Gary Sherby is tennis director at Racquets and Togs Tennis Center, 115 Bradford St., just off the downtown square. His tennis tips appear Sundays.
It’s much easier to compete when your mind is focused on the particular point you’re playing right now.
It’s detrimental to your performance if you are preoccupied about the eventual outcome of your match while you are actually playing it.
When you are overly-concerned with what might happen if you win or lose, you are playing in the future, not the present.
Similarly, if you have allowed yourself to remain upset or angry about a questionable line call or another misfortune from the last game (or the last set) and this state of mind is affecting your play, you are playing in the past. Let it go.
Competing in the past and/or future is mind-boggling. Instead, concentrate on the point you are playing.