A Quiet Mind is a Wonderful Concept

The idea that tennis, golf, archery, or any other skill-intensive pursuit for that matter, is 90% mental is something you'll hear espoused constantly by expert level practitioners of their particular discipline.

Well, the part that they're not saying out loud is that the skills that they've spent thousands of hours developing, honing, adjusting, rebuilding and polishing to a high sheen are only available to them when the pressures of competition can be kept at bay!

Please don't misunderstand me - mental strength is a key tool in the arsenal of any competitor. However, without rock-solid fundamentals, all of the mental strength and calm demeanor you can muster isn't worth ten cents.

FUNDAMENTALS, FUNDAMENTALS, FUNDAMENTALS.

If you have flawed stroking techniques and hire the top five sports psychologists in the world to understand how to best compete under pressure, you are still going to suck at tennis! 

Don't do drill sessions or clinics that ignore your mechanical errors and think that you are going to get better!

YOU AREN'T GOING TO GET BETTER- unless and until your technique is based on sound physics!

Your grips, be they easter, western, or continental, all have optimum contact points.

Do you understand and employ your GRIP CONTACT POINT RELATIONSHIP in a manner that produces accurate and powerful shots or do you just hold it, swing, and hope for the best ??

If something in your home was broken or functioning poorly, you'd probably hire somebody that could fix it. 

If your game needs an upgrade, be willing to have a coach take a hard look at your core skill set and make some adjustments to the techniques upon which your success relies.

It's not what's going on in your head that determines whether you win or lose if the ball won't go where you need it to go! 

First and foremost, etch your skills in stone -and then you can remain calm and carry on.