David Ranney's Tennis Blog

About the “other than conscious mind”

Here is a question I had about what the “other than conscious mind” is.

I stole the name “other than conscious mind” from Dave Dobson as I think it explains better what is going on.

The other than conscious mind is that part of the mind that controls all the organs, muscles, and all the other things that go on in the body automatically and is out of our awareness. It also includes the subconscious mind and the ego mind. Since the mind is what controls everything in the body, every part of mind that you are not conscious of is what Dave Dobson called the ‘other”.

Please don’t get too caught up in thinking that you have to really understand all this mind stuff. Just use it as a tool to understand how to get your conscious mind out of the way and let the other part of your mind control your body and to let it learn how to hit the ball into the court.

Without going into a big description, think about when you walk. Your conscious mind determines where you want to walk but you don’t think about walking and how your legs move etc. You just walk. That is the way tennis should be played.

If you haven’t already, you must read Tim Gallwey’s book the Inner Game of Tennis. He goes into great detail about the different minds. In his book he calls it Self One and Self Two but it is all the same as what I am talking about.

Also, Ron Waite’s new e-book will help you to understand this relationship between the different parts of the mind. This e-book is only $10 and it will help you more than just the mind explanation. Here is the link. www.tennisserver.com/turbo/perfect-tennis.html 

I do not go into all this in my book because Tim writes about it so much better than I ever could which is why I recommend it to all players who really are into the mental game.

How to Help a 9 Year Old be Non-Judgmental

Question: Our local pro at our tennis club has your book and has bought into “Mental Tennis.” He has a 9 year old son who goes ballistic when he makes a bad shot. I know corrective ideas for an adult, but what about convincing a 9 year old not to be judgmental on a bad shot?

Answer: The problem here is that the son has an unrealistic view of reality. This was and is created by parents and tennis professionals who don’t really understand how winning happens and how a ball is hit.

I would ask the student, “Who is hitting the ball?” The usual answer is, “I am.” And I say to them, “No, you are not. Your body is hitting the ball.” I would also tell the person (whether it be a child or adult) that if they become the greatest player the world has ever seen, they will still miss shots. I may even point out that Federer who is the greatest player in the world still misses nothing balls.

This child is doing exactly what I did all those years before I took my lesson from Tim Gallwey. I tried so hard to hit the ball into the court and the more I tried the more I tense I got and the more frustrated I got when I missed. Only when I learned to let my body hit the ball and truly let the ball go where it wants, did I stop getting frustrated.

This child (or anyone) needs to learn that their body can hit the ball better than using their conscious mind. They will always achieve better results when they simply let their body do things rather than trying to make them happen. They need to make playing (especially in tournaments) way less important. They need to play a different game. A game where they figure out how to let their body hit the ball. They need to be taught that by letting their body hit the ball, the body will learn to hit the ball far better than if the conscious mind tries to do it.

So, the big question is how we get the child to do this. You do this by teaching the child to see the ball, breathe and relax properly when hitting the ball. Remember that when you relax more you are giving up control of hitting the ball to the other than conscious. In fact when you work on all these things, you are practicing letting the body do the hitting.

In addition, the parents or the teaching pros need to re-enforce these principles. If they still have the child think they have to hit all great shots in order to win and/or hit all the balls into the court and if they encourage the conscious mind to do this, the child will continue to get frustrated.

I hope this answers the question. I feel like I am not able to give as complete an answer since I have not talked to the child or seen how the child behaves on the court, but hopefully, this will help.

When Relaxing and Visualization Doesn’t Work

Question: I have a girl who kept hitting her forehands high and deep. I tried relaxing the wrist and grip and visualization the ball going 4-6 feet over the net, but no change. Can you tell me how to fix this?

Answer: In my opinion, any time you visualize something and it doesn’t work, there are two things that need to be addressed. One, as you tried already, is to work on relaxing some part of the body more. You tried to have her relax her grip and wrist, but the fact that it did not work tells me that she is not relaxing this enough or there is some other area in her body that needs relaxing. Sometimes one person’s idea as to what is relaxed is not what being relaxed really means according to my way of thinking. I have had students who, on their scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest level of relaxation) feel that they are at an 8 when on my scale they are at a 3.

Maybe her breathing is too tense. Maybe she is not relaxing the arm movement at her shoulder enough. Also, I would make sure she is specifically feeling how relaxed these areas are. It is not always effective to just tell someone to relax. It may help if you have your student re-read Lesson #4 in my book which is goes into more detail on relaxing.

The second issue when someone is visualizing something is that there is the tendency to try to do what it was that they were visualizing. This, of course, leads to being too tense. Once you have visualized, you must truly let it go and just be aware of what is happening.

