Mental Edge Pyramid

The Mental Edge Pyramid provides you with a way of understanding the development of mental skills. The Mental Edge Pyramid describes the Prime Four (motivation, confidence, intensity, and focus) that are critical for developing the Mental Edge. These four factors will progressively lead you to Prime Tennis. Prime Tennis is defined as being able to play at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.

Playing your best evolves from a sound foundation of Mental Edge skills. These Mental Edge skills influence each other in a particular order that leads to Prime Tennis. At the base of the Pyramid, prime motivation ensures total preparation including physical, technical, and mental training. Prime motivation leads to prime confidence in your tennis ability, truly believing you can playing your best. Prime confidence results in prime intensity which enables you to stay relaxed and overcome challenges during matches. Prime intensity then produces prime focus while playing where you are totally concentrated on what you need to do to play your best. The culmination of the Mental Edge Pyramid is Prime Tennis.

Positive Change Formula

Change of any sort, whether technical, physical, or mental, does not occur automatically. Change due to trial and error is slow and inefficient. Positive change requires three steps. First, an awareness of what you are currently doing and how you need to improve. Second, controlling that which you want to improve. Third, putting in the necessary repetition to ingrain the positive change fully. So developing your mental skills as well as your tennis skills involves an awareness of your mental, physical, and technical abilities, taking active steps to control them, and having sufficient repetition to make the changes automatic, thus producing positive change, which puts you on the road to Prime Tennis.

Benefiting from the Mental Edge

Developing the Mental Edge will provide you with several important benefits to your tennis. You will have a greater understanding of what contributes to and interferes with playing your best. You will have more information and understanding of mental preparation for your tennis. You will develop Mental Edge skills that will enable you to play to the best of your ability. You will have the skills to overcome the challenges that you will face in your tennis. Finally, you will play consistently better, gain more satisfaction from your tennis, and just plain have more fun.

Remember, “The gem can not be polished without friction, nor people perfected without trials.”