{"id":3319,"date":"2021-08-06T12:18:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T16:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.advancedpokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/?p=3319"},"modified":"2021-08-06T12:18:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T16:18:53","slug":"mental-toughness-in-tennis-and-poker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/mental-toughness-in-tennis-and-poker\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Toughness in Tennis and Poker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I\u2019ve been playing a \u201clittle\u201d tennis lately.\u00a0<em>(Editor\u2019s Note: Steve is obsessed with tennis.\u00a0He plays seven days a week. It\u2019s all he ever talks about.\u00a0 He never shuts up.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m amazed how two seemingly unrelated sports (tennis and poker) have so much in common.&nbsp;I\u2019ve been annihilating tennis opponents left and right lately. And no, it isn\u2019t because I\u2019m strictly better than them.&nbsp; I\u2019ve only been playing a little over a year, and some of them have been playing for decades. I win because I\u2019m mentally tougher than they are. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tennis, like poker, is all about staying in control of your emotions.&nbsp;It\u2019s about entertaining nothing but positive thoughts while waiting for your opponent to crack under the pressure.&nbsp;This mental toughness is what will take you to the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had a tennis match yesterday. Here in Florida it was over 90 degrees outside, with nearly 100% humidity. There wasn\u2019t a cloud in the sky, and the sun was beating down on us. It would have been easy to start thinking negative thoughts about the miserable playing conditions.&nbsp;Instead, I looked at the positive.&nbsp; I\u2019m a native Floridian, I can handle the heat.&nbsp;I had brought a gallon of Gatorade.&nbsp;My opponent was originally from Michigan.&nbsp;The sweat was pouring off him in buckets.&nbsp; I knew he would crack eventually.&nbsp;About an hour into the match, he started slowing down.&nbsp;By hour two he looked ready to dial 9-1-1. I won easily in straight sets. It wasn&#8217;t my superior tennis skills that got me there, it was my mental toughness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poker is the same way. It\u2019s so easy to let negative thoughts creep in.&nbsp;One thing that works for me is to be conscious of the negative thoughts and take steps to eliminate them.&nbsp;Has anyone reading this ever caught themselves thinking things like these?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cOh no, I can\u2019t believe that annoying guy is at my table.&nbsp;I always lose when he\u2019s at my table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cI forgot to (wear my lucky shirt, bring my lucky card protector, etc).&nbsp; I know I\u2019m going to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOh no, not today, this is a big tournament, I can\u2019t believe I drew the 1 seat.\u00a0 I hate being next to the dealer, I can never see, and I\u2019m always worried they\u2019ll muck my hand by accident.\u00a0I\u2019m going to lose for sure today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whenever I catch a thought like these pass through my mind, I\u2019m determined to prove it wrong.&nbsp;I\u2019ll try extra hard to win that day, to teach my subconscious mind to stop harboring bad thoughts. I\u2019ll even purposefully NOT wear my lucky shirt, just to prove to myself that I don\u2019t need it to win.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In some ways tennis players are even WORSE than poker players with their negative thinking. Often I show up to a tennis match, and before the match even starts, my opponent says something like, \u201cJust to let you know, my knee is kind of bothering me, it might be a factor today\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m trying out a new racquet today; not sure yet how well it will work out\u201d.\u00a0 How about that \u2013 the match hasn\u2019t even STARTED YET and they are already making excuses!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s great to know about pot odds, blockers, hand ranges, and squeeze plays.\u00a0 It\u2019s really important you know these things, and to implement your knowledge when you play.\u00a0And yet, I can\u2019t stress enough that <strong>your attitude is going to determine whether you win or lose at poker<\/strong>. So make sure to bring your mental toughness to the table and keep your mind focused on playing to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been playing a \u201clittle\u201d tennis lately.\u00a0(Editor\u2019s Note: Steve is obsessed with tennis.\u00a0He plays seven days a week. It\u2019s all he ever talks about.\u00a0 He never shuts up.) I\u2019m amazed how two seemingly unrelated sports (tennis and poker) have so much in common.&nbsp;I\u2019ve been annihilating tennis opponents left and right lately. And no, it isn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mental Toughness in Tennis and Poker - Advanced Poker Training Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mental toughness is the element that will turn a good poker player into a winning one. 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