Discuss the mental training techniques usedby Christy the tennis player. Also, think of some other sport or performance (music recital, public speech, drama, major academic test, military operation) situation that you know about. Briefly describe the situation. Then,discussseveral mental skill techniques that might help improve performance in that situation.

REFERENCE : Christy was a 14-year-old tennis player ranked in the top 25 of her age group nationally. Working with a mental trainer, she needed to improve on two key aspects of her performance. First, she had a poor net game, and was fearful of coming to net for volleys. Second, she tended to "choke" on her second serve, worrying about double-faulting, even though she had the technical talent to execute a successful second serve. Thus, her mental training goals were to overcome her fear of the net game and to develop a focused and confident mental routine to allow her to execute a successful "kick" second serve.

Christy began working on her net game by physically practicing net volleys on shots that began very easy and progressed to harder. She verbalized the cue word "seams" out loud that made her focus her attention on the seams of the ball coming toward her and also occupied her mind to prevent negative thinking or worry. Before and after training, she mentally practiced net volleys in various situations, using her cue word to create the correct visual picture. Using imagery she mentally practiced various net tactics for different competitive situations. A performance goal was set for her to hit at least one winner per game from the net. In training, she did not win the game or end the drill until she accomplished this goal. Her net performance improved over the course of the 25-week intervention so that she won, on average, 4 points per match from the net.

To deal with her double-fault problem, Christy developed a preservice routine using relaxation, thought-stopping, self-talk, and imagery. The routine started with bouncing the ball four times and catching it. Then she took a relaxation breath, during which she imagined air passing through her body and dissipating any tension in it. She used the cue word "smooth" to program a relaxed, smoothly executed serve. She then used the kinesthetic image of her racquet making contact with the ball for a perfect kick serve and a visual image of the ball "kicking" successfully within her opponent's service box. She had extensively practiced thought-stopping, and used the word "stop" to put any irrelevant and worrisome thoughts out of her mind. This routine was developed and practiced in parts, and was completed and refined over three months of practice. Christy was able to gain fluidity and smoothness in her second serve, and significantly decrease her double-fault percentage as a result of the mental training (modified from Mamassis & Doganis, 2004).

This example is from:

Vealey, R.S. & Greenleaf, C.A. (2006) "Seeing is believing: understanding and using imagery in sport", in Jean Williams (Ed.), Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance, Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill

Mamassis, G., & Doganis, G. (2004). The effects of a mental training program on juniors pre-competitive anxiety, self-confidence, and tennis performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 16, 118-137.