The Training Champion: Why are many players distinctively worse in matches than in training?
- Jan_RacketCulture
- Jan 21
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 22
Many tennis players are familiar with the phenomenon: everything goes like clockwork in training, but suddenly nothing seems to work in the match. You've practised your strokes a thousand times, your technique is perfect and yet your performance collapses exactly when it counts. Suddenly you feel as if you've never held a tennis racket before. These players are often referred to as ‘training champions’. They can be found in almost every tennis team.
What is behind this phenomenon? The answer is usually not physical, but mental: fear, nervousness and constant self-control have a decisive influence on the game.
In this article, we take a closer look at the psychological mechanisms that often prevent training world champions from reaching their full potential.
Anxiety and its consequences
Fear has psychological and physical effects. Thoughts such as ‘What if I lose?’, ‘What will my team-mates say?’, ‘I can't make a mistake now’ and ‘I hope no-one has just seen the shot’ are typical for the world champion in training. The body reacts with shallow breathing and tension. These effects impair timing, coordination and ultimately precision in the game.
World training champions either have a high level of anxiety as a personality trait or a tennis match triggers a high level of situational state anxiety in them.
When automatisms are blocked
Under pressure, training champions tend to monitor their movements and control them step by step instead of following their routine. In training, on the other hand, they think less about the execution of their strokes and let their automatisms work more. The intensive self-control disrupts the flow of the game, as every stroke is executed too consciously. There is also an ‘ironic effect’: the more you try to avoid mistakes, the more likely they are to happen because you are focussed on what you don't want to happen.
Competition stress and personal excitement level
Another factor is a player's personal excitement level during a match. This refers to the general level of arousal of the central nervous system. It builds up in the short term during a match and varies from player to player. The following applies: a medium level of arousal produces the best performance, while an excessively high level of stress can have a negative impact on tactics, strength and technique. The excitement level of training champions is usually far too high during the game.
If you would also describe yourself as a training world champion and would like to deal better with the factors described, it is worth reading the blog articles in the ‘Mind Advantage’ series.
If you would like to find out more about the psychological background of the training world champion, my sources are linked here:
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