Getting in the 'Zone' - A Player's Perspective
This post was written by Mattspoint athlete, Washi Gervais. Washi played NCAA Division I tennis at Saint-Francis University between 2012 and 2016 and was named player of the year in the Northeast Conference during the 2015/2016 season. After college tennis, he played two years on the ATP Futures circuit, achieving a career high ranking of 1543 in singles and 1697 in doubles. He worked with French psychologist Jean-Phillipe Vaillant in 2015/2016 and has since gotten more interested in the mental side of tennis. This post explores ‘the zone’ from both a research and practical (player’s) perspective.
Every competitive tennis player has experienced playing in the “zone” at some point in their career. You feel dynamic, but calm and relaxed. You have a feeling of strength, confidence and invulnerability. You take pleasure in the match and the battle at hand, without worrying about losing, or even winning for that matter. You forget about technical flaws and just focus on the ball and your target. In the end, you just play. Everything seems to flow. So much so that you might even lose track of time and the score. Seem familiar?
Whether you’ve experienced the zone during a competitive match or not, many will agree that the feelings described above represent an ideal mental state to play elite level tennis. So what if I told you that you could get in the zone on command?
While it’s easier said than done, this is what mental coach Jean-Phillipe Vaillant believes every tennis player can achieve. Specializing in golf and tennis, he argues in his book ‘Pensez Comme un Champion’ (Think Like a Champion) that tennis greats like Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, and Williams can play in the zone whenever they choose to. As he puts it, they are zone addicts. But not only can they get into the zone (via techniques we’ll talk about in this post), these champions have the same ability to realize when they’re getting out of the zone too - a quality often overlooked.
Again, the zone isn’t some sort of unattainable utopia. Csikszentmihalyi (1990), one of the first psychologist to put forward the concept of the zone through his “flow theory”, (and its’ eight dimensions), described flow (or the zone) as:
Having clear goals and feedback;
Having a balance between challenges and skills;
Action and awareness merging;
Full concentration on the task at hand;
A sense of potential control;
Loss of self-consciousness;
An altered sense of time; and
Being autotelic (self-rewarding).
In light of these researches and Vaillant’s work, I will outline four components that are interrelated and which I believe are necessary when aiming to reach the zone. Just note, I’m not an expert in achieving the ‘zone’ but working with a mental coach has enabled me to reach this state on many occasions (but more on my practical experience later in this post).
The 4 ‘Zoning’ Components:
There must be a challenge
Concentration
Living in the present moment
Emotional control
While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it’s my belief - based on research and personal experience -, these four components will give you the best chances to get in the zone most often. Also, whether champions have learned to think the way they do through environment or through adequate coaching, getting in the zone is a skill that MUST be practiced (just like your crosscourt forehand). No one wakes up in the morning thinking like a champion, you learn to do it. In this sense, anyone working hard enough, and smart enough, can achieve this skill.
Challenge
Having a challenge is an essential pillar when aiming to reach the zone. Indeed, the absence of challenge makes us find motivations outside of the game itself, such as winning and thinking that you’re entitled to win. How many times have you heard the following situation: “I can’t lose to this player. I have a better ranking and I am just better than him.” This situation leads to playing anxiously and not to lose, which we all agree isn’t ideal during tennis play.
On the other hand, the challenge rises naturally when you play an opponent who you believe is better than you (but that you still believe you can beat); leading you to play freely with nothing to lose. This feeling usually lasts until you lead in the score and actually think you can beat him, which is when you start playing not to lose again. It’s a vicious cycle we’ve all surely experienced.
Thus, to play in the zone, the player must see a challenge that he believes he can overcome. But how do players like Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, who have won everything on the circuit, still perceive challenges in their matches? According to Vaillant, it’s not money nor fame, but the love of the game! They find pleasure in competition, and they embrace the adversity that comes along with it. Vaillant points out that while the goal remains to win the match, they also find pleasure in overcoming obstacles in a match. These players live in an irrational world where they absolutely have nothing to lose: they see wins as rewards for their work, and losses as lessons to move forward. That’s it! They don’t, on the other hand, live in a binary world in which one says: “If I win, I’m happy, If I lose, I’m sad”. I used to think that way, and that is one of the most common mental mistakes juniors and entry level pros make alike. I’m no expert, but I’m working on this skill…you should try it too!
