Straka — Tennis, Mental Training, Mental Performance

The Energy Cost of Attention

Holding attention is metabolically expensive, and that budget is not fixed. What near-infrared light does to it, what I found testing a photobiomodulation helmet with pla

What a Mental Performance Coach Actually Does for a Tennis Player

What a mental performance coach actually trains: attention under pressure, recovery after errors, and decision making when the score gets heavy.

Where /ask Ends and Coaching Begins

/ask answers the question you bring. A coach does different work — watching, listening, asking back, drawing on their own experience. Not /ask plus eyes.

Equanimity in Tennis: The Skill of Neither Pushing Nor Pulling

Equanimity is not calm. It is not indifference. It is the trained skill of neither pushing away what is unpleasant nor clinging to what is pleasant.

Sensory Clarity in Tennis: What Are You Actually Noticing?

Paying attention and noticing clearly are not the same thing. A player can concentrate very hard and still not detect what actually matters. That gap is where sensory cla

Concentration in Tennis: The Four Subskills That Actually Matter

Most players think concentration is one thing. In tennis it is four distinct subskills — and they can be weak or strong independently. That changes everything about how t

What Actually Breaks Down Under Pressure in Tennis

Players say they tightened up or lost confidence. Those descriptions make sense but they are too broad. If you want to train performance under pressure you need a more ex

Pre-Match Nerves: What to Train Instead of Trying Not to Be Nervous

Nervousness before a match is not the problem. The relationship to it is. What players need to train is not the elimination of nerves but the ability to perform clearly w

Why Players Choke in Tennis: What Is Actually Happening

Choking is not weakness or lack of toughness. It is a very specific failure of attention, perception, and equanimity under highly meaningful conditions.

Why Players Choose the Wrong Shot in Tennis

A player can hit the same shot for two very different reasons internally. One is driven by the situation. The other is driven by what the player is feeling.

Why Stay Present Is Too Vague to Help a Tennis Player

Stay present is the most common mental performance instruction in tennis. It is also the least useful. Here is what to say instead.

How to Integrate Mental Training Into a Drill

A player is not training the mental game simply by being on court. They are only training it when they are actually using these skills: putting attention where it needs t

Why Knowing What to Do Is Not the Same as Being Able to Do It

The mental side of tennis is not exempt from training. It does not get a special shortcut just because the mind can be talked about. Understanding is not ability. Ability

What Are You Actually Paying Attention To When You Play

Most players have never seriously examined where their attention actually goes during a match. That gap between where focus lands and where it should be is where performa

What This Blog Is For

The mental game is not separate from performance. In tennis, it is part of performance. This blog takes apart specific moments on court and looks more closely at what is