Its the final round of Wimbledon Junior Girls. The score is tight. Its now 6-6 in the final set. Both players are hoping to get the grip on this final tie-break game. This is the moment to get it or not get it. Lifting the trophy as a Wimbledon Junior Champion or being a runner-up.
Players are seen to be taking their time in between points. One player is turning the body to the back of the court, adjusting the racket strings. The other player talk to herselves while walking and are looking at her team after the points ended.
In this match, serving or returning for the first point in the tie-break, the promising player think of the overall situation of the match. She then think of the previous point. What she did right and what she did wrong. In the window of 20-25 seconds, she divided the duration into phases.
During this moment of crucial points, players need to stick on their routine to be on top of the game. There are so many routines to do while in practice and to make it a habit in the match. One of it can be done during the 25 seconds window and is divided into three phases of thinking.
1. Reflecting the point, especially the last point. The reflecting is to analyse whats good, which one to avoid doing, which one to do more. In this phase, five second is needed. Players usually take their towel and wipe their sweat at the back of the court. Wiping the face can means wiping the previous point away whether its good or bad.
2. Plan the next point. The other 5 seconds is used to plan the next point. The next one, no matter you are serving or returning. This can be placements, pace, patterns, attacking or defending based on the reflection done in the first phase. Player should made up their mind of how to play the next point.
3. The 10 seconds is gone now, another 5 second is used to self talk. Give positive encouragement that will help boosting the motivation. This will eliminate the worries and thus making the player being presence at the moment. This is when players start moving the feet, being ready to serve or return.
Being presence and not thinking too much ahead will make the players better at executing their plan.
Practice the 3 phases of thinking in between points, and the players will benefit from this. We will see the differences in their matches when they start to execute the 3 phases. Players, in reality have a lot of time left in between points to think and plan. Remember that, most of the time players on court during the match is not hitting balls, but it is for them to think and plan the points.