Momentum in Tennis

posted on: July 20, 2022
author: Brian Lomax, Ed.D.

Do you think momentum is a real thing in tennis? How about in other sports? I ask this question of you not as a fan, but as a player – as someone who lives through the competitive experience. Because a concept like momentum, whether you believe in it or not, comes down to how you choose to process and experience what is happening on the tennis court. As always, if you improve your perspectives, and subsequently your experience of events, you will improve your performance. Knowing more about what momentum is and isn’t can only improve your game.

A Mental Construct

Ask die-hard sports fans, athletes, and coaches about momentum, and most will tell you that it absolutely exists. They see it all the time in games and they can relate stories of famous contests in which they believe momentum was a factor in the final outcome.

But is it real? To answer this question, consider the following scenario. You and a friend attend a sporting event. Your friend has no knowledge of sports whatsoever – he/she hasn’t played any sports and never watches any contests on television or in person. If you asked your friend to identify who has the momentum at any given time during play, could they do it? It’s highly unlikely. Your friend doesn’t have enough context to understand the patterns of events that many sports fans would dub momentum.

Therefore, since your friend can’t see momentum, it is not an objective truth. It is a mental construct. It is an interpretation of events and emotions occurring on the field of play that requires a substantial amount of knowledge about the sport.

Patterns

Human beings tend to look for order and patterns in what they see and experience, and then form conclusions. Sometimes this ability to detect patterns is helpful, and sometimes it’s not (i.e., conspiracy theories). So, here’s the secret for you as a player:

You have the freedom to choose how to interpret the events and emotions that you experience.

While competing, you should exercise this freedom wisely and purposefully so that your choice helps you to stay focused, remain positive, and continue to fight with full effort.

Momentum in Tennis

As a tennis player, you may experience streaks of points or games in which you are winning or losing a majority of them. Does that mean that one player has momentum?

From an objective standpoint, the answer to that question is No. A number of studies on momentum in tennis at the elite level have concluded that the phenomenon does not exist. Tennis has so many natural breaks (between points, between sets, change of sides on odd games) that players have multiple opportunities to mentally reset themselves. Nothing is really stopping you from playing a great point on the next point.

The Player Experience

As stated above, from an experiential standpoint, you have the ability to choose how you want to interpret patterns of points and games in a match, and what you want to do about it. Here are two positive approaches to looking at momentum that you could use:

Choose the perspective of believing momentum exists for you, but it never goes against you. At the very least, this viewpoint will assist you in remaining positive and focused, especially if you have lost some games in a row. Build momentum by striving to win two points in a row.

Choose to not believe in momentum (or ignore the concept altogether) and simply bring your best to every single point. With lots of competitive experience and training on mental skills, this is the perspective that you will most likely arrive at in your journey.

Are there other beneficial means to look at streaks of points and games? Of course! But you will have to determine those for yourself.

Positive Perspectives

Developing a positive perspective on the concept of momentum is important because you do not want to miss opportunities to win a set or a match because your mental state was distracted by how you arrived at a particular score. For example, let’s say you were leading in a set 5-2, but now the score is 5-5. Your thoughts in this moment are important. Will you be overly concerned with losing the last three games and that the opponent has the momentum? Or will you realize that the score is now 5-5 and you still have an opportunity to win the set?

This is a very common scenario, and the more that you can be in the present, the better. It doesn’t matter how you arrived at 5-all. That’s where you are, so embrace the challenge and the opportunity presented to you in this moment. I know this is easier said than done, but it is the perspective that you will have to embrace to become a great competitor.

Reminders for You Regarding Momentum

Here are some brief reminders for you to keep in mind for playing matches in which you are sensing a number of points/games being won or lost:

• Remain in control of your emotions and be in the present moment
• Stay focused on fighting the opponent and making them uncomfortable
• If you’re feeling that you are losing control, take more time, disrupt rhythm, and use the change-over to your advantage
• If you win a point, celebrate that fact (mini-win) and use that energy to try to win a second consecutive point (listen to this episode of the Tennis IQ Podcast for more on mini-wins)
• However you decide to think about momentum, frame it in a way that helps you to perform well on the behaviors that you control

Final Thoughts

Although momentum does not objectively exist, it can be real in matches because of how players choose to experience what is happening on the court. Be sure to choose wisely and choose what works for you. Since momentum is a mental construct, you do not need to defend how you choose to perceive it. It just has to work for YOU.

The next time you have a discussion about momentum in sports, you can bring a deeper understanding to the conversation. Ultimately, the only people who can tell you about the existence of momentum are the combatants in the contest, and they can only describe it for themselves.