Every player, to some degree, experiences tension, tightness and anxiety during competition. This obviously affects on-court performance adversely.
Western psychology has become the self-appointed savior, but little of what they say makes any sense or works. Why not? Because it is a symptom-based approach and what we need is a more ‘wholistic’ approach.
But what is the ‘wholistic’ approach? Contrary to popular opinion, my understanding is that we should totally ignore the symptoms and focus on the individual because everything stems from there. The individual is the root; it is all about you!
The first issue to be addressed is the attitude that this is a problem to be solved, rather than a mystery to be explored through fully living it.
These experiences seem to be so universal and such an intricate part of the human experience that there must be something to be learnt here.
For me, the answers seem to lie away from the tennis court and within the individual.
We need to explore our own lives, but how do we explore?
To be continued next month………