Gimmicks, Hacks, and Tricks — SS #41

You go on a spree of poor performances in tennis matches.

Matches lost one after the other.

Pressure.

Choking.

Anxiety.

Frustration.

In desperation, you Google, “psychology tips for tennis,” or “mental tips tennis,” or “sports psychology for tennis.” (Hopefully, you’ve Googled this and landed upon my newsletter/website.)

Maybe you even started searching for, “Hacks for getting rid of anxiety,” or “Tricks to increase concentration during my tennis matches.”

These searches are a problem.

Tennis players often come to sports psychology looking for a shortcut. They want some mental trick—something they can learn in 30 seconds—that will wipe away their nerves, make them feel confident, and put them into an automatic “flow state” every time they step on the court. Unfortunately, this parallels their YouTube searches regarding tennis skills and technique improvement.

They want a gimmick that will sharpen their focus more than Adderall, some hidden method that will make them immune to pressure. And the problem isn’t just that they believe these things exist—it’s that they believe mental skills are quick fixes instead of trainable abilities. It’s that they think sports psychology is some information that you receive in 15 seconds that makes a dramatic and lasting change in their approach and performance habits.

The Problem?

You’ve probably heard players say things like:

“I just need a breathing trick to stay calm under pressure.”

“I need a hack to never get nervous in my matches.”

“I need a cool mental technique so that I’m more confident in my league.”

Maybe you’ve even said things like this yourself.

It sounds logical at first. After all, most players only think about their mental skills and sports psychology when things go wrong. This is another conception that seems strange upon further reflection—that mental skills are viewed as a cure, instead of preventative or complementary skills that will improve performance and enjoyment of a sport. But that’s a topic for another day.

Back to those players googling, “Sports psychology hack to beat nervousness.”

They lose a tight match, feel like their nerves or anxiety got the best of them, and assume the solution is finding the right “secret” technique to stop it from happening again.

But that’s not how it works. That’s not how any of it works.

Mental skills are no different from physical skills. They require structured training and consistent work over time. No single tip, trick, or “secret” will change your ability to handle pressure in an instant—just like no one forehand drill will immediately turn you into a top-level player.

Yet, players will search for these mental shortcuts, hoping they can bypass the process and the consistent work required to perform at their best.

Imagine This…

Pretend you’re a tennis coach. Someone comes to you and says, “Hey. I just need a quick hack to get my serve to a UTR 11.”

“Say what?” you might respond. Even if you’re not a coach, you probably realize how ridiculous this is. Perhaps you might even laugh nervously. Is this guy being serious right now? Surely not.

You’d probably pause for a second and after realizing they weren’t joking, you’d explain that you can’t “trick” your way to a great level.

You have to train for it. You have to refine your strokes and skills, improve your patterns of play, and develop the ability to execute under pressure. You have to build your physical fitness and perception skills and hone them consistently. You have to treat your practice sessions with focus and ensure that they’re deliberate and targeted towards what you’re trying to achieve in your game.

And yet, when it comes to mental skills, players don’t apply the same logic. They don’t see their ability to manage anxiety, stay focused, and build confidence as things they need to train.

Instead, they think of mental toughness and emotional resilience as something that can be given to them with the right advice. That’s why so many fall for the people selling “mental hacks” that promise instant results. Beware.

The Real “Secret”—I Hate That Word, But Let’s Use It This Time…

There is no gimmick, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a real process and research behind building mental skills, and the prescriptions that sports psychology practitioners provide.

The best players don’t rely on tricks. They understand that there are none, and that they have to put in the work on their mental skills, just like they would on their ball-striking or patterns or physical skills. And they build systems that allow them to:

• Manage anxiety when it spikes

• Refocus under pressure

• Improve concentration and stay in the moment

And this isn’t just opinion—there’s a massive body of research supporting how mental skills actually work.

Confidence doesn’t come from wishful thinking. It comes from past success and mastery, meaning the more you train a skill successfully, the more confident you become (Lauer & Chung, 2010).

Focus improves when players shift from an internal focus to an external one. Whether it’s aiming for a specific target, tracking an opponent’s movement, or focusing on the ball’s seams as it comes towards you, players perform better when their attention is directed outward (Wulf, 2013).

Training attention deliberately—like with quiet-eye training—has been shown to help athletes maintain performance under pressure, improving everything from shot execution to decision-making (Vine et al., 2011, 2014). As a general note, this area is a little new to me but I’m reading into this and upskilling.

And when it comes to anxiety? There are multiple ways to reduce it, from restructuring thoughts to changing goal-orientation, to shifting focus and even reinterpreting the meaning of nerves, to becoming more accepting of them (Gardner & Moore, 2007; Kingston & Hardy, 2007).

We have covered all of these in-depth in past issues of my newsletter! Check out the article below in case you missed it:

But none of these happen overnight. This is what I want to clearly emphasize. You cannot make lasting changes to your approach to tennis or how present and mindful you are with just a hack or tip or trick. These are not gimmicks. They are mental skills!

Stop Searching for Gimmicks — Start Doing the Work

If someone tells you they have a “secret” mental skill that will instantly fix your nerves, they either don’t know what they’re talking about or they’re knowingly preying on your frustration.

Emotional resilience isn’t built overnight. Sports psychology practitioners and sports psychologists spend months in weekly sessions—sometimes much more—working with athletes to refine these skills.

Now, you might be thinking, “Of course they’d say that. How convenient that I have to keep paying someone just to improve my mental game.” I get the skepticism. This is what I used to think, too, when I needed help.

But that mindset assumes that the work of sports psychology professionals is some kind of pure cash grab rather than a legitimate process of mental skill development. If a coach told you that improving your technique would take structured training over time, you wouldn’t assume they were trying to take from you without giving. You’d recognize it as the reality of getting better, and hopefully, you’d also understand the collaborative nature of growth and skill development.

The best players don’t waste time chasing quick fixes. They train their mental skills the same way they train their strokes—with structured practice, clear tasks, progressions, and an understanding that real improvement takes time.

If you wouldn’t expect to develop world-class tennis skills overnight, why would you expect mental skills to be any different?

References

Kingston, K. M., & Hardy, L. (1997). Effects of different types of goals on processes that support performance. The Sport Psychologist, 11(3), 277-293.

Lauer, L. & Chung, Y. (2010) Building Self-Confidence. In Lauer, L., Gould, D., Lubber, P., Kovacs., M. (Eds.), USTA Mental Skills and Drills Handbook (pp. 299–305). Coaches Choice

Wulf, G. (2013). Attentional focus and motor learning: A review of 15 years. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2012.723728

P.S.: still working through the Vine articles. Shoot me an email if you need me to send them your way!

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.