HTP Podcast - Holistic Tennis Performance: Have you ever felt like you play amazing in practice, but it matches your game falls apart. Your arms get tight, your feet feel really heavy shots that you normally make you start to miss. No, you're not losing your technique and it's not just your mindset or your footwork breaking down is so much deeper than that. welcome back to HTP podcasts where we go beyond just strokes and strategy. This is our new series Breakpoint Battle where we train how your mind and body respond under pressure so your game doesn't fall apart when it matters most. If you can do me a huge favor so I can keep bringing you free content, please like, share, and subscribe. So I want to make this concept really simple This is actually going to be new to most of you guys here listening, two main things are happening. Your mind body connection and your nervous system. So what do I mean by that? Your mind are your thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Your body is how those thoughts ⁓ show up physically. and your nervous system, that's your body's reaction system. It's like an alarm system trying to get your attention. So how they work together, your mind and body are always talking. Even when you're sleeping, they are still talking. Your mind says, don't miss this shot. So what does your body do? It tightens up to protect you. That's why your swing feels different under pressure and you start to get tighter and tighter. When you practice, your nervous system is not the same way as it is in matches. Why? Because your thoughts and emotions ⁓ different. In practice, you don't feel as much pressure, you don't attach as much meaning to the outcome, and missing doesn't feel like the end of the world. So your body stays relaxed. But in a match, your thoughts change. Like don't double fault. My backhand sucks today. I can't move my bleep feet. Now your nervous system reacts. Your heart rate increases, your muscles tighten, which is why your swing slows down and your technique changes and your breath shortens. This is really important. And suddenly the same player with the same skills feels completely different in a match than practice. Like who is that person out there? Who showed up today? I don't recognize her. now here's the other piece to the missing puzzle. When you lose an important match, your mind and your body remember that experience. Your brain plugs it into memory. Your nervous system stores it. So the next time you're in a similar situation, your body starts preparing before your mind even realizes what's happening. You might feel tightness, faster breathing, nerves out of nowhere, and it feels like I don't have control. But it's not that you don't have control. Your body is just trying to protect you based on past experiences. Have you ever heard of PTSD? Except this isn't as extreme. We do this naturally to help protect ourselves so we don't make the same mistake. The truth, this is why most players struggle. to transfer practice into matches is not a technique problem. No, your footwork is not breaking down. It's that your nervous system is not activated the same way. You don't feel pressure in the same way. You give more meaning to the outcome and your body remembers past pressure moments. Now, let me give you an analogy. If you only focus on your strokes, or only focus on your mindset. It's like watching a tennis match with one eye. ⁓ going to miss something. But when you understand how your mind and body work together, it's like watching a match with two eyes. ⁓ you see the whole game. So what's the solution to this? First off, I'm going to be honest with you. There's no quick fix, but in this Breakpoint Battle Series, I'm going to give you simple, specific tools that you can start using in your matches right away. Now, how much this changes your game comes down to you and how much you're willing to implement and how consistently you're going to do it. But if you're looking for something you can start doing immediately, ⁓ ask you this. How many practice matches are you playing each week? And how many tournaments are you playing each month? Because if you're only practicing in controlled environments, you're not actually training for pressure. You have to start putting yourself in real match situations where your body and your mind feel something and your nervous system is activated. Another tool I recommend is guided meditation and you can go check out my guided meditation overcome performance anxiety on HTP podcast. And I know what some of you might be thinking. How is meditation going to help my tennis game? And trust me, I used to think that too. But here's the key. Your mind and body don't know the difference between something happening in real time and something you're Imagine. So when you visualize pressure, your body actually starts to respond to it. That's how you begin training your mind body connection off the court. Because at the end of the day, this is what it comes down to. You need to put your mind and body into pressure situations so you can learn how to work with your nervous system. Because you can't override a system that's been built over hundreds. hundreds of thousands of years. But you can learn how to work with it. So here's what this really comes down to. Your nervous system reacts to pressure. That's what it was built to do. Your mind and body work together to either support you work to protect you. Right? If a saber-toothed tiger was coming at you, you're going to want to find ways to protect yourself. And that's what it's exactly doing. But now this is under a tennis match where our nervous system still responds in the same way, though what we're going through is very different. And so your past experiences shape how you show up in those moments before you even have time to think. That's why your game feels different in matches. But the good news is this is something you can train. You absolutely can. And let me tell you, I used to be a nervous wreck. Till this day, I would get nervous. the difference is, is you can learn to train and work with it ⁓ and time and time again. And that's huge. There is a solution for you. And that's exactly what we're going to do in the Breakpoint Battle Series. We're going to train how your mind and body respond under pressure. so you can stay loose, clear, and confident when it matters most. If you want to start bringing your practice into matches, follow HTP Podcasts and join us in this era of tennis performance. And if this episode helped you, please share it with another player who needs to hear this. And of course, please like, share, and subscribe.