The same applies to stress and pressure. People see stress as a bad thing, and the solution often given is to avoid it at all costs. If you believe that, then don’t play tennis, because stress and pressure just come as a matter of fact in the game. On the contrary, stress and pressure should be seen as opportunities to grow. Sports psychologist Jeff Greenwald, author of ‘The Best Tennis of Your Life’, argues that players should find pleasure in pressure. He argues that players learn to thrive under stress and pressure; they are opportunities to challenge yourself.
As female tennis great Billie Jean King once, said, “pressure is a privilege”…now that’s powerful.
In order to set a good challenge that will enable the player to be in the zone, it is imperative to set clear objectives. Objectives that rely on concentration, the present moment, and emotional control are clear. Some concepts may overlap in the next sections, but as we said earlier, they are all interrelated.
Concentration
Having a good challenge with a clear objective in mind breeds concentration. When faced with a problem, we naturally focus and try to find solutions. In tennis, you are faced with the challenge to beat the opponent in front of you, and finding pleasure in doing so may, as we said earlier, help a player achieve a zone-like state. But what exactly do you need to focus on when trying to beat your opponent?
A common mistake is to focus on technique during a match. So many players get lost mentally in self-destructive thoughts about their strokes, when in reality tennis is a game of aims and targets. Don’t get me wrong, some players, especially at a young age, need to go through technical changes in their game, and the only way to groove these changes is to think about them often. However, when we speak purely of competition, focusing on technique brings no mental edge.
Instead, concentration should be aimed at sending the ball towards the target of your choice (tactical aspect comes into play here), while at the same time, being in the right emotional state…nothing more. One of the skills that is often overlooked in tennis is the ability to see the ball clearly when you play. In order to train that skill, here’s an exercise given by Vaillant that works on ball perception:
Exercise with variations:
While Rallying, say out loud, then in your head:
The number “1” when the ball bounces on your side of the court
The number “2” when the ball hits the strings of your racquet
Variation: While rallying, say out loud, then in your head:
The number “3” when the ball bounces on the other side of the court
The number “4” when the ball hits the string of your opponent's racquet
Variation: Say out loud then in your head:
The number “1” when the ball bounces on your side of the court
The number “2” when the ball hits the strings of your racquet
The number “3” when the ball bounces on the other side of the court
The number “4” the ball hits the string of your opponent's racquet
Indeed, I have done this exercise myself for years and I also used it while coaching; players usually instantly find an increased feeling of timing with the ball (see our previous post on learning for more non-traditional ways to improve perception, timing and rhythm).`
Another aspect of concentration we need to tackle is the notion of internal versus external attention:
Players who focus on internal factors are the ones who can focus a whole match without ever getting out of their bubble. Federer and Nadal are perfect examples of players who are internally focused.
Players who focus on external factors are the ones who focus only when the point starts, but as soon as it ends, their focus shift towards external stimuli. Examples here include John McEnroe and Nick Kyrgios.
Why is this relevant? Whether you are internal or external doesn’t hinder your ability to be a great player in any way. However, you need to know yourself in order to give yourself the best chance to perform. As it relates to the zone, players with internal focus stay in the zone the whole match and get back into it as soon as they slip out. Players with external focus constantly get in and out of the zone when the points start and end.
Live in the Present Moment
Having the right focus goes hand in hand with living in the present moment. First, it’s important to acknowledge what happens when a player lives in the past or the future during a tennis match: both create expectations, and expectations create anxiety. Often, having the wrong objectives, such as focusing solely on winning, creates expectations and anxiety, and players who think like that often live in the past or future. They dwell on mistakes made in previous games, and play not to lose.
A better objective is to play one point at a time. It is one of the trademarks of playing in the zone: players in the zone are quick to turn the page after a point, and they focus on the next one at hand. That is what living in the present means in tennis.
Now, we all know that this is easier said than done. We all blew a lead in a match when we thought it was over, which probably lead to some very dark, self-destructing thoughts about taking the next flight home (if you played internationally) or destroying all your racquets in the parking lot. We’ve surely all been there before.
