Practice, practice, practice. We all know that to improve our strokes, master tactical patterns of play, and raise our fitness levels, hours of diligent and focused practice are required. But your physical skills aren't the only thing you need to train. Another area that must be evaluated and exercised each and every time you play is your mental game.

What are mental skills? They're procedures that can help you control your mind efficiently and consistently as you play tennis. This not only involves developing talents like concentration and positive body language, it also includes efforts to influence personal characteristics such as self-esteem and sportsmanship.
The concept of enhancing your mental skills may seem awkward and confusing. But as with physical abilities, they can be presented, practiced, reinforced, revised, and tested under competitive conditions. In fact, sports-science research has shown that top tennis players have honed their mental skills so well that they've become habits. Players who struggle in this area often do so because they practice these skills infrequently and usually only in the context of a match.

The fact is, at any level, mental-skill techniques will help you adjust your actions, thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and they'll improve your play.

Beginner

Objective: Improving self-confidence

Self-confidence can be defined as a player's reasonable expectations about achieving success. It's not what you hope to accomplish, but rather what you think will happen. Beginners can wrestle with this concept, especially if they don't achieve immediate results. But it's important to feel good about your game so that you continue to play and improve. When players are starting out, the following ideas can help them develop a healthy level of on-court self-confidence.

Take lessons with a pro certified by the PTR (www. ptrtennis.org) or the USPTA (www.uspta.org). Developing your strokes with the help of a pro makes you feel like you're learning the right way to play. Join a group clinic or a league. Playing and competing with players of your own ability level in a team atmosphere is very beneficial.

Make a plan to improve one of your strokes and commit to practicing it every time you play. When you set small, short-term objectives and then achieve them, you'll feel and act more confident on the court.
Set some performance goals related to improving your level of fitness. This could include bettering your nutritional habits, expanding your aerobic base, or enhancing your strength and flexibility.

Intermediate

Objective: Positive self-talk

As you start to compete, you begin to judge your playing more critically. Interpreting performance on the tennis court often occurs immediately and decisively. These thoughts are powerful and are usually linked to the winning or losing of a point. In reality, to play your best you need to focus on performance (how you're playing) rather than outcome.

One way to monitor your thoughts is to be aware of your self-talk. Positive emotions and self-talk can push you forward to better performances, but by the same token, negative feelings and cursing yourself can, and usually does, bring you down with a thud.

The first step to improving your self-talk is to take an inventory of your thoughts during or right after a match. What happens in your mind when you miss an easy shot, double-fault, lose a lead, or fail to win a match that perhaps you should have won?
The next step is to engage in something called thought stopping. This works by halting negative thoughts before they become harmful to performance. You become aware of a negative thought, say to yourself, and refocus on something task-related. Often in the pro game you see players taking deep breaths and moving their strings. The strings may not need any adjustments, but the pros need to employ a routine like this to refocus their attention from what just occurred on the court to a simple task like moving strings.

Advanced

Objective: Controlling your body language

At this level it's important to show that you have a positive attitude. Have you ever peered across the net at your opponent and noticed that he looked defeated? Perhaps he made an unforced error that gave you the game or maybe you hit an unbelievable winner.
When an opponent displays negative body language, it feeds our psyche by giving us confidence that he's beaten. On the other hand, you may look across the net and see a player full of energy who is maintaining a positive posture. When this happens, you know you're in for a tough match.

How do you want to look on the court? What's the image you want to display as a competitor? Take a moment and create an image in your mind of a confident player. It's easy to picture someone with good body language; more often than not he has a confident walk, good posture, and his head is up. The player's eyes are intense, but at the same time they're calm.

The best players react positively to the stresses of competition by using routines that allow them to exhibit a relaxed intensity during and after points. Here are a few routines that you can use to stay focused and confident. Practice good posture–head up and shoulders back. Employ a confident walk.
After the point is finished, put your racquet in your nondominant hand. This allows your hand to rest and relax, and more often than not you won't be tempted to use or abuse your racquet in frustration.

Adapted from Tennis.com