Behind the Result

Striving to master the outcome obsession

by Paul Dent

So Why behind the result?

A tennis match itself provides little personal information about individual performance beyond the result. There are no marks for the style of a player’s backhand or serve percentage! It involves head-to-head competition and challenges your self-worth as 2nd place is first highly public loser. As such it is important that we do not equate relative achievement to winning or losing.

These two characteristics of the game can breed fear of failure….if we do not combat it.

One of the major inhibitors to striving to master the skills of tennis is the outcome obsession. The outcome obsession as the name suggests, refers to an over emphasis with the outcome, that is to say, the result of the match. I remember a story from one of our country’s most successful performance coaches. When watching his player compete against Tracy Austin in the last sixteen of the US Open, he became overly anxious about the outcome of the match. He commented that his emotions and thought processes were so wrapped up in the outcome of each point and ultimately in the result of the match that he was unable to clearly see what was going on in front of him. He consequently found it difficult to offer any accurate and meaningful constructive feedback to the player after the match to move them on as a player. After this experience he vowed never again to become overly concerned with the match outcome and ensured he would always ‘look behind the result’ to enable him to see the bigger, long term picture.

LOOK BEHIND THE RESULT

· Be a useful gatherer of information e.g. chart matches.

· Be consistent with the quality and quantity of your post match feedback i.e. play poorly and lose or play well and win. The actions and words from YOU need to give a message that the outcome of the match is not the main thing to be prized.

· Detach yourself emotionally from the outcome of the match.

Remember! Your child did not lose on purpose, and if they did, it may well be due to the fact that they do not feel in control of their tennis and so the solution still remains at your door.

One of the most significant actions you can take as a parent is to change tennis into a ‘personal best’ sport, so giving your child more of a ‘personal best’ mentality. Sports in which performance can be easily and accurately measured and recorded, such as athletics, gymnastics, swimming and golf, allow participants to experience considerable success and feelings of confidence even though they may not win. Putting systems into place, which can enable your child to strive to improve their personal best performance will encourage the player to have a greater sense of control over what happens and will provide far greater opportunities for building self-confidence. One of the most effective ways to do this is to work together with your child to set some short-term SMART goals (ask your child’s coach).

TIP OF THE MONTH

Be analytical not critical as this will begin to teach your child to do the same after their performances.

Consistent feedback – quality and quantity

This is an essential skill to be enhanced if you are to really help your child develop a healthy perspective of competition, in that first and foremost it is a challenge against oneself. Your match-after-match feedback, which if consistently based solely on the performance in the match, without a fragment of ‘win-lose’ judgemental feedback, will allow him/her the ‘emotional space’ to maximise their usage of match play as a tool for improving him/her as a player of the sport. Performance related feedback allows the player to be self referenced as a competitor. When skilfully executed, regular and consistent performance-only feedback begins to enhance a players feelings of being self-determined and confident.

IF “TO WIN” MERELY MEANS “TO BEAT”….Then your son or daughter will almost certainly at some stage feel incompetent, experience frustration, lose motivation and ultimately lose.

By Paul Dent
LTA National Coach and Head Coach Educator For The LTA