How Music Can Help You Become a Better Tennis Player (Athlete)!
Introduction
Take a second to think about why you listen to music. For most of you it’s probably because music is fun and happy however there are other reasons people listen to music. Music elicits certain emotions. For example, when you hear certain songs from your childhood I’ll bet it brings up certain emotions from that period of time in your life. Music also distracts you from things you don’t want to focus on. For example, if you know a training session is going to be difficult, rather than focusing on how difficult you think it’s going to be, focus on a piece of music that helps distract and prepare you.
Not only does music benefit us in our personal lives but as part of a pre-performance routine, it can have similar benefits to help your athletes get and stay in their optimal zone of readiness for a match.
Music elicits emotion
Your tennis players have to decide what kind and what level of arousal they need in competition; for now let’s call this energy. This depends on the individual. Some tennis players need a lot of energy to compete and others need less. It is up to you and your athlete to determine what the right amount of energy is for your athlete to play at optimal levels. Too much energy or too little energy both set your athlete up for failure; both ends of the spectrum might be considered ‘negative’ energy. At the lower end, your athlete is not feeling prepared enough to compete (i.e. most always loses the first set) and the other end your athlete has too much energy to compete (i.e. emotions are all over the place). You want to help your athlete find just the right place amount of energy where they are in their zone. Once they find their zone then they want to choose the right piece of music that brings them there and keeps them there during their pre-performance routine.
For example, one of my tennis players realized she didn’t have enough energy going into her matches. She almost always lost the first set. We realized that she needed some energy. We combined her imagery with a motivating, upbeat song (that she chose) and included those elements into her pre-performance routine. It made a huge difference for her. She feels more prepared at the very beginning of each match and is now winning 85% of her first games.
Music distracts
Another great benefit of music is that it can distract your athlete from any temporary negative emotions getting in the way of performance: jitters, butterflies, nerves, anxiety, negative thoughts, doubts, fears, etc. Listening to the right piece of music the night before and included as part of your athlete’s pre-performance routine has the ability to draw their attention in and keep their mind away from negative emotions. It also lowers heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension so that your athlete starts off feeling mentally and physically more prepared. For example, one of my tennis players realized that she started falling apart the night before a match. She would get knots in her stomach and she experienced a plethora of worries, doubts and fears. For her classical music combined with progressive relaxation helped her to calm down and go to sleep. It also (generally) helped her to wake up feeling calm and relaxed.
The affect of arousal/energy on performance
Catastrophe theory states that with low worry, increases in arousal and somatic anxiety are related to performance in an inverted U way. At the bottom of the bell curve energy is too low; an athlete is not energized enough for the task. As performance and energy increases performance will improve to an athlete’s optimal zone. If arousal/energy continues beyond the zone there is a rapid and dramatic decline in performance. Once an athlete’s performance has rapidly declined due to increased arousal levels, the athlete would need to greatly decrease their physiological arousal before being able to regain previous performance levels.
Not only does catastrophe theory seem to hold true during performance but in my experience with tennis players, it holds true prior to performance. Too little energy an athlete is not energized enough for the task. With the right preparation, energy increases to your athlete’s optimal zone of readiness to play. However, if pre-match energy continues to rise beyond the zone of readiness: worries, fears, doubts and rapid heart rate increased arousal levels to a point where they would need to greatly decrease before being starting a match to be prepared to perform at their optimal performance level.
In part II of this blog I am going continue to talk about how music facilitates good performance!
I hope you are having a super, great day!
Dr. Michelle
Photo credit: www.playbuzz.com
This conversation has been brought to you by Dr. Michelle’s teleseminar series: Beating the Tennis Demons – a 3 step system to win more matches without working harder. It’s not too late to register now to receive more valuable information about how Dr. Michelle can help you win more matches: https://drmichellecleere.com/btd/
