--- title: Tennis: 3 Tricks Pro Athletes Use to Improve Concentration description: Lessons from top tennis players canonical: https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/ author: True Ink article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-11T19:35:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:36.160Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 3 Tricks Pro Athletes Use to Improve Concentration og:description: Lessons from top tennis players og:url: https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0093352bf8bb257/69886341e20a87fb9ba8d305/tennis_illustration_mental_2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Tennis_Illustration_mental_2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 3 Tricks Pro Athletes Use to Improve Concentration twitter:description: Lessons from top tennis players twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0093352bf8bb257/69886341e20a87fb9ba8d305/tennis_illustration_mental_2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 3 Tricks Pro Athletes Use to Improve Concentration > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit? [Watch (HLS stream): Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t67dFcgw.m3u8) (2:03)  _Published 2015-05-15. Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?_ by [Jeff Tarango / True Ink](https://time.com/author/true-ink/) ## Jeff Tarango / True Ink Sep 11, 2015 7:35 PM UTC  Jocelyn Tsaih—True Ink by [Jeff Tarango / True Ink](https://time.com/author/true-ink/) ## Jeff Tarango / True Ink Sep 11, 2015 7:35 PM UTC A renowned tennis guru reveals mental exercises used by Pete Sampras (and now, you?) to stay clear-eyed and sharply-tuned on the court. This story is part of [a special series](http://true.ink/specials/tennis-mind/) from [True Ink](http://true.ink/). **You have to teach yourself mental focus** Someone can’t teach it to you. They can guide you, but you have to force yourself. [Mental fitness](http://true.ink/story/four-steps-to-discover-mental-harmony-in-pro-tennis-and-life/) helps a player avoid unforced errors, and it’s unforced errors that lose matches. Whenever I had someone charting one of my matches, it would anger me to see them mark an unforced error. I had anger towards that person rather than the fact that I had made an unforced error. What I think is best to do, and that all juniors should do, is to chart yourself every time you sit down on the changeover. Just keep a tally of how many unforced errors you make in each game. When you do it yourself, it kind of takes the pressure off. Maybe a ball took a weird spin and to you it didn’t quite count as an unforced error. You teach yourself, and I think that’s the most important part. When you do it yourself, it goes directly to your subconscious; it becomes a reward to improve your game. So the crux of mental fitness is teaching yourself, day by day. You can’t truly improve from a parent or coach telling you to focus from the sideline. It has to come from you.  Jocelyn Tsaih—True Ink **The Wizard Decision Game** The Wizard Decision Game is another fun mental exercise I used to do. Pete Sampras showed it to me. It’s basically a high-low card game where one person is timing, flipping the cards, and counting the errors. And the other person is making the decision. The decision is simple: Will the next card be higher or lower than the previous one? We would try and go as fast as we could through the deck of cards, and so sometimes guys get so flustered after making a couple of errors, that a queen comes up and they say “higher.” How could it be higher if it’s a queen? You realize that you just make mental errors just for no reason. It’s like you should be hitting the inside-out forehand for a winner and you go for a drop shot. It’s the lack of mental fitness that causes those errors.  Jocelyn Tsaih—True Ink **Jump Rope Boggle** One of the fun mental focus games I used to play was mentally playing boggle while jumping rope. I would stare at a ball, let’s say it was a U.S. Open ball from Wilson, and I’d try to come up with as many words as possible with letters in “Wilson U.S. Open.” If I missed a jump, that was an unforced error. In tennis you can’t miss that jump when thinking about a word to make. You can’t forget about your follow through, you can’t forget that your opponent likes the first serve out wide on the first point of a game. Not only was I jumping rope and staring at the ball, but I was thinking about something deeper at the same time. This helped improve my decision making process on the court. I could watch my opponent run side to side, see if he’s tired, and see if he’s injured, see if he’s not moving to his backhand as well as his forehand, but I’m also focused on the ball, and my game. Everybody says that there’s a left and right side of the brain. To me, there’s a left and right side, but also a conscious and a subconscious. There’s really four parts of the brain, and you’ve got to train all of them.  Jocelyn Tsaih—True Ink **Nut Grinder** There’s an exercise Robert Landsorp used to do where he’d have you warm up while talking. Then he’d say, “Well why are you missing while you’re talking? You can’t walk and chew gum at the same time?” Then he’d take it to a higher level. He’d have the people on the sidelines talk, he’d have you talk with them, he’d quiz you on what they said. Then came what I called the “nut grinder.” He’d start bad-mouthing you while you’re already simultaneously warming up and talking with these people on the sideline. So you’ve got this negative energy coming in that you’ve got to combat, so that’s your opponent right? You’ve got distractions on the sideline, and you are distracting yourself by talking. He wanted to know how many balls you could hit in a row without missing, without letting the distractions affect you. It was a really cool way to simulate a high-pressure match. _This article is part of_ [_The Tennis Mind_](http://true.ink/specials/tennis-mind/)_, a special series from_ [_True.Ink_](http://true.ink/)_, a new experience-based magazine that has featured tales_ [_on how to run with the bulls in Pamplona_](http://true.ink/story/how-you-run-on-the-horns-in-pamplona/)_, how to_[ _build your lover a houseboat_](http://true.ink/almanacs/boat-building)_, and how to make Tom Brady’s exclusive_ [_Pancake Recipe_](http://true.ink/bradycakes/bradycakes.php)_._ _This_ [_article_](http://true.ink/story/coach-jeff-tarango-how-to-strengthen-the-tennis-brain/) _originally appeared on_ [_True Ink_](http://true.ink) _More from True Ink’s special series_ [_The Tennis Mind_](http://true.ink/specials/tennis-mind/)_:_ * [The Four Steps to Mental Harmony in Tennis and Life](http://true.ink/story/four-steps-to-discover-mental-harmony-in-pro-tennis-and-life/) * [Mind Games](http://true.ink/story/four-steps-to-discover-mental-harmony-in-pro-tennis-and-life/) * [How I Found My Peaceful Place (a brief as told to by Roger Federer)](http://true.ink/story/roger-federer-peaceful-tennis-place/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/"},"headline":"3 Tricks Pro Athletes Use to Improve Concentration","datePublished":"2015-09-11T19:35:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:36.160Z","description":"Lessons from top tennis players","url":"https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/","keywords":["Psychology","Mental Health","tennis","Success topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0093352bf8bb257/69886341e20a87fb9ba8d305/tennis_illustration_mental_2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeff Tarango / True Ink"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0093352bf8bb257/69886341e20a87fb9ba8d305/tennis_illustration_mental_2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tennis_Illustration_mental_2","caption":"Tennis_Illustration_mental_2","creditText":"Jocelyn Tsaih—True Ink","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/","name":"3 Tricks Pro Athletes Use to Improve Concentration"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?","description":"Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t67dFcgw/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-15T21:17:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t67dFcgw.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/","duration":"PT2M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4031531/athlete-improve-concentration/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```