Get your game on track with meditation and yoga

by Eric Hinchman, USPTA

The mind of a tennis player is the craziest thing. Consider the 1975 Wimbledon men's final when Arthur Ashe defeated Jimmy Connors 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. Ashe was a 10-to-one underdog playing the world's No. 1, who was nine years his junior. Ashe took with him a piece of paper with five or six key points to remember, which he focused upon during changeovers.

The game plan involved switching from his normal style of big-serving shot-maker to spin-serving soft-baller, and worked to perfection the first two sets. In the third set, Ashe began going for more on his serve and straying from his plan, playing right into Connors' strengths. Connors took the third set and was up 3-1, serving at 40-30 in the fourth when Ashe escaped disaster by returning to the calculated play that had won him the first two sets. He came back to win the fourth set and the Wimbledon title.

That match begs the question: Why would Ashe abandon a strategy that was working so perfectly? Who knows? Maybe it was ego. Maybe he thought, "I'm up two sets, now I'm gonna beat him my way." Whatever his reasoning was, Ashe was able to get his mind back on track in time to save the match.

The idea that a player who was as cerebral and level-headed as Arthur Ashe could get distracted from his game plan - with a Grand Slam title at stake - shows just how tricky it is to hold the mind steady.

This fact is not lost on Lawrence Eyre. His team meditates before every practice. Eyre is the boys' tennis coach at The Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa, and was named 2009 USPTA National High School Coach of the Year. Since 1991, his teams have won 17 Iowa state championships in singles, doubles, and team tennis. They were also the only team in state history to sweep singles, doubles, and team tennis in consecutive years. This is no small accomplishment considering theirs is the smallest school in the state that fields a tennis team.

Eyre does not claim to possess a secret potion or magic bullet, but acknowledges his players bring certain qualities to practice after doing yoga exercises and meditation.

"What we notice is that the kids' receptivity and wakeful ability to take in what I'm teaching or coaching or what we're working on is a lot higher. It's like cleaning the slate before practice," Eyre said.

This ability to be restfully wakeful, calmly alert, and quietly active transitions naturally from practice to competition. Eyre's team was featured in the book "Body, Mind and Sport" by John Douillard. The author highlights a tough doubles match at the state championships that two of Eyre's players lost in a third-set tie-break and how composed and calm they were when despondency or anger would be a more expected response.

The conclusion that this type of attitude is a result of meditation is "without any question," Eyre said. "The people who usually comment are the coaches, other players and the parents; that our kids seem to remain composed under fire. That's a tradition, that people expect our players to be calm when it comes to crunch time."

The use of meditation and yoga in the world of tennis is not confined to a high school team in Iowa. Remember Torben Ulrich? The Inner Game of Tennis? However, it seems that outside of a smattering of anecdotal tidbits (Andy Murray doing Bikram yoga; Serena Williams in triangle pose), these disciplines are largely untapped by tennis players. Or are they?

"There are definitely world-class players who do TM," (Transcendental Meditation) Eyre said. "If they choose to give away their competitive advantage, that's their choice. There's been a whole bunch that haven't identified themselves and I respect their privacy."

Though it may be elusive to quantify the meditation-yoga-tennis connection, it has obviously made inroads in the field of athletic training, evidenced by increased offerings of "yoga for golfers" classes, and specific "yoga for athletes" programs such as the classes that Sage Rountree teaches.

Rountree is a yoga teacher and endurance sports coach from Chapel Hill, N.C. She is also yoga instructor to several University of North Carolina teams, including football, men's lacrosse and distance runners. There is no doubt how she feels about yoga and sport. The first sentence in her book, The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, reads, "Yoga will make you a better athlete."

If tennis players wonder if this means them, Rountree says, "It will make you a better whatever - fill in the blank. Especially with a reaction sport like tennis, yoga can have a huge effect on the ability and to maintain focus under pressure."

Rountree explains in her book that "yoga's approach to concentration and breath awareness will improve your mental focus and mental endurance - the intangibles that become so important at the end of a long training session or race" (or, in the case of tennis players, a long match).

Since the words "yoga," "meditation" and "concentration" are so often used in conjunction with one another, it may be helpful to clarify their differences. Yoga can be thought of as an umbrella that covers physical poses, breath work, meditation, and concentration. In the United States, yoga is commonly associated with the physical poses done in classes and seen in books and DVDs. Actually, the physical aspect (hatha yoga) comprises only one of the eight "limbs" of classical yoga. The other limbs, to name a few, involve personal conduct, breathing exercises, concentration and meditation.