So, I would suggest going back to work on relaxing the grip and wrist to the max and at the same time visualizing the ball going lower. There may be some other issues, but without actually seeing the girl hit, I can’t really know what is going on.

About How Far To Go In Letting The "Other Than Conscious" Control Things

A reader Question:

 

“I read the first portions of your book, regarding watching the ball and breathing. The watching part is helping me, as I need to relearn this, and your Core statements 1 & 2 are a big help (I'm seeing spin sometimes for the first time). The breathing is all new to me and will start practicing this before I go further in the book.

 

I do have a question however, about how far to go in letting the "other than conscious" control things. I thought that this part of the mind was to be given a goal by the conscious mind, then let go and busy the conscious mind with watching the ball.

 

Do you advocate letting the other than conscious mind completely decide where and how the ball will be hit?

 

And my answer is:

 

How far do you let the other than conscious mind decide where and how you hit the ball is a terrific question and, unfortunately my answer may be a little fuzzy.

 

The best way to discuss this, I believe, is to use driving as an example. Usually, you have a destination in mind when you get into your car and you need to have in your mind the route you need to go in order to get to this destination. In tennis, as an example, let’s use hitting the ball to the backhand as your destination or goal for this discussion.

 

While you are driving, your conscious mind needs to be aware of where you are, what streets you need to turn on, the other cars on the road, and be ready to slow down, speed up, turn etc as needed. In tennis, you will need to see if you are actually hitting the ball to the backhand side. But when you do this you are letting your other than conscious mind actually execute these movements hopefully without thinking.

 

Now, there are times when you don’t really need to pay much attention to where you are and what is going around you. This happens when you are driving on a long trip and your car is on cruise control and you are just pretty much sitting and sightseeing. This would be considered “zoning out” or “going on autopilot” which is extremely dangerous while driving a vehicle, although it works well for tennis. You are in a trance and your conscious mind is just not very active. It will know, however, when you need to turn (hit the ball to a particular place). Your other than conscious mind will be paying attention and will direct your body accordingly. This part of your mind is seeing where you are and will “wake up” the conscious mind, if needed.

 

Here is what I do on the court and, to be honest, I don’t know that I can describe exactly what all this feels like. I am also still learning and experimenting how the relationship between the conscious mind and the other than conscious mind works so that I can play to the best of my ability. I do know that it is not always really obvious as to who (meaning my conscious mind and my other than conscious mind) is doing what and I believe that everyone needs to discover for themselves how this relationship works for them. That being said, getting to what I have called “the foundational place” is an important step in discovering this relationship.

 

Bear with me as I think I am finally getting to a “real” answer to your question.

 

When I begin playing, I start with a strategy that I believe will get me to where I want to go. I use my core principles as the vehicle to execute this strategy. However, many times my conscious mind just does not want to let go. It wants to control things and to be able to recognize what is going on can become very subtle. I may think that I am letting my other than conscious mind control hitting the ball, but I am really not.

 

How do I know this? I know this when I start choking or when I start missing balls that under normal circumstances I don’t miss. So, especially when I get behind in the score (sometimes even before this), I truly attempt to get my conscious mind out of the picture and I do this by letting go of “any” strategy or thought of what I am doing and relaxing my body more and just doing the core principles. I attempt to completely turn over my play to my other than conscious mind. I do this by visualizing what you want to happen and then letting go of a conscious strategy. In other words, I try to get to my foundational place.

 

 

What then begins to happen is that my conscious mind gets back into its proper function and just acts an observer and this is where I am aware of the thoughts (directions) that the other than conscious mind gives to my body as to how and where to hit the ball and not the other way around.

 

Once I am in this state, I do find that I am playing at my very best so, for me, I do want to “completely” turn over all control to my other than conscious mind. Going back to the driving analogy, your other than conscious mind will wake up your conscious mind if, for example, a change of strategy is needed.

 

I feel like I really can’t describe to others how this really works. I just know that, for me, this is what I do. You, and everyone else, will have to figure it out, but when you do the core principles and when you work on getting to “the foundation place” you will begin to discover how it works and feels for you.

 

Are you sorry now that you asked? Have I really messed with your mind? I think a whole book could be written about this. OH, I forgot. There was one and it was called “The Inner Game of Tennis” by Tim Gallwey. He explains all this so much better but now you know my puny explanation and how I “try” to play.

 

So to answer your specific question “Do you advocate letting the other than conscious mind completely decide where and how the ball will be hit?” my answer would be yes.

About How To Practice

Here is the main question that was asked by David, one of my book owners. He then pretty much answered his own question and hopefully I added a little more to the answers he found in Lesson #15 and #41 in my book.

