After several months of professional tennis being suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was recently announced that the ATP and WTA Tours will be resuming tournaments in August this year, including the US Open. This was the moment tennis players and fans from across the globe have been waiting for.
Before this, players had been working hard to maintain all-round healthy lifestyles at home so that they are fully prepared to compete again. This included home workouts, eating well, and staying connected with other players as much as possible. As we are all aware, maintaining this lifestyle improves the longevity of players, as well as their overall athletic performance on court.
Throughout the quarantine, working out at home appeared to be the new trend on social media among athletes, personal trainers and coaches from across the globe. There are now a plethora of creative workout options posted on social media that are readily accessible at anyone’s fingertips. Of course, this has been extremely beneficial for tennis players. The big question that ponders my mind is, how many reps were the mental muscles getting compared to the reps gained in the physical workouts? As we all know, mental toughness is absolutely vital for tennis players and needs to be practiced. With that in mind, were the mental muscles strengthening or suffering amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
Some might say that being in quarantine was a detriment to the mental aspect of the game because players haven’t been in “match mode” for months. This may be true considering tennis players train the mental muscle by playing matches in an effort to build resilience under pressure. There have been a few opportunities to do that recently, such as Patrick Mouratoglou’s Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS), and the first leg of the Adria Tour exhibition event in Belgrade, Serbia. Players who have already started playing matches in events like these definitely have the upper-hand in August.
However, this does not mean those who are still awaiting to compete have lost their mental toughness on court. Since players have been in a pressure-filled situation every day because of the pandemic, they have actually been subconsciously strengthening that muscle for several months. This would absolutely be transferrable to tennis because they were forced to train their brains to stay calm in a stressful situation, which is highly emphasized in this sport. So, if players say that lessons learned in tennis are beneficial to other aspects of life, then it would make sense to say that lessons learned in life are beneficial to tennis. They are interchangeable.
Through the face of uncertainty and isolation, players have had the opportunity to learn new underlying lessons surrounding two crucial on-court skills; self-compassion and problem solving. This was especially true with social distancing guidelines, since players need to find comfort in being by themselves and in their own thoughts on court. Being forced to put themselves in that situation in their day-to-day life for a few months, depending on how they view the situation, will make them more conscious about mindfulness. Similarly, the lessons they have learned on court surrounding patience and living in the moment builds their tolerance towards the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
It was up to the players to hone down this mindset by viewing this as a learning experience and an opportunity to practice mindfulness. Of course, this was a huge challenge because tennis players live an extremely busy lifestyle with travelling, competing and working on their craft every day. That said, being temporarily separated from their passion, combined with the major disruption in their routines, could really take a toll on their mental health and heavily alter the way they perceive certain situations. This is true for anyone who has been unable to pursue what makes them happiest. This is why I believe, from both a player and coach’s perspective, that pursuing their passion after so long will already put them in a great headspace while competing.
It was important to get into that tennis player mentality away from the court so that they could look at the situation more constructively; they may have been down in the third set, but that did not mean the match was over. That said, it will be interesting see how heavily this situation will play into the mental game on court.
Do you think being quarantined for several months was a benefit or detriment to players’ mental game?