Back in the day, as in 2,000-plus years back, the physical poses were used to prepare the body for long periods of sitting meditation. Initially, yoga asanas, or poses, were part of the path of raising consciousness, as they no doubt still are for many practitioners. Yoga as a path to ripped abs came much later.

For tennis players taking a yoga class at their club or fitness center, it would almost certainly be a hatha yoga class - one using physical poses and movements. However, the attention to breathing, to the body, alignment, and sensations, brings the element of strengthening the body and mind connection to the practice. Whether the benefit is more physical or mental depends upon the athlete.

"If you took somebody who was deconditioned, or a little bit out of shape, you'd start to see huge physical gains," said Rountree. "But if you take someone who is at the top of the field to a yoga class, they will pretty much be able to do most of the asanas, but the approach to focus and presence will probably be really useful, so for them the benefit might be more weighted to the mental than the physical."

Also dependent upon the athlete is which style of class is best. One would assume that highly conditioned endurance athletes like the ones Rountree works with, or competitive tennis players, would require a more intense, power-yoga workout, but this is not necessarily so. What she doesn't want to do is pile even more resistance or isometric work on somebody who's already training hard.

"The physical practice is designed as a complement to training instead of just an extension of it," Rountree explains. "People are sometimes surprised that it is not a super-sweaty, vigorous class. There are times when it is, when people are generally in their off-season."

Recreational players would want to consider how hard they're training on and off court and where they are in their league or tournament season in determining what type of class to take. The more physically demanding styles of yoga include vinyasa (flow), power, hot, and Bikram. Gentler styles with longer holds include restorative, yin, or more beginning-level classes. There are many other levels within those styles. With a little inquiry, finding a suitable class is not difficult, given the choices available.

One thing that is paradoxical about yoga/meditation and tennis is the competitive aspect. Yoga is a decidedly noncompetitive pursuit. Letting go of competition, comparisons, and judgment are central to a yoga practice. Such principles might seem downright heretical when trying to put a beat-down on an opponent. After all, competitive tennis players, regardless of their level, are by and large driven and pragmatic. The statement that being less focused on winning can result in more winning sounds like a brain teaser, but no doubt makes perfect sense to those who have practiced it, like Lawrence Eyre's teams.

"My emphasis is on the process of improvement. If you focus too much on the outcome, it's going to inhibit the way you play. I think winning is a natural outcome when people are playing their best," Eyre said.

To that end, John Douillard writes in "Body, Mind and Sport," that "Winning from the inside out means being more dedicated to the cumulative development of mind/body coordination than to momentary victories."

When the mind and body are in perfect coordination the tennis player finds himself or herself in that wondrous place that athletes call "The Zone." Most tennis players can recall a time when they've had a peak performance experience on the court. They might also recall wondering, "Why can't I play like that all the time?"

No one has developed a formula for creating the zone experience at will, but there are common denominators among athletes who describe being in the zone. Some of these traits are: a complete calmness and stillness of mind, an effortless feeling in the body, and a relaxed sensation in both body and mind, even in the midst of a high output performance. These are the same traits that are cultivated through the practice of yoga and meditation.

Any foray that a tennis player makes into achieving zone-like qualities and mindfulness on court begins with the breath. Among tools to bring the mind and body into a focused and calm state, no other is given near the importance or attention as conscious breathing.

When it comes to his players' breathing, Eyre is much more concerned about how they breathe when they aren't playing. As he points out, 75 percent of match time isn't actually playing, so it only makes sense to use that time in the best possible way; what he describes as "mastering the gaps." He wants his players to use the gaps as an opportunity to scale back and return to a state of equanimity between points and on changeovers.

Eyre has his players practice two things to master the gaps; he credits Jim Loehr, Ed.D. (USPTA Master Professional and renowned performance psychologist) for the first technique. The beauty of his tip lies in its simplicity; anyone can do it, just like anyone can watch the ball, just like anyone can breathe.

"Put your racquet in your nondominant hand, and the thing we add to that is breathe through your nose between points. We do this in practice and we use it in our matches," said Eyre. "That (the space between the points) is the most grossly underutilized time in tennis."

Eric Hinchman, USPTA, lives in Sarasota, Fla. He is a pro at the Longboat Key Tennis Center and a Registered Yoga Teacher, conducting classes at several local venues.