Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Tennis — SS #44

"Why can I never play my best in matches?”

"Why are you losing?"

"Why do I always choke?"

These are Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs), and we touched on them last week when we used Albert Ellis' REBT to work our way through an ABCDE disputation sheet. If you haven't read that yet, I highly recommend spending some time on it because some of the concepts serve as the basis for this issue.

In today's newsletter, I want to go deeper; down, further, past your NATs and cognitive distortions, all the way down to your core beliefs (and schema). While Ellis’ REBT is great at tackling apparent and conscious surface-level beliefs that an athlete might admit to or can locate with minimal effort, CBT takes a broader approach that includes uncovering deeper core schema that may contribute to consistent performance issues. While REBT focuses on rational disputation and unconditional self-acceptance, CBT incorporates a wider range of techniques, such as Socratic questioning and schema work, to help athletes restructure these deeper beliefs.

That’s why I want to explore Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and how it can be applied to improve our tennis performances—especially if we're dealing with consistent negativity, anxiety, or issues with performing our best.

And to do so, we're going to rely on McArdle and Moore (2012) who call for the evidence-based application of CBT principles in sports psychology.

You should read this issue if you want to uncover deep-seated beliefs about yourself and your relationship to tennis and competition.

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

CBT is an evidence-based psychological framework that helps individuals recognize, test, and eventually dispute unhelpful thinking patterns. Originally developed in the clinical space, CBT has since been adapted into sports and performance psychology to help athletes manage doubt, anxiety, pressure, and stress.

Your thoughts are important. To be more precise, the content of your thoughts is important. We covered this to a degree last week when we touched on the cognitive behavioral model, and how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors all relate to each other.

At its core, CBT operates on a simple and powerful idea: that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors all interplay with each other. I’m going to post a picture again of the cognitive-behavioral model because I believe it’s essential for athletes to understand it.

Here’s an example: a player who is constantly experiencing and engaging in thoughts like, “Why can’t I put it together in matches?” “Why do I always play so much worse?” “I need to win this match. I have to win this match,” is probably going to also experience anxiety, and tension, which will potentially impact their ability to play well or to the peak of their ability.

So, unlike traditional mental skills strategies in sports psychology like motivational self-talk and or progressive muscle relaxation scripts, etc., CBT aims to drive deeper—down to the distortions and core beliefs that are causing this player to engage in these thoughts.

Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATS), Cognitive Distortions, Core Beliefs & Schema

Negative Automatic Thoughts

These are surface-level, instant, and reflexive thoughts that pop into your head, often in response to a triggering event or high-pressure situation. NATs are usually unfiltered, emotionally charged, and often exaggerated. In terms of the NATs that have the most impact upon us, these are usually referred to as “hot” NATs. Here I’ll bring back some of the examples I mentioned at the start of this issue:

• "Why can I never play my best in matches?”

• "Why are you losing?"

• "I need to win this match. It’s the only thing I want."

NATs matter because they directly influence how you feel and behave on the court. If your reaction to going down a break in the first set is, “Why can I never play my best in matches?” your body will respond accordingly.

Cognitive Distortions

We covered these in last week’s issue, but these are systematic thinking errors which reinforce unhelpful beliefs and play a part in generating your NATs. Put another way, these can be viewed as the mental filters or lenses through which we see events and the world. Some of the most common ones we see in tennis and athletes:

• Self-Worth Depends on Winning: “If I don’t win, I’m not worthy of love or acceptance.” “If I don’t win, it means I’m somehow lesser than my peers, opponents, etc.”

• All-or-Nothing Thinking: “If I don’t play perfectly, I’m a failure.”

• Catastrophizing: “If I get broken here, it means this match—and this entire tournament is ruined.”

• Overgeneralization: “I always lose to pushers.” “I can never beat a lefty.”

Cognitive distortions are what fuel your NATs. If you convince yourself that losing means you’re not worthy or something is lacking within you (deriving worth from winning), then every match feels like an exorbitantly emotionally draining event, worthy of life-or-death stakes.

Core-Belief & Schema — The Deep-Rooted Mental Models

At the deepest level, we have schemas—deep-seated cognitive structures that shape how we interpret experiences. Within these schemas, we develop core beliefs—fundamental ideas about ourselves, others, and the world. Core beliefs are often personal, such as ‘I am only worthy if I win,’ while schemas can be broader patterns of thinking that influence how we filter and process information. Examples:

• I’m only worthy if I achieve things in life

• I’ve never had the X-factor to be successful

• Obstacles always stand in my way

We’ve talked about NATs and cognitive distortions before, but now we’ve gone deeper—down to the core beliefs and schemas that influence them.

But here’s the real question: how do these beliefs stick around?

And why do they feel so hard to change?

That’s what we’ll cover next time.

Your Key Takeaway

Your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are interconnected. The way you think directly impacts how you feel and perform in matches. Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs) happen reflexively under pressure, and thoughts like “Why do I always choke?” can create anxiety and reinforce performance struggles for us.

Below your NATs we have cognitive distortions that act as mental filters that warp your perception of reality. Common ones in tennis include all-or-nothing thinking (“If I don’t play perfectly, I’ve failed”), catastrophizing (“Losing this game means my entire tournament is ruined”), and overgeneralization (“I always struggle under pressure”).

And finally, at a deeper level, core beliefs drive long-term patterns of thought. If you believe “I am only worthy if I win,” every match becomes a test of your self-worth as a human being rather than just competition or a scenario that you can enjoy.

To improve emotional resilience, you must become aware of these patterns and start actively challenging them. Awareness is the first step—next time, we’ll cover strategies to rewire these beliefs and break the cycle for good.

Disclaimer: I am not an Association of Applied Sports Psychology CMPC, certified sports psychology practitioner, nor am I a licensed mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am pursuing a master’s in sports, exercise, and performance psychology, and I am a sports psychology practitioner-in-training. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including playing, coaching collegiately and with professional players, along with club management experience as a director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My aim is to bring the best information to tennis players around the world so that you can apply it for long-term improvement—but sometimes I will make mistakes. If this is your area of research or expertise, and you feel I’ve misunderstood something, please get in touch with me and if required I will happily issue a correction.

References

McArdle, S., & Moore, P. (2012). Applying evidence-based principles from CBT to sport psychology. The Sport Psychologist, 26, 299-310. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.26.3.299