There are a few concepts I was told repeatedly as a young player that I never quite understood. I would nod at my coaches and pretend to understand, or I would kinda understand, but not enough to be able to put that concept into practice consistently. Focus on the process is one of those concepts. So today, I want to talk about the concept of process and how I teach it to my players.
Driven by outcome
Nearly everything a person does is driven by an outcome. Tennis players are driven by many different outcomes - to win prestigious tournaments, make money, travel the world, or go to college on a scholarship.
Being driven by an outcome is aspirational. It’s what gets players in the gym at 6am and on the court for hours hitting a fuzzy yellow ball. It’s what gets coaches to work crazy hours in the freezing cold. It’s probably one of the reasons you’re reading this now. Drive is powerful. It’s emotional. And emotions are great. They are what make us human, but they aren’t super helpful when a player is down 5-4 in the third…
And it’s 30-30…
And they haven’t hit a first serve ALL match…
And their forehand cross is hitting the bottom of the net…
And they can’t breathe or move…
And all they can think about is not losing.
That’s when they need a process.
Grounded by process
A process is simply a series of repeatable actions that lead to an outcome. It’s a recipe, a list of steps, a procedure. And it has no emotion.
Think about it this way. If a recipe for chocolate cake says add 200g of butter, you don’t angst about whether that butter is going to end up making a cake. You’re confident it’s part of the process, so you do it.
Set clear goals
A process helps a player stay focused, present and remove unwanted emotion.
Yesterday, I sat with a young player before her match, and we worked on coming up with three goals.
This is what she came up with after some prompting about what she needed to do to perform well:
1. Bounce on my toes before each point. Move my feet and grunt when I hit every ball, so I know I’m breathing properly and putting my strength through every shot
2. Focus on my decision making. Know when I am in defence, offence or neutral and play the right ball to deal with the situation.
3. Use my backhand line when I’m in position as it’s my weapon.
And that became her process for the match.
Set goals you can control
Now, it's important that a player’s process contains steps and goals they can control. There's no point in a player setting the goal for their opponent to serve to their forehand so they can dominate on return.
They can't control that. They must set goals they can control and steps they can follow, so when they get them right, it gives them the best chance of winning more points.
Get the balance right
Like most things in life, the trick to success is getting the balance between two competing things right. In this case, it’s the balance between being driven to win and following a process. Too much drive to win can create unwelcome emotions that make performing difficult. Conversely, if you just focus on process, you can lose the spark to compete that makes you chase down that drop shot and fight.
So, my message to players now is twofold. It’s 1. here is the outcome we want to achieve AND, 2. here is the process you need to follow to achieve that. And since I’ve been explaining process in this way, I’ve had a lot more success with my athletes. Because there is no doubt that a professional on tour needs a solid process to follow. But having an outcome - a drive to become a top 100 player, to be sponsored by Nike, to travel the world - is just as important for success.
Regards,
Marc Sophoulis