Coaching the Mind: Practical Mental Health Strategies for Tennis Coaches
Mental Health Awareness Month offers an opportunity to reframe how coaches approach performance. Physical training often dominates practice time, yet the mental side of the game consistently shapes outcomes. As performance psychologist Dr. Michelle Cleere explains, “What we’re really talking about is life skills or coping skills.”
For tennis players, those skills surface before, during and after every match, often determining whether ability translates into results.
Beating the “Demons”
Dr. Cleere describes the internal challenges athletes encounter as “the demon,” a mix of overthinking, doubt, fear and frustration. These mental barriers often appear in predictable moments:
Pre-match anxiety: “I have to win.”
Fear of mistakes, especially unforced errors.
Fixation on technique mid-match.
Loss of focus between points.
For coaches, recognizing these patterns is the first step toward helping players manage them.
"There are always moments that went well. That’s what feeds confidence and motivation."
Dr. Michelle Cleere
Routines: The Reset Button for the Brain
One of Dr. Cleere’s core recommendations is simple but highly effective: structured routines. “All my tennis players have a mental warm-up routine, a pre-serve routine, a between-point routine and a way of evaluating performance afterwards,” she explains.
Routines are not superstitions. They’re tools for consistency and reset. “It’s really important to be able to reset every time,” she says. A basic between-point routine might include:
Turning away from the net to disengage.
Adjusting strings or using a physical cue.
Repeating a mantra such as: “Every ball is a new opportunity.”
These small actions help players shift from reaction to intention.
What Coaches Should Say
In high-pressure moments, words often have limited impact. “No matter what the coach is saying, it’s probably not going to help a lot,” Dr. Cleere says. Instead, preparation matters more than intervention. She recommends asking players in advance: “What do you need in these moments?” This approach builds autonomy.
“I try to make all my tennis players autonomous,” she says. “so they don’t have to rely on other people.”
After the Match: Reflection Over Reaction
Post-match conversations are critical for both performance and mental health. Dr. Cleere advises giving players space before offering feedback. “Give your player a couple minutes before you jump in,” she says.
Then guide them through three questions: “What went well?” “What was challenging?” “What do I need to work on tomorrow?” This structure shifts players out of emotional reaction and into constructive thinking.
“There are always moments that went well,” she emphasizes. “That’s what feeds confidence and motivation.”
Reframing Negative Self-Talk
Negative self-talk is common, and coachable. Dr. Cleere suggests three approaches:
Challenge it: “Is that true?”
Reflect it back: Help players hear their own words.
Reframe it: Move toward neutral-positive language.
For example:
“I’m terrible” becomes “I’ve been working hard on this.” This reframing builds awareness without forcing unrealistic positivity.
Focus Is a Trainable Skill
Focus is not constant, but it’s recoverable. “We can’t be focused 24/7,” Dr. Cleere explains. “But we can learn to get quicker at recognizing when we’ve gotten distracted and bringing our focus back.”
She recommends simple exercises, such as listening to music and repeatedly returning attention when it drifts. The goal is not perfect focus, but faster recovery.
Integrating Mental Training into Practice
Mental training does not require separate sessions. It can be embedded into everyday coaching:
Begin with a short mental warm-up.
Reinforce pre-serve and between-point routines.
End practice with a 60-second reflection.
“Part of this is just being able to have these conversations in a more informed way,” Dr. Cleere says. Consistency is key to driving improvement.
Process Over Outcome
If a coach has only one message to deliver, Dr. Cleere is clear: “Take your focus off winning and losing. Instead, be present in the process.” This shift reduces pressure and improves performance simultaneously.
Mental skills are not a one-time fix. “Behavior change is tough,” Dr. Cleere says. “It requires progression, just like learning how to play tennis.”
For coaches, the takeaway is practical: introduce small, repeatable habits that players can carry forward. Over time, those habits become the difference between reacting under pressure and performing through it.
