Tennis Players Suck at Setting Goals — SS #29

I work with tennis players around the world and a common theme seems to be that they want to improve.

That’s great.

I mean, who doesn’t want to improve?

But that idea of improvement is often bandied about without much thought or care.

Worse, that improvement is often quantified in ways that aren’t exactly helpful.

“I want to be a 4.5 NTRP player.”

“I want my son to be a 7.0 UTR.”

These are the kind of statements that I often hear.

My follow-up question is usually how?

How are you going to improve?

And what do you need to address in your game in order to improve?

And it’s an important component to consider.

Because I’ll get back answers like, “Ummm, I need to win more,” or “I don’t know… I’ve been thinking I need to be more clutch in matches.”

It’s a question that not only reveals the player’s ideas of what constitutes improvement to them but also highlights the difference between process and mastery goals versus outcome goals—types of goals that can mean the difference between real progress and stagnation.

Tennis Players Suck at Goal Setting

Let’s start with the problem at hand.

In tennis—and sports in general—setting goals is important.

But setting the wrong kind of goals can hold you back, maybe even set you up for failure.

When I talk about setting goals, players zone out. Their eyeballs roll back. I can almost hear them clicking away from this newsletter.

“Goal setting? Boring. Lame. This isn’t anything new or revolutionary.”

“Setting goals? How can that be helpful? Just help me improve my ranking already? Why am I paying you?" I can learn this off a YouTube video… is it even that important?”

I used to think this way, too, before I knew the impacts of implicit and explicit goals on player development and performance.

So here’s the main issue: too many players set goals that are focused entirely on outcomes.

They say things like “I need to win more,” or “I want to be more clutch in matches.” (Whatever the hell that means.)

The problem? These outcome-focused goals are often vague, rely on external factors, and don’t offer a roadmap for improvement.

Outcome-focused goals emphasize results over progress. In other words, they make you feel successful only when you reach a specific, often ill-considered milestone. This type of goal setting creates pressure, and that pressure can lead to anxiety and decreased performance.

In sports psychology, this is loosely defined as having an outcome orientation, and research shows that this focus can actually limit performance improvement over time. Researchers like Carol Dweck—yes, the Dweck who popularized the idea a Growth Mindset—and John Nicholls have studied how goal orientation impacts motivation and performance.

According to their research, focusing on mastery-oriented goals—which are goals centered on improving skills rather than just winning—leads to higher levels of motivation, better resilience under pressure, and ultimately, greater success over time.

On the flip side, if you create outcome goals (otherwise referred to as ego goals), research has shown that these are generally associated with higher anxiety and fear of failure because success is defined externally (by beating others). This is because success if often defined in comparison to others.

So, if your goal is purely something like, “I want to be a 4.5 player,” you may be standing in the way of your improvement and long-term enjoyment of the game.

The Problem With Your Goal-Setting

To see how these two types of goals—mastery and process vs. outcome—impact a player, let’s dig in a little bit deeper.

When a player is solely outcome-focused, success is defined purely by a result. For example, they might believe something like, “If I’m able to reach ranking x, that will mean I’m a successful tennis player.”

While on the face this can seem like a harmless and common goal—(and, trust me, it’s extremely common)— this approach has a few significant issues:

1. Neglecting skill development: If you start excessively focusing on winning or achieving your outcome, you may start neglecting the key skills you need to develop that are required for you to achieve the playing level you dream of.

2. Anxiety and stress: Anxiety and stress also start to mount when you’re nowhere on track to achieve those goals after months of trying. If your only focus is on achieving a ranking or rating, you’re less likely to view your development holistically and understand what you need to work on to achieve the level you crave. Trust me, I’ve been there.

3. Burnout: constantly reaching for an outcome that you’ve made a big bet on without seeing immediate results can lead to burnout. If you’re not achieving that next level as quickly as you’d like, you can get frustrated, lose motivation to persevere and experience a lack of commitment. In other words, you’re going to burn out!

