To motivate oneself

Motivation underpins successful tennis performance, representing one of the game’s foremost psychological skills.

Tennis is a sport that requires different psycho-logical skills. Motivation is one of those skills. Tennis, unlike many other sports, has no substitutes, no time-outs, no in-game coaching and often in tournaments, no second chance. Throughout, players must adapt their games to ever-changing playing conditions (i.e., court surfaces, altitudes, balls, competition systems, etc.) and many different opponents. With this in mind, it becomes clearer why motivation, underpinned or supported by related concepts (i.e., drive, passion, persistence, competitiveness, effort, and desire to participate and win), is important to all stages of player development.