The Top Ten Tennis Tips of All-Time: Anticipation By By Dr. Dr. Tom Tom Ferraro Ferraro
ver the years I have learned a key intervention that helps tennis players in their effort to win is anticipating any and all problems that will occur during an event and preparing a reaction to it. This common sense approach is surprisingly neglected by all but the most elite players. In 1971, Carly Simon wrote her most famous song “Anticipation” which begins with the line “We can never know about the days to come, but we think about them anyway”. She intuitively outlined one of the most mature and crucial defenses that athletes need in order to win The realistic anticipation of future inner discomfort and surprise problems is one of the central keys to winning in any sport. This is commonly referred to as “Murphy’s Law” or that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray so you had better be prepared for any and all problems. The bigger the event, the more likely that strange and unexpected discomfort will happen.
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Most tennis players do not anticipate most things and go into events blindly and naively. Tennis tournaments are like war and as in war, you had better have a carefully prepared plan or you will soon be dead. You may have noticed that in postgame interviews, the winners of the event will often express appreciation to their team of doctors, trainers, physio guys, coaches and spouses. The team that surrounds the athlete is responsible for anticipating any and all problems and prepared the athlete to be ready. A few years ago I ran a conference and one of the guest speakers I invited was Gary Wadler, M.D., the sport medicine guru. He told a story of working with Martina Navratilova the year she won the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadow. They had anticipated very high temperatures and the possibility of heat stroke on the last weekend and so intravenous fluids were used to prevent dehydration. That is a good example of
New York Tennis Magazine • March/April 2022 • NYTennisMag.com
anticipation. The list of problems that might occur during a tournament includes both external and internal issues. There may be traffic on the way to the event, there may be a sudden rainstorm which makes the court wet or the wind may not be to your liking. You may be paired against someone who upsets you or who has a big rep or who bores you. Maybe the opponent is a pusher and you dislike that kind of game. Perhaps the referee or your opponent makes a bad call. It might be that you are on the verge of burnout, are exhausted or got only four hours sleep the night before. Maybe you suddenly feel nausea, have back pain or you’re coming down with a cold or just coming back from an injury. Maybe there are inner demons at work like being too tense, in a slump, depressed, distracted by some recent social problem or overthinking your stroke or yipping. Any and all of these things happen to players on a regular basis and so how
