{"id":6597,"date":"2015-06-06T20:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T03:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/?p=6597"},"modified":"2015-06-06T20:00:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T03:00:40","slug":"playing-your-best-as-the-favorite-and-the-underdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/playing-your-best-as-the-favorite-and-the-underdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing Your Best Tennis As The Favorite And The Underdog"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Favorite<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you walk onto the court you are the clear favorite. You are simply better than your opponent. You know you will win the match. But as the match starts, you just don\u2019t feel right. Your head isn\u2019t in the match and your body feels sluggish. Before you know it, you\u2019re down 1-5. You\u2019re in trouble. How could this happen?!?!?<\/p>\n

However enviable it may seem, being the favorite going into a match is one of the most difficult positions to be in in tennis. You\u2019re in a no-win situation. If you win, it\u2019s no big deal. You were expected to win. If you lose, it\u2019s a huge blow because it simply shouldn\u2019t happen. But it is a common scenario that affects the world\u2019s best players. We\u2019ve all seen top-10 players in early round matches at a Grand Slam struggle early. They may lose the first set before rebounding to win the match or they never recover and are ousted early in a big upset.<\/p>\n

So why does the favorite often not play like the sure thing they are supposed to be. The problem starts with overconfidence, knowing that you\u2019re going to win. This absolute certainty produces a variety of mental and physical changes ensuring that you won\u2019t perform up to the level that made you the favorite in the first place.<\/p>\n

The first thing that goes mentally is your motivation. You know you\u2019re going to win, so you think you don\u2019t need to work as hard to win. You don\u2019t put quite as much effort in your game as you need to play well. Then your intensity drops. You no longer have the oxygen, blood flow, and adrenaline that makes you strong and quick. Finally, you lose your focus. Instead of being focused on the process, that is, what you need to do to play your best, you\u2019re already in the locker room patting yourself on the back for a match that you haven,\u2019 even played yet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Combating the favorite blues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Avoiding this letdown, what I call the Favorite Blues, involves taking active steps to change your mental and physical states before and at the start of your match. To show everyone why you are the favorite, follow these suggestions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be confident, but not overconfident. Combating the Favorite Blues starts with your attitude toward the match. You want to be confident in your ability to play well and win, but you don\u2019t want to assume that a victory is a foregone conclusion. The fact is, on any given day, if two players are even remotely close in ability, anything can happen. Winning is never a certainty. You don\u2019t know if your opponent has improved since you last played or whether you\u2019re totally on your own game. Have respect for your opponent and know that if you play your best you will win.<\/li>\n
  2. Get your intensity up. If you\u2019re the favorite, you can assume that you\u2019ll start the match with insufficient intensity to play your best. So actively \u201crev your engine\u201d before you go on court and in the first few games of the match. Jump rope five minutes before you start. Jump up and down and keep moving between points. Don\u2019t sit down on changeovers. Use high energy self-talk (e.g., \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d \u201cCome on!\u201d) and body language (e.g., slap your thigh, pump your fist).<\/li>\n
  3. Keep a process focus. Since you expect to win, it\u2019s easy to focus on the outcome, that is, your win, rather than on the process, that is, what you need to do to play well. Remember, the outcome occurs after the match ends, so focusing on it actually interferes with you achieving that desired outcome. But if you focus on the process, for example, getting your first serve in, hitting deep, or coming in on short balls, then you\u2019re more likely to play well and the result will be that you have a greater chance of attaining the outcome you want, namely, the victory you so richly deserve.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Underdog<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Walking on the court, you know you don\u2019t have a chance. You\u2019ve played your opponent before and he or she crushed you. Sure enough, in the first few games, you don\u2019t play well and you fall behind 0-3 even though your opponent doesn\u2019t seem as good as you remembered. What do you do?!?!?<\/p>\n

    Being the underdog is the most enviable of positions to be in for a match. You\u2019re in a no-lose situation. If you do lose, you were supposed to. But if you win, what a coup that would be. But most players don\u2019t think that way. Most likely, you go into a match in which you\u2019re the underdog with very little confidence. You already know the outcome of the match and it\u2019s not a good one for you. Since you know you\u2019re going to lose, you get nervous before the match because you\u2019re going to look like a jerk losing to this player again. With this attitude and the accompanying anxiety, your focus is shot too. You\u2019re so focused on how badly you\u2019re going to play, well, that\u2019s how you\u2019re likely to play.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Give the underdog some bite.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Believe you have a chance. The great thing about tennis is that the match has to be played to find out who wins. So there really is no certainty. Anything is possible. If the 60th player in the world can beat Sampras or Hingis on any given day, then you have a chance with your opponent today.<\/li>\n
    2. Realize what the favorite feels. You can pretty much expect that your favored opponent is going to be feeling what I described above. They have a lot to lose and will probably not be on their game at the start of the match. If you can come out strong, you may be able to put them on the defensive and rattle them enough to win the match.<\/li>\n
    3. Have a strategy. Having played your opponent before (or checking them out during warm-up), look for some chinks in their armor. Make a game plan that exploits a weakness early in the match. With a few well-placed shots, you can make them go from overconfident to under-confident very quickly.<\/li>\n
    4. Chill out. To play well, you need to lower your intensity and get rid of your anxiety. Before the match, go off by yourself, listen to some calming music, do some deep breathing and relaxation exercises. Once the match starts, slow the pace of the match, take deep breaths, and relax your body between points. Use a lot of positive and calming self-talk (e.g., \u201cStay cool.\u201d \u201cEasy does it.\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Regardless of whether you\u2019re the favorite or the underdog, the goal is to play the best you can. If you play good tennis, you\u2019re more likely to win. But if you don\u2019t, at least you\u2019ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did the best you could.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Favorite As you walk onto the court you are the clear favorite. You are simply better than your opponent. You know you will win the match. But as the match starts, you just don\u2019t feel right. Your head isn\u2019t in the match and your body feels sluggish. Before you know it, you\u2019re down 1-5. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1555],"tags":[1058,149,1054,186,1059,60,155,1007],"class_list":["post-6597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tennis","tag-grand-slam","tag-mental","tag-mental-edge","tag-performance","tag-prime-tennis","tag-psychology-2","tag-sport-psychology","tag-tennis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}