Great in Practice, Tight in Matches: What's Going On With Your Junior Tennis Player

If you're a tennis parent, you've probably watched this happen. Your player hits clean in practice. Then a tournament starts, the score gets close, and the strokes shrink. Second serves get pushed. Rallies end early on unforced errors. Afterwards they say they just got tight.

That isn't a technique problem, and it usually isn't fixed by a motivational speech either. It's a performance problem, and it's trainable.

Why it happens

Practice and matches ask different things of a player. In practice a miss costs almost nothing. In a match every point counts, someone is watching, and the player has to manage their own thinking between points with no coach on court. Under that pressure, three things tend to go wrong:

• Attention drifts to the score, the opponent or the last mistake instead of the next ball.
• Energy climbs too high, so muscles tense and timing goes.
• Self-talk turns critical, and the player starts trying not to miss instead of trying to play.

None of these are character flaws. They're skills that haven't been trained yet.

What doesn't help

Telling a player to relax or just have fun rarely works mid-match. More technical drilling doesn't either, because the strokes are already there. And a long car-ride debrief after a loss usually adds pressure to the next match.

What does help

Mental skills get built the same way physical ones do: deliberately, with reps, and under gradually rising pressure. That usually means:

• A short, repeatable routine for the 20 seconds between points.
• Practice with real consequences, so match pressure isn't brand new.
• Physical preparation that holds up late in a third set, because fatigue makes every mental problem worse.

That last point is why I train the physical and mental sides together.

When to get help

If your player's match results keep trailing their practice level, it's worth working on directly. I coach USTA-ranked junior players with in-person strength and conditioning at Left Coast Fitness in Campbell, and virtual mental performance coaching they can do from anywhere. I work alongside your player's tennis coach, never instead of them.

Mental performance coaching isn't therapy. If anxiety is showing up well beyond tennis, at school or at home, a licensed therapist is the right first call.

Coach Sepano Hassanzadeh holds an MA in Sport Psychology and the NSCA CSCS, and has coached athletes since 2010.

Book a free 20-minute call