into four steps: 

1) neutral reaction - what happened? 

2) routines - mind is blank focusing on the present (racquet strings, towel, etc.)

3) preparation for next point (strategy)

4) routines - bouncing ball before serve, etc.

The first step is analytical and preferably without any signs of emotion. The second is mostly dedicated to fast forgetting of what has just happened. This is the moment for the player to rely on a mix of triggers to erase the previous point from their memory as quickly as possible. The third one again is about planning out the strategy for the next point. In the last one, the player employs  a set of preparation routines to get themselves ready and focused.

It is our strong belief that players should work on their mental games day in day out and train their minds for optimal on-court performance and self-control. Developing mental focus plans and turning them into pre-performance, performance and post-performance routines is one of our main priorities in our daily work with our players. Our objective in this regard is for players to operate on a point-by-point basis regardless of the outcome. Thanks to this rigorous state of mind, which can only be achieved through the consistent implementation of routines, they will be able to sustain their on-task attention, accomplish mental steadiness and generate internal rhythm, which are all staples for maintaining optimal concentration in performance.