So, the question is, how do we shift focus from an unproductive goal type to one that actually drives sustained improvement?

A Small Case Study

Take, for example, a player I recently worked with.

This player came to me because he wanted get his UTR rating to 6. He was around a high 3 when we began. Other than having that as his desired outcome, he had no real roadmap for how he wanted to become that kind of player other than the cursory: “I need to play better in matches, get better, and beat better-ranked players.”

His goal was simply outcome-based, without any specific actions or intentions behind it. Through a few sessions with me, we decided to take a different approach. Instead of focusing purely on the outcome, we created mastery goals focused on skill improvement and process goals that outlined the specific actions he needed to take during competitive play. For this player, we:

1. We decided to spend time on his serve to make it a real weapon: this included some video analysis and recommendations for what he should be practicing and what components he could use. I also informed him that change takes time and he bought into that idea of there being no automatic or immediate fixes. After the technique was substantially changed, we began to practice combinations with his serve and serve +1 patterns, with the goal of executing the change under realistic and point-like scenarios. Remember, the serve is the only shot you can really practice in isolation—but in reality that’s not how it works when you actually play the point. You need to know how to handle and dispatch the incoming return.

2. We built out a “player identity” where he committed to being an all-court, aggressive player who attacked the net at every opportunity: I set in place practice structure and drills under deliberate conditions that this player could use with his practice partners that built this idea of him becoming an all-court, aggressive player. We decided, together, that he didn’t want to be the kind of player who would just stay back and endlessly rally—and that he wanted to be the player who was the aggressor!

3. We changed his focus toward process goals in his matches instead of fixating purely on his outcome: this player used to get stressed and anxious when he played matches because his focus was on what winning and losing meant in terms of his standing and reputation at the club where he played and also in contrast to the goal he had set. As we’ve covered, this isn’t the healthiest way of approaching competition and improvement—and can actually work in your detriment when you’re trying to get the best performance out of yourself. I don’t recommend it. So we started to set small process goals that he could focus in on during matches. Things like: 1) I will serve and volley on every first serve, 2) every time the ball lands short, I will approach the net. His execution of his goals is what I encouraged himself to evaluate himself by, and not whether he won or lost the match.

4. Match review: And finally, I encouraged him to review his performances objectively based upon the goals that we set. For example, if the above were his two process goals, how often did he actually execute them during a match? Was he brave enough to approach the net at 30–30 and 4–4? Or did he revert to being timid and scared because he desperately wanted to win the point?

Rather than focusing on whether he won or lost and riding an emotional roller coaster, he started to review his matches by asking, “Did I execute my process goals? Did I stick to my routines?” It was pretty cool to see how this changed his approach to competition.

And within a few weeks of consistent feedback and work on all of this stuff, we started to see a shift in his approach to his tennis and consequently his performances. He wasn’t as obsessed with scores and had less issues with anxiety. The kicker was that he was actually playing better, which was what was gaining him his better results. And as his process goals and task goals led to better skills and performance, his outcomes changed.

He hasn’t reached a 6 UTR yet, but I’m confident that if he keeps going down this path and becomes better athletically, it’s a level that he can attain.

My Offer

So here’s where I come in. If you’ve struggled to see results, despite wanting to improve your ranking of rating, it might be time to look at your goals themselves and how and what you’re practicing.

Are they outcome goals? If so, maybe it’s time for a shift. My coaching isn’t just about giving you more information—there’s plenty of that out there for free. Instead, it’s about creating a roadmap for your game, with accountability and a clear structure to help you reach your tennis goals.

In today’s world, information is free. But personalized implementation and accountability are things you pay for. We won’t be setting vague goals about reaching an arbitrary ranking; we’ll be dissecting your game, figuring out the specific task and mastery goals you need to focus on, and ensuring that you stick with them for your long-term development.

Serious about your improvement? Have a think about working with me.

Hoping the below will give you a laugh… it covers many of the topics we chat about in this newsletter: