Pressure
Training Exercises
Tennis players accelerate their learning to deal with
pressure by being in pressure situations during practice.
Each pressure practice exercise uses a different method
to generate pressure on athletes. Three effective methods
that help athletes gain practice and skill in dealing
with pressure are One Shot, in which only a single shot
or attempt is allowed; an Imagery Exercise, in which athletes
imagine that a practice session is an important competition;
and Scoring Methods, in which practice performances are
scored and ranked.
One Shot
Ordinarily during practice sessions, particular shots
are repeated numerous times in a drill. One Shot is a
technique that creates pressure on the athlete by allowing
only one attempt at the shot.
Players are told that there is only one try and no second
chances to make a certain shot or play. In fact, the practice
is set up so that there are no opportunities to re-do
or correct the performance. Players know that they need
to make their one chance count.
Certain conditions applied to the One Shot exercise enhance
its effectiveness. By springing the exercise on athletes,
players have to adjust immediately to the added intensity
and pressure. Absence of prior warning imitates the sudden
shifts in momentum in competitions and the big points
that come up quickly without time for mental preparation.
One Shot tests athletes' ability to cope with pressure.
Athletes benefit from having a discussion after the exercise
in which players' reactions are examined. It is important
that players recognize how they feel when they are under
pressure and how their performance is affected by pressure.
Once players see how they react under pressure, they can
learn to improve their responses. Of particular importance
is learning to develop the ability to create extra focus
and intensity for critical plays.
For this type of pressure practice, coaches need to adjust
to briefer practice segments that emphasize high quality.
The time taken for the One Shot exercise may turn out
to be similar to other drills if the discussion segment
is added to the exercise.
Carrying out the One Shot exercise can be done with different
shots and with variations in the set up for the shots.
Players can have one serve attempt to pull out of a critical
situation. Or, they can be given one try to hit a deep
overhead, knowing that this one try needs to be a put-away
to secure a point at a critical juncture. Another possibility
is giving players one shot on a return of a second serve
to their opponent. They need to make a decisive play on
this return because the score is at match point for the
opponent.
Imagery
Imagery can be used to turn a regular practice
session into a pressure practice. Visualizing that the
practice is an important event intensifies the practice
and puts pressure on the player. This is the Olympics!
is one name for exercises that use graphic visualizations
to produce a vivid sense of playing at a major event.
Numerous successful Olympic athletes attribute their success
to imagery. Creating vivid imagery in training sessions
allows the training session to become something more.
Imagery can work to generate intensity and pressure and
to inspire players to lift their performance to meet those
conditions.
Young athletes across sports use visualization frequently
as they practice. Athletes fantasize about running, cycling,
or playing tennis with their hero. As a young athlete
returns a low, fast backhand from the backboard, he imagines
himself on a practice court before his match at Wimbledon.
The young player, ignoring tired legs and breathlessness,
listens to encouragement from "Michael Chang," or "Patrick
Rafter," who stands at courtside giving his special charge
instructions to hit out and to be aggressive and focused. The
young player pushes himself hard, not letting anything
get by him without a supreme effort to make the return.
He strains to execute each shot as perfectly and as powerfully
as he can since he is playing for his hero.
High-quality practices accompanying a visualization about
one's sports hero or about a championship setting are
not uncommon. Using these types of visualizations produces
a natural and effective form of visualization practice
that increases the intensity and the performance level
during practice.
Capitalizing on this natural inclination to imagine practices
as important events, coaches or players themselves can
create a variety of imagery exercises that increase the
pressure experienced during practices. These imagery exercises
are not confined to imagining Olympic events. Imagery
can be used to create a match against an older sibling;
a competition with a staunch rival; a match observed by
an important agent or a scout from a prestigious college;
a match played out in front of the hometown crowd; the
finals for the NCAA.
How important an event is to an individual player determines
the pressure generated when those circumstances and settings
are created in the imagination. This is the Olympics!
exercise gives players the experience of pressure from
a range of imagined settings. Players have the chance
to experience raising their game to meet the demands for
the important moment.
Scoring
Scoring performances in practice sessions is
another pressure training method. Scoring and ranking
athletes turns up the pressure and changes a regular practice
into a pressure practice.
In the Top Gun School, a scoring method is used with the
very complex task of landing a fighter jet on an aircraft
carrier. The process involves landing on the deck of the
carrier at full throttle and having one of four wires
snare the hook on the bottom of the plane. An individual
rates each landing attempt on a Greenie Board, the recording
system for rating aircraft carrier landings.
Tom Emanski transfers this concept of scoring performance
to his coaching instruction of baseball players. He uses
a hitting drill that he refers to as Greenie Board Batting
Practice. Coaches grade players from zero to four points
on each swing players take through a series of times at
bat.
Every two weeks the scores recorded from the batting drills
are posted so that each player knows exactly where he
ranks in relation to the others. Players with the lowest
scores receive extra drills. Rating players' batting performance,
posting the results, and adding the consequence of additional
drills increase the sense of pressure and make these practices
ones that prepare players for pressure performances in
competitions.
Creating pressure practices with scoring methods transfers
easily to tennis. Coaches or players themselves can score
serves on a rating system of 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0. To receive
the highest score of 4 on a serve, players must hit a
target zone in the service box. Descending scores correspond
to areas increasingly farther away from the target, similar
to the widening concentric circles used in certain archery
or pistol-shooting exercises.
A second scoring practice drill is a 10-ball drill in
which each of the 10 balls is fed to the player by the
coach. Regardless of where the ball lands on the player's
side, the player must return each ball to a marked target
zone. Scores are based on the 4 to 0 rating system as
in the first drill with 4 given as the highest score and
0 given for a miss. The other point scores relate to the
distance the player's return lands from the target zone.
A third scoring exercise assists players in reducing their
number of errors and serves as a pressure training practice.
In this drill, two players play out points. One player
serves for four consecutive points. The player serving
must serve and volley. The score from 4 to 0 represents
the number of points a player wins out of the four points.
After four points are played, the other player becomes
the server and serves for another four points.
These scoring drills, as well as the imagery exercises
and the One Shot drill, assist players in dealing with
pressure because they make players experience pressure
during practice.
Summary
A chasm of difference exists between pressure-laden major
competitions and daily practices. The result is that typically
athletes learn to cope with pressure situations in a trial-by-fire
process. They acquire pressure-handling ability by going
to a sufficient number of important competitions. They
learn to manage the pressure adequately or they are benched
or criticized or they remove themselves from the heat
of pressure events.
An alternative is teaching athletes to handle pressure
by using specific methods for transforming regular practice
sessions into pressure practices. One Shot exercises,
Imagery exercises, and Scoring techniques are three methods
that teach athletes to perform well during those pressure
moments when performance counts the most.
By using pressure practices, players have the opportunity
to see how they handle pressure and to examine their reactions
in a learning context. With repeated pressure practices,
they learn what reactions work best and how to correct
and develop their reactions to a variety of pressure-generating
competitive situations.
This article is based on material from Performing Under
Pressure: Mental Techniques for Handling Pressure in Tennis
a book on mental training in sports by Marie Dalloway
Copyright © 2000 By Marie Dalloway All Rights Reserved
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