How do you overcome the psychological edge?

Overcoming the Locker Room Power of champions

I recommend you to read the article to get a full understanding of the cauldron that Liam Broady faced when he took on Nick Kyrgios at the Australian Open a few days ago.

Sledged and made to look silly. Playing Kyrgios is ‘awful’ 

by Michael Gleeson from The Age

The Power

Whilst many think that Nick Kyrgios is unsporting and disrespectful, I personally disagree. He understands his power and uses it to unsettle his opponents. This includes the greatest players of all time such as Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. Naturally many players call for him to be more respectful, but in such a competitive environment it would make their job easier if he didn’t bring he’s amazing psychological skills to the court. Nick will not play to someone else’s agenda.

The Aura

What champions bring to the court is an aura of invincibility, an absolute confidence in their own abilities and make it their business to intimidate opponents with this confidence so that the opponents find themselves focusing on what the champions can and will do to them rather than on their own processes. This edge wins matches before they are played and is subject of my audiobook Locker Room Power (see previous link for paperback)

Confidence and Bravery

Before thinking that what the likes of Nick Kyrgios and John McEnroe bring to the court as being gamesmanship and unfair. Think about the amazing confidence to do an underarm serve between the legs in a stadium full of people, which is like footballers stopping after a one-step run up and chipping a penalty over a goalkeeper in a World Cup match. This takes enormous confidence and bravery.

These champions are uninhibited and know that they can back up words and actions with excellent play and this doubles down the pressure on opponents.

The dilemma is how to handle the situation! How do you prevent yourself from being inhibited by their abilities and remain uninhibited and brave enough under pressure to match them?

What not to do

If you engage with aggression and anger and lose the next few points, you feel like you have lost your head and the champion wins. If you shrink and back off, you are done for, and if you laugh and joke with them, you are playing to their tune.

What to do

So how do you handle these big stadiums against great champions intent on stifling your ability to bring your best?

1. You need the confidence that you have the game to win.
2. It is paramount to realise truly how brave champions are and be prepared to be equally brave. This is a process, and it is rare someone gets it right first time and often it takes several experiences to feel comfortable in the cauldron.
3. You need to remain focused on what you will do to win and your processes.
4. Remain calm and relaxed, focused on delivering your statements of intent, plays and shots that you know hurt opponents and make them know that you are not afraid to attack them.
5. Accept their greatness and possibly looking bad out there at times as part of the battle. Applaud their good play rather than fume if it is a trick shot and move on!
6. Once a great player knows and feels that you are there to win and have the ability to challenge without being intimidated then they will accept the challenge and it will be game-on. McEnroe behaved impeccably against Borg because he both respected him and knew that any antics would have zero effect on Borg. McEnroe needed all his focus on his own play to have a chance to beat him.

The experience

As a coach, you can offer tools and explain how to handle the situation, but there is nothing you can do to prepare a player for what the experience will actually feel like. Watching it as a spectator is a totally different experience than being out there in the hot seat. Even, if you have experienced it yourself, it is something that anyone can only appreciate having been through it themselves.

Playing against a great player in the circumstances of a large arena who can and will rattle your cage and test you psychologically can only be learned from personal experience.

The experts in psychological edge

Certain players are masters of getting under other players skins and playing to the crowd, yet we need to appreciate these athletes because they are different and box office and therefore extremely good for any sport. They polarise and create the atmosphere that makes for great drama and spectacle. Muhammad Ali, Ronaldo, John McEnroe, Shane Warne and Nick Kyrgios to name a few. There are others that intimidate purely through their level of play but make no mistake they too are very aware of their power and use it in subtle ways to unsettle opponents.

Learn how to handle the various intimidations

If you want to be a champion, it is your responsibility to learn how to handle all the various intimidations and get good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with champions and earn their respect.

In Summary

It is not for us to try and stop them and also guys to realise that the reason they are champions is because they will do what they want to do regardless of what people think or say about them. This is one of the key ingredients of being a champion. Play the way you want to play, uninhibited by social norms and restraints.

written by David Sammel