Dear Sam

Sam Stosur ranked number nine in the world had a disappointing loss in the second round to China’s Zheng Jie, during the 2013 Australian Open. Up 5-2 in the third and two points away from converting to a victory, in her own words, “At 5-2, I felt great then all of a sudden it obviously went away quickly,” the mental side of her game came unraveled. Zheng won the match 7-5 in the third but then lost in the next round.

Dear Sam,

The good news is the mental game is fixable. You may be experiencing some sleepless nights since your second round loss at the Australian Open to China’s Zheng Jie. You may even be replaying the points when you were up 5-2 in the third, double break point and experiencing your lead and the match reversing it’s course as you weren’t able to get back on track. Ruminating on the thoughts of “Bloody hell my mental focus failed me again” could probably be going through your mind.

No one but you truly knows the feelings of pressure you put upon yourself on the court. Or what it feels like to represent your country on centre court during the Australian Grand Slam. It’s a privilege and unique experience. Your friend Renee Stubbs, who also knows what it feels like to play in this arena, has been tweeting her support, as have many others. 

In the science of the mental game we know that spending time dwelling on toxic thoughts from that match only builds an inner image and expectation that is a faulty story of your true skills and abilities in pressure situations.

A snap shot of your skills, abilities, and determination demonstrates that you have and can rise to the occasion when it counts. You are the first Australian woman since Evonne Goolagong Cawley to win a Grand Slam Singles tournament. In 2011 you beat Serena Williams in the finals of the U.S. Open no small feat. Altogether you have five Grand Slam Titles to date. It’s clear you have the technical and athletic skills and abilities of a great player. You’ve overcome physical adversity. In 2007 you left the tour after months of competing at half speed when you were suffering from undiagnosed Lyme Disease. When you returned to the tour in 2008 your singles play took a back seat to your doubles success, and then in 2010 you decided to focus on singles and take part less in doubles. 

Let’s shift to what you described in your post match press conference as “The loss was 100% mental.” The media has described this as “choking.” In a recent interview on Brain Science Podcast, episode 76, Dr. Sian Beilock, author of “Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To” defines “choking” as “Suboptimal performance-poorer performance than when you would have in a non-stressful situation. And it’s really poor performance in response to the perceived stress of what’s going on. So, someone doesn’t have to think the situation is stressful, but you have to think it’s stressful, and because of that, you end up performing below your ability.” I think you are already clear on this part. 

Now that we have a definition of “choking” it is important to talk about the useful tools for preparing for and having the emotional and physical mastery over these “choking” situations. It’s important here to note that these situations happen quite often in the world of professional sports. Tennis, golf, baseball pitchers, basketball players at the free throw line, kickers in football, athletes who are on center stage by themselves with a lot of down time to think are quite susceptible. Dr. Beilock points out, “One thing that we’ve shown is that highly skilled performers are really susceptible to poor performance, because one thing that happens in these stressful situations is that people become conscious of what they are doing; they start trying to control every step of their performance in a way that disrupts it.” “And in these stressful situations, what we’ve shown is that people often have thoughts or worries about the situation and its consequences, and this essentially uses up important resources, our ability to think, attend on the fly-and essentially causes people to do a couple of things. One of those things is to attend to some information and ignore others.” I am just putting in some guesswork here but in your comments from the post match conference you said, “At 5-2, I felt great, then all of a sudden it obviously went away quite quickly.” “Crazy things start popping into your head. You make an error and you tighten up a little bit, but you try to reset and refocus before that next point.” As someone who works with athletes of all levels, I know that these statements are hallmarks of someone who is experiencing the phenomenon of choking. 

I imagine the pressure and largeness of playing at the Australian Open for you began weeks before the tournament started. The media’s stereotyping questions of how your mental game will hold up based on previous performances there may have contributed to your suboptimal performance in the third set. Dr. Beilock talks about the concept of stereotype threat phenomenon, “The really interesting thing about this phenomenon is that the person who’s aware of the stereotype doesn’t have to endorse the stereotype; they just have to know that someone else believes it. And so, it can be really problematic, because it turns out that just being aware that people hold stereotypes about how you should perform can lead you to fail, even if you don’t endorse them.” It is important to be alert to the media’s doubting questions in pre and post conferences that challenge you to prove them wrong. Your ability to put aside thoughts of previous disappointments and worry about how you will perform is a skill that has to be diligently practiced and prepared for weeks if not months ahead of time. 

I am sure your support team which may still include a sport psychologist prepared you with the standard fare of pre, post, and during match mental training that included, managing the off court distractions of, the media, family, friends and well wishers, agents, sponsors, etc. On court you may have a customized process that included breathing, linking your breath and mental thoughts so they were in synch so your mind and body work together. When the match began to turn you had a plan in place to disrupt wayward thinking and keep your mental emotional energy calm and focused. Okay maybe this part was not quite as solid as it needed to be in this situation but like improving any stroke this is fixable. There are many tools, techniques, and practices that can help you clear the decks of mental distractions so you access your skills and abilities even in the most stressful situations. Being the player you are you will get there. 

There are many simple management techniques that are quite effective. One technique that I have found works well for athletes is to take five minutes before your next match to write down your thoughts and worries about the match and issues connected to the match. Doing so serves as a way of letting those pesky doubts, find a place outside of your mind so you are able to do what you do so well on the court. When you write down all the possible distractions that come into your life during this tournament, and I imagine there are quite a few, also write down how you want to deal with them on your terms so you remain in control of the items you can control. Spend another 5 minutes writing down all the things you are good at as a professional athlete and world class player.  This serves to focus your attention on your larger positive attributes as a successful world class competitor. Prior to your matches spend five minutes twice a day visualizing yourself either by watching actual footage that shows you playing well or sitting quietly imaging your best playing self. In the visualization see the stadium, hear the noise, the audience, the players box, the change over seating. You can even start back at the locker room, and if there is an interview on the way out to the court, know what you will say, include as much detail as you can provide to the imagery. Link the imaging to diaphragmatic breathing, even adding music can help you with your movement and mental rhythm, these are things your sport psychologist can help you with.

When you write down all the possible distractions that come into your life during this tournament, and I imagine there are quite a few, also write down how you want to deal with them on your terms so you remain in control of the things you can control.

I know that the Australian Open has enormous significance to you. Developing mental skills takes time, patience and adjustments, but as a professional playing at the highest level you spend a lot of time on your technical and strategic skills. The mental skills become easier and more automatic with practice. Writing down your worries, breathing, imaging and dealing with distractions may seem too simple a picture of how to fix the choking issue you just endured. There are lots of mental pre-performance and on-court routines that can be customized to your specific needs. Biofeedback and neurofeedback both simple and more involved practices and techniques are also available.  You are a great player to watch and the tennis season is just beginning, so I hope you fire up, focus up, and tweak the mental adjustments so you have a fantastic year.

*This article may also be read @ examiner.