 

"Is there ever a time on court, during a point, when one should consciously think about strategy (or stroke mechanics)? I think the answer is no during a tournament match or match that is important. But how does one practice stroke mechanics and consciously be aware of your body mechanics and/or strategy? Only during practice or drills? "

 

And he answered himself with this:

 

"After I emailed you I realized that probably all I had to do was go back and read "the book" again. Of course, it's all right there. I found some good answers to my question in lessons 15 & 41, and they are very helpful. I have been working so hard on my stroke mechanic and strategy stuff that I'm afraid I have neglected practicing the mental game. As you have pointed out, we all practice the other stuff at the expense of not practicing the mental game. Perhaps the answer to my question lies in deciding when and what to practice at any given time. Or, as you have pointed out in lessons 15 & 41, one can practice both strokes and strategy and the mental game at the same time. In a tournament match however, it's all mental game. Thanks again for your help and congratulations on your good summer season."

 

Here are my additional thoughts:

 

I am glad that you found the answers to your questions in my book. That saves me a lot of thinking and typing. (lol). Maybe, that should be my answer to all the questions people ask. I should tell them to just read my book again.

 

One of the things I would add is that you can use what happens when you hit balls to direct your practice. Here is what I mean. When I am practicing, different things happen as I hit the ball. Maybe I am hitting balls long. When I become aware of this, I then spend a few minutes dealing with that issue. If, for some reason, my backhand feels “off,” then I will deal with that for a few minutes. Maybe I notice that I am not breathing properly. I will then spend some time being aware of my breathing. So, what I practice on will depend on what is happening at that moment, but I will only work on one thing at a time. These things will change from day to day. How to “fix” these things, as you said, are all in my book.

 

Now, I also have a check list that I use from time to time. My check list is a list of things that I have become aware of that I need to either work on or need to make sure I am doing. See the index of my book for a list of some of these check lists. And, I add to my check list as I become aware of different things that are going on with my game. This check list is a work in progress.

 

I use the same process to fix “my problems” when I play games except that as things come up, I only visualize the correction and then I let it go and just go back to my core principles. I do not work on fixing it (except in my mind and in between points) when I am playing points. If it continues to be a problem, then I will work on it in my next practice session.

 

My last words of wisdom are to make sure that you spend enough time practicing the core principles. I practice them this way. Let’s say that I am hitting backhands cross court and I am working on my footwork. After a time, I will then play a game of seven points, again just hitting backhands cross court. Now that I am “in a game mode” I will forget about my footwork and just work on seeing the ball and breathing (core principles). See Drill #5 in my book for more ideas.

 

Thanks for your e-mail and I hope I have added to the answers you found in my book.

Changing Unproductive Thoughts

 

I have really enjoyed your mini lessons and just found out from your last lesson, that ONE of my problems is CHOKING. Thank you so much for that lesson! 

 

My question is.....once you let the win or losing thoughts come into your thinking, what do you do then? Is it too late to recover from such thoughts? My partner and I both "suffer" from thinking too much.....especially about the outcome of the game.

help!

 

 

The first step is to be aware of these unproductive thoughts. Only when you are aware of them can you begin to deal with them.

 

The moment you are aware that you had an unproductive thought you say to yourself “Cancel Cancel”, take a sighing exhale and then make a statement that is productive. The kinds of statements that I am talking about are as follows: “OK, body, I can’t win this. You will have to do it and I will stay out of your way and I will just see the ball and breathe.” Or, “I am going to just let my body play and let the outcome be what it will.”

 

Please don’t use a negative like “I am not going to try to hit the ball into the court” as they say in NLP circles your subconscious mind does not hear the “not.” It just hears “I am going to try …” and hopefully you know trying doesn’t work very well.

 

The other thing you can do if you find yourself “thinking too much”, is to occupy your mind by watching a ball (any ball) and listen to your breathing in between points. That will keep you in the “here and now” and it will harder for “other thoughts” to intrude.

 

I hope this will help.

 

David

About Visualization

 

Here is another good idea from “my listening audience.” I give my idea about visualization below.

 

What about in the blog have players suggest their own visualizing that works. Thomas my son play with a great player and when he was missing shots in the net that he hit from behind the baseline she said: just imagine/visualize you are targeting the net behind me. Sure enough every shot Thomas hit from behind the base line went over the net. Now maybe other readers have similar suggestions to things that works for them.

 

Now for the ones with kids who want's the kids to start understanding/reading about these concepts I found a solution. I convinced his LA teacher to allow him to read first Gallweys book and make a book summary. The concept about 2 self are very abstract for kids and if you involve the teacher they work just a little harder to figure it out. Just remember to explain to the teacher that you will give them questions about the book that will ease their understanding of the concept. His teacher loved the idea and I got her started on her going in and out of the Zone bowling.

