The Power of the Pause How to reset under pressure By Rob Polishook n the book, The Competitive Buddha, written by my colleague Dr. Jerry Lynch, he speaks about the importance of patience. He says “patience is an important virtue for those of us in athletics, we want success, and we want it now…and we do not want to wait. This makes us tight, tense and tentative, which in turn delays what we desire to have happen.” In this article, I’d like to expand on Dr. Lynch’s perspective on patience and introduce the power Photo Credit: Andrew Ong/USTA of the pause. The pause is a component of patience and a tool properly set up, balanced, and able which can be used when facing to choose the most efficient path to challenges, obstacles and adversity. the ball. In short, without the splitChoosing to pause will enable step, a player will rush and run competitive tennis players to step through their shots. back, open up, and play in the here What would happen if there was and now. also a mental split-step? Something Interestingly, all great tennis a player could do between points, players physically pause before they games or even sets to help them make contact with each shot. It may mentally recalibrate? There is and, be a crushing Novak Djokovic like the split-step, it is even more so backhand down-the-line or a Paula overlooked by junior players. The Badosa forehand deep and heavy. mental split-step is a pause, which We all see it; it’s in the split-step. provides the player the choice to The split-step is an integral part of settle down, re-center, and exist in the technical shot. However, its moments of adversity without purpose is often overlooked. The rushing. It can allow them to cope split-step ensures that a player is with challenging situations and
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New York Tennis Magazine • January/February 2022 • NYTennisMag.com
provide clarity to evaluate what is happening. Pausing can also help a player to let go of negative energy or excess energy and refocus on what’s important now. The mental pause technique which I recommend is called Feel, Breathe, See. It can be done for 10 seconds to a minute, or even shorter or longer depending on the situation. A player can also choose just one element, for example, the breath, and bring their awareness to that for three-tofive seconds The mental pause (Feel, Breathe, See) is simple, but it’s not easy to do! Why? Because often a player will be so caught up in the emotions of a match, or distracted by what they cannot control, that they forget to pause. I recommend that players get a three-by-five inch index card and write a few mental points which are meaningful to them. One of the entries would be: Pause… Feel, Breathe, See. The card can be referenced at change overs and between sets. Alternatively, for immediacy, it can
