Concentration and the ability to focus

 

The mind is a mystery for athletes of all sports who compete at any level.  We can train our bodies to be stronger and run for longer periods of time in practice and then know that come match time there will be no surprises.  Similarly, with technique; we develop a way to hit the forehand or backhand and we drill it for hours on end until it becomes second-nature.  When we step up to a match, we know that we can rely on those strokes that we have been hitting in practice.  With strategy, it is the same; nothing changes from practice to a match, we know what we know and it becomes simply a case of application and decision-making.

 

However, the mind can be totally relaxed and calm in practice or when playing with friends and as soon as someone suggests playing a match or as soon as the umpire says love-all…...anything could and usually does happen.  Why is this so? 

 

How we can train our mind and what does it need training in?  What does it mean to be mentally tough or as I like call it mentally aware?

 

The most obvious mental quality an individual must possess to play to his or her potential is the ability to concentrate or focus.  This seems easy enough; if we concentrate and hit the ball cleanly every time the ball comes to us the mental side of the game has been taken care of.

 

Unfortunately, it is not so easy.  Technique can be learned and then relied upon to be there because strokes become unconscious or automatic.  Some people like to call it muscle memory, while others have difficulty accepting that the muscles have memory.  Either way the strokes do not have to be learned over and over again, once learned they are there.  Similarly, the physical body is a ‘machine’ which can be trained to be fitter if you are willing to do the hard work.  Once you put in the hard work, you can rely on a certain fitness level, which will be there when you go out to compete.  There is no need for any special effort during competition.  The same is true of strategy and tactics, once learned they are there forever.  However, there is a decision-making process in tennis that does not allow this to be an automatic phenomenon.  You need to be present to make simple decisions based on what is happening in the match at any particular moment.

 

The mind however is completely different.  We can hone our powers of concentration and certainly this will be helpful.  How do we do this?  Off court, we can look at a lit candle and practice just watching the flame.  We can sit and look at a tennis ball for the same result.  There are many such techniques that help narrow the focus of our mind towards a single point.  Certainly different meditation techniques can also be of tremendous help.  For example, we can just sit and watch the thousands of thoughts that pass through our mind constantly, without judgment; and without any effort to stop the thoughts.  In addition, there are several simple on-court techniques, which can be of tremendous help to develop one’s powers of concentration.

 

However, regardless of how we prepare off the court, once we step on to the court to compete there is nothing automatic about the mind.  One moment, you can be relaxed and flowing and the next tense and nervous or angry and frustrated.  The key to understanding why this happens is becoming aware of the relationship between time and the mind. 

 

Mind operates from the past.  It accumulates knowledge, but all that knowledge is from the past and while this is impressive for intellectual pursuits, it has little relevance to playing tennis.  In fact, it can become an obstacle to playing one’s best tennis. 

 

Time, on the other hand, is only present.  Past and future although traditionally considered a part of time are really not.  Is there an existential reality to something that has already happened or something that may or may not happen in the future?  Time is moment to moment, it is not fixed; it cannot be relied upon.  The present is undependable, it is not unconscious like actions can be; instead, it is spontaneous and unpredictable. 

 

So if you want to be in tune with time or if you want to be present, you need to be conscious.  You need to be there and you can’t just be there for a moment, you basically need to be herenow every time the ball is in play and especially when you are about to hit the ball.  Execution is all mental and in order to execute you need to be present.  This is the real difficulty of the mind and this is why it is the most difficult component to train.  It has actually nothing to do with the sport one is playing, it has everything to do with the individual and unless we realize this, many talented and physically gifted athletes will be unable to compete to their potential.

 

We have already talked about training the mind to be focused; these techniques will work to some extent, but let us look a little closer at the art of concentration.  Let us define concentration as the absence of external stimuli.  In other words, we look at a movie screen, but we don’t go on saying to ourselves, ‘watch the screen’ or ‘focus’.  Why is that?   Why do we not say that while watching a movie, but we do when we are playing a tennis match? 

 

The reason is simply because the movie holds our attention, we are absorbed by the movie, but in tennis we are not absorbed by the ball.  We are focused on winning the point or the match and so the ball is only of incidental interest.  If our goal was simply to hit the ball, our execution would improve incredibly. 

 

Staying focused or concentrated becomes difficult for most players because their mind is too active and the mind is active scheming, planning, hoping and dreaming of winning the point or the match. 

 

It is the external stimulus that prevents us from being focused.  In other words, to become more focused we would simply need to remove the external stimuli.  The external stimulus is this planning, dreaming and scheming.  Once this is dropped, looking at the ball becomes easy because it is easy if that is all we want to do.

 

The external stimuli can only be dropped through increased awareness and understanding of what is important and what is not.  Our dreams exist because we think their realization will transform our lives in a real sense, when we understand that this is a false assumption, obviously the dream will drop by itself and once it drops we will become more present and as we become more present we will begin to see the ball more clearer.