Tennis is an expensive sport. Players (or parents of players) will literally spend thousands of dollars a year to ensure that they’re playing with the best coaches, academies, equipment, or working with high-level physical and athletic trainers. There’s strings, labor, shoes, clothes, gear—it all starts to add up after a while, even if you’re playing recreationally.

The crazy thing is, players and parents will spend thousands to 10s of thousands of dollars a year on tennis, but when it comes to the mental side, all of a sudden it becomes, “Oh, I don’t know… that seems expensive.”

Which is… insane.

The best way I’ve found of describing this phenomenon is through the use of a pair of glasses. (Here, I’m borrowing an analogy from Aaron T. Beck, founder of cognitive-behavioral therapy).

Let’s say that every player sees their performance world through a lens of tennis glasses. The lenses of those glasses are made up of their beliefs, expectations, past experiences, and the stories that they create about themselves and their sport—whether this is conscious or subconscious.

When the lenses are fogged, chipped, or cracked, everything looks a little distorted; it’s a little off. When that happens:

A player shanks the first forehand of their match. They’re feeling a little somatically anxious and their feet were a bit sticky and their visuomotor system was unable to track the ball optimally. In other words, a little bit of “start of the match nerves” caused them to miss and shank an easy forehand.

Through a clear set of lenses… the reaction is: “Okay. Shake it off. I’m feeling a bit anxious in my body. I’m going to do some balloon breathing. Really try to loosen up and shake it out. It’s just the first point of the match.”

Through a distorted set of lenses the reaction becomes: “Oh no. Not again. Why am I messing up this early? Everyone’s watching… if I lose this match that will mean x, y, z bad thing will happen.” Their somatic and cognitive anxiety continues to rise. Their performance spirals and spirals.

This is where applied sport psychology work is key (if your practitioner knows what they’re doing). It corrects the prescription, cleans the lenses, and adjusts the cracks, chips, and distortions. It helps athletes see tennis matches for what they actually are: not as their performance anxieties or old patterns are telling them. And once those lenses are clearer, all the hours you’ve already invested in lessons, group trainings, fitness, travel, gear, can finally translate into match play.

I won’t lie to you here. It’s in my best interest to tell you that it won’t help. But that would be unethical.

Yes, it will make an impact. Training with more intensity, putting in more time on the court or in the gym or improving your fitness or adding a skillset to your game will help in some ways.

If you’re consistently nervous and tight and scared, planning several matches in a row over a series of days will make an impact; psychologists might refer to this as the process of emotional habituation.

My goal is not to lie to you so that you’ll want sport psychology services at some stage down the line. My goal is to tell you the truth as I see it; factoring in my decade-plus time in the tennis coaching industry and also my experience now in the sport and performance psychology field.

However, and there’s a big but here, that still doesn’t change the lenses through which the player sees the world. This is why players can hit the ball beautifully in practice, train like warriors, and look incredible in the warm ups… and then play tight, hesitant, or scared and fearful in the moments that it truly “counts.”

Playing more matches can improve your general match level but that chip in your armor might still be there.

You cannot out-train cognitive distortions—or distorted lenses.

You cannot out-fitness consistent threat appraisals.

You cannot out-repetition a belief like, “If I lose, that means something about me as a human being.”

Without addressing the mental lenses—the glasses which they wear—players simply carry those distortions into every new match, tournament, or coaching relationship. It won’t matter how much money you pour into the physical side, if the lenses of the glasses are off, performance will struggle to transfer over.

This is where mental performance work actually fits in: not as an extra “luxury” but as the factor that makes all of the other training usable under pressure. Put another way, it is the keystone upon which your tennis foundation should be built.

Clear lenses do not replace the work, don’t get me wrong, but clear lenses allow the work to matter! And that’s the piece players (and parents of players) overlook.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist, mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology and am a sport psychology practitioner-in-training, working toward the Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC®) credential provided by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). My work focuses on applied, non-clinical mental performance consulting, using evidence-based techniques grounded in psychology, sport science, and applied sport psychology to help athletes enhance focus, manage pressure, build confidence, and improve performance. I do not provide mental health counseling or clinical therapy. When needed, I will always refer clients to licensed mental health professionals for concerns beyond the scope of performance consulting. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including as a player, collegiate and professional coach, and director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My goal is to bring athletes the best research-backed insights to support long-term development and performance. If you are a researcher or practitioner and feel I’ve misunderstood or misrepresented any concept, I welcome you to reach out, and I will gladly review and issue corrections if appropriate.