One Point at a Time
In working with athletes across different sports, I see a familiar trend: Coaching phrases repeatedly used that sound inspiring, but fall flat unless the athlete has worked with a sport psychology consultant.
For example:“All you have to do is play one point at a time.” In my experience, this phrase is the bread and butter for competitive tennis coaches. It is often employed when encouraging a player to mount a comeback or play under pressure. It is used so often that when I work with tennis players about playing under pressure, players regurgitate this exact line to me. My coach says, “I just need to play one point at a time.” However, if you ask the player how do you do that? Why is that important? They just repeat it, and the importance of the phrase is lost. The problem with this phrase is two-fold: athletes are given this “plan” to execute, yet have no idea what it is or how to do it, and coaches leave their athlete thinking they have provided them with adequate mental skills. No progress made.
As you may have guessed, “playing one point at a time” is an incredibly mental task. It ultimately culminates with one question: Can the athlete effectively stay in the present? Staying in the present requires the athlete to create awareness of their thoughts. Delving into what thoughts they are having, why they are having them, and the impact of them on the mind and the body. All of this happens before we begin to work on additional skills to shift thinking: letting some thoughts go and replacing others to stay in the moment. Without working on building this skill set, playing one point at a time is a hallowed practice and does not mean much to performance.
Coaches are experts in technical and tactical training. When providing coaching, the best tools they can offer are ones they have taught their students. Maybe that is reminding the player of a specific pattern, technical change, or drill they have done. However, mental skills need practice over time. Competition is not the time for throwing in contemplation and confusion.