Emma is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Emotional Intelligence Practitioner with a strong background as a coach on the professional tennis tour. She is a Tennis Australia High-Performance Coach who is passionate about effective communication and coaching strategies that help people discover their inner coach.
SportsEdTV: When you play a breakpoint, we’re all nervous, it's just about being comfortable in that situation and comfortable being nervous. Even when you played 100 matches, you will still be nervous, but you’re just going to be comfortable being nervous. Other coaches say that when you are on breakpoints, you always want to have a fixed play. The way you start the point if you're serving, if you think the served down the tee is your best serve, that's where you want to go. You want to visualize the first two plays, the first two shots in your mind. There's so many different takes on how to win a big point. Players like Nadal do it exceptionally well, I think countless times you've seen him in three-setters, five-setters, and you never know who's going to win. But when it comes to that big point, he always wins. Then, you hear people talking about routines. They talk about the purposeful Sharapova routine and Djokovic with his ball bouncing routine.
What is your take on all of these?
Emma: Yeah, it's a fantastic question. The first thing I would say, again, as an NLPer is that we really take into account the individual. How you should play that point is going to be based on your game style, your tactical objective, the score, the opponent, plus all the other factors. I mean, obviously, Nadal is one of the most mentally tough players we know. Great example. But what I do want to pick up on, is going into what you were talking about with regards to having a routine. I believe in helping people get in a resourceful state (which ultimately helps you to trust your instincts and play in the moment). Again, it is important to individualize that routine for each player. One such technique to help create this ‘state’ happens right before the ritual process. The ritual process refers to bouncing the ball before you serve or having a set return of serve ready position and it happens no matter what. What I'm talking about is the time right before the ritual when I encourage players to fire off an anchor. An anchor is a physical trigger, for example, pressing the right thumb on the dampener. This physical trigger helps players get in ‘state’ because it reminds the player to associate this with an affirmation. Affirmations that encourage and remind us to be in the present moment, for example:
- “I belong here”
- “I am ready”
- “I can do it”
- “I'm in the moment”
- “I'm here and now”
You want to avoid statements like, “I am awesome” or “I win every point” because in tennis you do not 100% control over the outcome. So we call that anchoring and then we associate information to help people play that breakpoint. Many of my clients from this technique far more useful than other distracting thoughts that you could potentially have on big points. You have already thought tactically about how you're going to play the point and so by the time you fire off your anchor and affirmation you have nothing left to think about except trusting your process and letting go of the outcome and perform your ritual. Interestingly, the more you can trust the process, the outcome ends up taking care of itself (and hopefully in your favor)! Does that make sense?
SportsEdTV: Yes. We watch a tennis match on TV now, how do you look for these things? Tennis players all around the world, they look at forehand, you look at technique, they look at movements. How can you look at what different tennis players are doing? Is there any way you can understand what their anchors are? What their affirmations are?
Emma: When watching a tennis match, most people pay attention to the point play and then between the points they are chatting, checking their phone, and not paying attention to observing the players’ body language. It is fascinating to watch what is going on between points and if you can get close enough to the court, what are they saying to themselves. I worked with one particular player last year on the WTA tour, who really benefited from watching replay footage of her between point routine only. We edited out the actual points and she was able to see how her routine either positively or negatively affected her focus and consequently, the point outcome. In summary, watch what happens between the points. Watch what happens on the practice courts. Watch what happens right before big points. I mean, I love watching the Grand Slams, but some of favorite matches to watch are the last round of the qualifications (normally you can see these matches for free. I mean, that's where you learn about the mental conditioning. And you have plenty of opportunities to observe pressure moments. Have a look at what they do. You might not be able to pick up on their exact anchor but the most solid players under pressure will have a consistent routine individually tailored. There’s so much that happens between points. And I highly recommend that you do focus on that, whether it be doubles as well. I mean, I've got something called the hot spot where the players meet in the center of the court. So we're always a team. We're showing that unison. It's not always one player walking up to the other player. So there's lots of subtle between point strategies and observing how people spend this time fascinates me.
SportsEdTV: I saw Leandre Pei's playing doubles match, I know he loves playing for the crowd. He looks out in front of a big crowd and there was a great point that they won and when he won that point, he got the crowd to make noise, he used the crowd and then the next few points, that team won those points. It seemed like he knew that he could use the crowd to benefit him and he probably knew, that it would negatively impact the other team because maybe they're not so experienced playing in front of a big crowd. I thought that was quite fascinating. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened, but it seems that way.