But as Vaillant points out, the first thing to do is to simply realize that you are stepping out of the present moment. Just acknowledging the situation such as “Hey, I’m not in the here anymore,” can usually bring you back to the present moment.
Another simple way to stay in the moment is to focus on your routines in between points. The actual content of the routine isn’t as important as consistency and repeatability. If you change what you do between each point, that’s no longer a routine. It’s not hard to notice the post-point routines of various tennis greats - just watch Sharapova, Nadal and others for examples. Lastly, your routines should include positive self-talk - not only will this help you stay in the present moment, it’s been shown to improve self-efficacy (i.e. believing in yourself and your abilities). But more on this topic a little later.
Emotional Control
Emotional control is the most important component of getting in the zone in my opinion. Everything you built upon will collapse if you’re not able to control your emotional reactions on the tennis court (and believe me, stuff happens on court…we all have to get better at dealing with it).
A common myth is to believe that emotions control our behaviour. According to the evidence, that’s simply not true. This will sound like a tennis cliché: control what you can and forget what you can’t control. Nonetheless, there is no arguing against it (there’s always truth in a cliché). You can’t control the sun, your opponent’s behaviour, the referees’ decisions, the way your opponent grunts, and the list goes on and on. What you can control is your reaction to these situations. Emotions will surface, but how you deal with them and how you react is your choice. Some players act as if they are martyrs of the tennis world: they always get the bad draws, the referees are always against them, their opponent cheated… someone who comes prepared with emotional control as part of their game plan has already won half the mental battle.
Give yourself permission to miss. This is very important. If you sincerely give yourself this permission, you will be one step closer to mastering the skill of emotional control. Tennis is a game of mistakes, meaning no one is perfect. Even when you will play in the zone, mistakes will happen, but they won’t bother you.
Lastly, how you talk to yourself is key. As explained by Vaillant, we have a conscious mind and an unconscious mind. The conscious mind is the voice that talks in your head, while the unconscious mind is like your brain’s hard disk. The conscious mind rationalizes and takes decisions. The unconscious mind is very powerful, emotional and instinctive; it executes orders from the conscious mind, good or bad. In tennis, your unconscious mind is playing because it’s the one making your body move.
There are some rules according to Vaillant when it comes to communication between your unconscious mind and your conscious mind:
The unconscious mind doesn’t understand negation. Imagination is its’ most powerful tool. That’s why when people say “don’t miss” or “don’t double fault,” chances are they will actually miss more often.
The unconscious mind doesn’t understand obligation. If you say “I must” or “I need” to put the serve in, it probably won’t work.
Instead, your conscious mind needs to formulate everything it says to the unconscious mind in a positive way. “I must make that serve” becomes “I will make that serve to the T” (notice also how the command is precise). Furthermore, research confirms the importance of positive self-talk. Indeed, James Hardy reviews numerous research in his article titled Speaking Clearly: A Critical Review of the Self-Talk Literature (2006). He defines positive self-talk as a form of praise that helps keep athletes focused in the present rather than on past errors or the distant future. On the other hand, negative self-talk gets in the way of performance because it is inappropriate, irrational, and anxiety producing. Hardy points out that there is equivocal support for the use of positive self-talk to aid athletic performance.
Personal Experience
I have personally worked with Jean-Phillipe Vaillant while I played NCAA Division I tennis. As I mentioned earlier, getting in the zone is a skill that needs practice and repetition. I didn’t give up after a week because I didn’t see results right away, I understood that it took time. After a few months of adaptation and dedication to the cause, I started to see huge improvements in my game. I didn’t get mad as easily on the court, I stayed calm. The score and future outcomes didn’t bother me as much. The more I gave myself permission to miss, the less I missed. My junior year of college was average at best. After working with Vaillant in the fall of my senior year, my record was 15 wins and 4 losses in the spring.
However, I made a mistake; I thought I had acquired the skill of getting in the zone and that I didn’t need to work on it anymore. I stopped working with Vaillant, and, as you can imagine, my mental toughness started to drop, along with my results until I worked on it again. All this to say, getting in the zone is a skill, just like any other, that needs to be practiced continuously. It doesn’t assure you’ll reach it on command, but it sure as heck gives you a better chance.
I hope you found this article useful for your game. Please stay tuned to Mattspoint tennis for more tennis related articles!