********************************************************************************

I believe that just about any visualization works. The one you described that your son did obviously did the trick. I like to have my students do the visualizations that address more precisely what I believe is happening. When the balls go into the net, I believe it is caused because the racket and the arm are not low enough. So, I have my students visualize relaxing their arm and wrist which will allow the racket to get lower so that the natural swing forward is now more up which carries the ball over the net. At the same time, I have my students visualize the ball going 1 to 3 feet over the net. Then, of course, the student must relax and let it happen. For those of you who have my book, see Lesson #11 for more detail.

 

One of the things that I don’t hear very often about the visualization process is that once you have visualized, if you then try hard to make it happen it just may not work very well. So, once you visualize, you must let go of trying, go back to seeing the ball, breathing and relaxing your body more so that the other than conscious mind can execute the shot or learn to do it if it doesn’t already know how.

 

If there are others out there reading this and you want to share your way of visualizations, please feel free to contribute to this discussion.

 

The Ultimate Goal in Playing the Mental Game

What is the ultimate goal you want to achieve when you play the mental game? Do you know?

I sometimes forget to talk about this as often as I should, but it is important to always keep this in mind as you are playing the mental game. When you have goals, it is ideal that you have the ultimate goal as well as smaller and/or short term ones. When you have the ultimate goal, then you can’t get too far off the path and the mind has a way of leading you to it more efficiently.

Anyway, here is what I believe is the ultimate goal. It is for you to find what relationship the conscious mind has to the body (or the other than conscious mind) so that you not only play your very best every time, but continue to create an environment so that you learn and grow as a player.

I cannot tell you what this relationship is. I wish I could. What I can do is lead you to the things that will lead you to find out for yourself. When you focus on the core principles, when you work on letting go of your judgments, when you let go of aiming, of trying to stroke it correctly, when you let go of hitting the ball into the court and you let go of winning, you will be discovering this ultimate environment. (How is that for a sentence?)

My wish for you all is that you will discover this in the shortest time possible as there is no better way to play.

What I Learned at My Last Tournament

What I learned at my last tournament

This last week, I played in the Pacific Southwest Tennis tournament at the Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach, CA. I lost in the quarter-finals in the 60’s Singles and in the Semi-finals in the doubles. I always learn a great deal when I lose and this was no exception.

As you may know, I have been talking about and doing the bounce-hit while I am playing matches and this tournament was the first time I did it in a tournament. Have you been doing it when you are playing games?

I played a guy who was very consistent and did not hit a hard ball but had very good control. I usually don’t play very well against these kinds of players and it usually takes me a long adjustment time when I go from indoors to outdoors. Nevertheless, I played very well doing the bounce hit. However, I had some problems. In the past, I was thinking that doing the bounce hit may be causing me to use more energy and maybe tensing me up more than usual even though I always try to say the bounce hit softly and relaxed. I just thought that my being more tired was caused because I was hitting more balls in the court and therefore having to work harder.

After the first set, I was very very tired. I realized that as hard as I wanted to relax when saying the bounce hit, I was very tense. So, in the second set, I went back to the normal breathing pattern. I felt very much more relaxed but I felt I missed more balls. That could have been because my body was so tired. But I still played better than I usually would have.

So, what I am going to do now is experiment with some combination of the bounce hit and my breathing. It may be that now that I have been doing the bounce hit for a while that I still will be able to play as well when I do the breathing instead.

In my doubles, using the bounce hit was amazing. In the past, I don’t handle (I miss them) hard balls hit to me (what I call reaction volleys) when I am at net. I think I have hit more reaction volleys in the court than I have in the past 2 years. I don’t think I am exaggerating but maybe I am. In any case, doing the bounce hit while playing doubles has helped immensely.

I am hoping that after reading this you go ahead and try the bounce hit. I am sure it will never hurt and the benefits seem to be huge. At least for me.

A Classic Example of Trying Hard

I just finished watching the men's finals that I had taped earlier. Did you watch it also? If you did, you would have seen a classic example of trying hard by Djokovic.

Did it work for him? Yes, I would say that it did most of the time. I thought he played better than Federer much of the time.

But, did he win? No. If you saw the entire match when Djokovic had break points, all this trying hard broke down and he missed nothing ball after nothing ball. What did Federer do? He just played his normal relaxed game and saved break point after break point.

So, if trying hard works only some of the time and only during the times of the match when it is isn't tight, why do it at all? Why not play like Federer all the time so when the match does get tight or when the points are critical, you will have a better chance to keep playing well and even, as you saw at times with Roger during the tight points, awesome.