Though negative thinking is something that should be avoiding as much as possible, it is a normal response to poor play. In fact, some negative thinking is healthy because it means that you care about how you are playing. However, the wrong kind of negative thinking can be very harmful to your tennis.

There are two types of negative thinking. The first kind, give up negative thinking, is associated with feelings of depression and helplessness. You say things like, “There is nothing I can do to play better” or “No matter how hard I try, I just can’t do it.” Give up negative thinking also causes you to dwell on past performances, focusing on mistakes made and bad results in recent matches. This type of thinking hurts confidence, focus, and motivation. Quite simply, there is never a place for give up negative thinking the mind of a tennis player.

The second kind is called fire up negative thinking. Fire up negative thinking produces feelings of anger, energy and being psyched up. You say things such as, “I hate playing poorly and I’m going to play better the next match,” “I am so mad that I am going to work twice as hard in practice this week.” The focus of fire up negative thinking is on doing better in the future. As a result, fire up negative thinking can be useful. However, it should not last more than a few days because negative thinking and emotions require a lot of energy that could be better used for training and matches.

Remember, “Person who says, “it can not be done”, should not interrupt person who is doing it.”