How To Avoid Over-Thinking – An Example From A Real Tennis Lesson

Have you ever caused yourself paralysis-by-analysis in a tennis lesson?

In other words, have you ever been thinking too much or trying to follow too many instructions at once and simply overwhelmed yourself?

Once you get into that overwhelmed state, you start missing more balls, which puts you in a bad mood – and it’s only downhill from there.

(Special thanks to Colin for letting me use the footage for this video article!)

How To Avoid Getting Overwhelmed

When I was at the beginning of my coaching career, I would often overwhelm my students – especially adults – with too much information.

Adults are generally more easily overwhelmed than kids because, when you throw a lot of information at kids during a tennis lesson, they typically have the ability to ignore what they cannot process.

It simply goes in one ear and out the other – and they keep their mind relatively clear so that they can still play tennis.

So, the coach might not even realize that they are delivering way too much information at once since kids do manage to play and improve in the long term.

But, when you throw a lot of information at an adult in a tennis lesson, you very quickly overwhelm them. Adults want to do things right, and they want to remember everything their coach has said, even if was said a day ago.

As you saw in the video clip above, Colin still had some additional instructions in his mind besides what I asked him to focus on, and he was close to overwhelming himself.

If that happened, he would not be able to track the ball and time it well and would therefore start missing a lot of shots.

That could have triggered even more thinking and corrections, and he would end up in a negative feedback loop where things go from bad to worse.

The only way out is then to take a break, sit down for a few minutes and clear the mind.

So, even though your instructions or the advice of your tennis coach are correct, they will not work if they are delivered all at once.

Therefore, you (or the coach) MUST know which of the corrections or instructions is a priority at the moment and focus on one or two at a time.

You may notice that other parts of your stroke are then not correct because you forgot about them, but that’s just normal.

We cannot learn in any other way than focusing on chunks of information at a time and working on different parts of the stroke at different times.

Once we put in enough repetitions over the course of days and weeks, our subconscious mind will take over some of the instructions, allowing us to focus on something new.

But, it does take time, and one has to be patient not only in the long term but also in the short term. In other words, in a single tennis lesson, one must be willing to make some incorrect movements while focusing on the priorities and making sure those are correct.

As you saw in the clip above, I waited for quite a while before telling Colin to correct his head position.

I noticed that from the first minute we started playing, but I stuck to my #1 rule while teaching tennis: Do Not Overwhelm The Player.

Focus on priorities, get the rallies going, assess how much the player is thinking at the moment, and then decide if it’s the right time to give another piece of advice or wait longer until the time is right.

I still overwhelm the players sometimes, and I know it’s always my fault – unless, of course, they think something on their own which I didn’t ask them to do.

That’s what I was referring to when I told Colin that it was his fault if he thinks additional things besides what I asked him to do.

It is his fault now if he becomes overwhelmed.

So, my advice to all tennis players who take lessons with me or any other tennis coach is: Do not think about anything besides what your coach is asking you to do.

We are coaching day in, day out for years and have (hopefully!) by now mastered the art of teaching and the art of delivering the right information at the right time based on the priorities of each particular student.

There is a grave danger of overthinking in the process of learning tennis, which quickly escalates to an overwhelmed mind and inability to keep the ball in play, let alone hit any good shots.

If you’ve had any experiences with getting overwhelmed or ending up in paralysis-by-analysis, please share your thoughts below so that your fellow tennis players realize that this doesn’t happen only to them. 

P.S. Here’s a before & after video clip of Colin’s backhand after 5 2-hour lessons:

If you want to know the methods I use to improve stroke technique in a short time, please take a look at the One-Handed Backhand video course.