By Tom Allsopp

All great players look as though they have more time than the average player. Roger Federer looks like he is never rushed. Is this because of his technique, footwork and all round tennis excellence or can time be manipulated? Some professional athletes believe it can:

George Knudsen, a professional golfer would drive to the course at around 15mph and even started this slowing down process the evening before, for the reason of feeling like time slowing down would help his performance. From the website sportshypnosis.co.uk they state, “when a sports person creates an intense level of focus they have heightened awareness so are able to take more ‘snap-shots’ per second of real clock time, thus time can seem to slow down.”

As a coach I am looking for ways to teach advanced methods such as time manipulation without making it seem too complicated, unachievable or maybe even a little strange for the average person. I feel as though there are many things I can do as a coach to work on this without my pupils being overwhelmed. Here are a few methods that I believe can lead to at least a perceived slowing of time:

• Footwork – Less is sometimes more. Every step should have a purpose. You don’t see Federer doing many movements without a purpose. Quite often he will use far fewer steps than your average club player especially when running to and from a wide shot. Therefore efficiency in the way a player moves can create more time.
• Speed – This can be classed as footwork and a quick first step could be classed as reaction time but pure speed like we see from Nadal, Federer, Murray and Djorkovic is what gives these players time to hit their shots and it is not a coincidence that they are the fastest and the best in the world.
• Reaction Time – The more you spend time in front of a 120mph serve for example, the more you will get used to it and the slower it will seem. Without the correct technique however, you may never be able to return it consistently.
• Technique – The way you swing the racket has a lot to do with time. With lighter rackets there is a tendency to do massive swings that probably couldn’t have been achieved with wooden rackets. However, even professional players with big swings know when to shorten their swing to make them less rushed. A player such as Federer is a master at this. His ability to shorten his swing means he is rarely late for a shot, giving the appearance of extra time.

Whether time can be slowed down or not, the fact that the player feels like time has slowed down allows them to get more done or to be less rushed, just as though time had actually slowed down. My coach when I was a junior would tell me to imagine I was making a video on how to make the game look easy. If you do this for long enough you will be more relaxed and time will seem like it is slowing down. This is something I have continued with my pupils. I also ask them to give themselves a rating out of ten for how relaxed they felt on the previous shot. This gives them the feeling of not being rushed and they can therefor focus on other elements of their game. Quite often their technique will instantly improve because they are now more aware of what they are doing. It also makes it easier for myself to make changes to their technique when they slow down and take their time. The next time things are not going the way you would like, whether in practice or a match, I suggest trying this trick and you might feel like time just slowed down, allowing you to play smoother and clearing your mind by giving you something else to focus on.

There are always times in a match when things are going your way and you are playing well, and there are times in every match when you are not playing so well. Let’s say that for 30 minutes you are playing well and for 30 minutes you are playing badly throughout a 60 minute match. One would want to play 60% or more points in the time period where they are playing well and 40% or less in the time period where they are not playing so well. You see examples of this in many tennis matches. Andre Agassi played extremely fast when he had his opponent on the ropes. Many players also slow down the play when things are not going in their favor, to the point where they take bathroom breaks or dubious injury timeouts. Not only does this stop the flow of their opponent but it stops time from flying by as they start to lose. Pete Sampras after losing in his first Davis Cup final to France and Henri Leconte said, “the score just seemed to fly by”, and after talking about the noisy crowd said, “I should have asserted greater control over the situation by walking away from the service notch to wait until they calmed down. That would have represented control, and playing at my own pace.”

This sounds a lot like tactics and it definitely would be classed as tactics or maybe gamesmanship in the tennis world but in other situations it can seem like more. There are two ways to gamble using similar theories. One is when you lose money, bet more because your fortune will inevitably turn around shortly, this is called ‘chasing’ your money and that thought process can easily be linked with tennis, and is not advised for either game. The other more popular theory would be when you are on a winning streak bet more and when you are on a losing streak bet less. This is not directly linked to time as such but if everything was equal at all times then there would be no need for these theories to exist. Maybe they do not need to exist but if things do flow up and down, whether it be time speeding up or slowing down, or your fortune is in or out at different moments, learning how to manipulate time with great technique and movement as well as with tricks of the trade is important and interesting to ponder.

If you have any thoughts on this I would love to read your comments!