Left Brain, Right Brain: Increase your Mental Toughness by Exercising your Brain

Exercise your brain like your body for extra mental toughness

Most people are used to exercise the body, but how about exercising the brain to become a better and tougher tennis player? When you play a tennis match, you notice if your opponent is left handed or right handed. However, do you ever think if your opponent is right brained or left brained? It is harder to see but if you know what to look for, you can see that the playing styles are different.

The two brain halves are very similar to looks but very different in function. It is well known that the left half generally controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. But the two halves also control different types of thinking – the left side is associated with the analytical thinking, while the right side is associated with the intuitive or creative aspect.

Most babies are born with stronger dominance of the right brain. For example when they learn language they use all senses – smell, sounds, feelings and colors, as opposite to adults who have more troubles to learn languages with their analytical thinking. The influence of our society - school, studying, planning, multitasking, organizing - has changed most people into more left brain dominant.

There are big differences between left brained and right brained tennis players as well:

The left brained players

• Are highly coachable.
• They like to practice, have a great work ethic, progress fast and have patience to work on fitness and strategy.
• They often live in present, not dreaming about what “could be”.
• Their mental challenges are that they play better in practice than in competition.
• They actually don’t like to compete, they rather practice.
• They may choke or not step up in tight situations. It’s hard for them to “feel it”.

The right brained tennis players

• Have excellent feel.
• They are natural athletes; they look loose and have great feeling for accelerations and they go for their shots.
• They are also very emotional.
• They can step up their performance when it counts.
• They are dreamers, and thinking about “what could be”.
• Their mental challenges are that they are hard to coach and often do “stupid” shots.
• They have emotional outbursts and can give up early.
• They may not recognize, or they may ignore the strategy changes.
• They are streaky, because they are feel-oriented and when they don’t “feel it”, they think something is wrong.

As a tennis player, you could benefit form the mental power from both right and left brain. When you improve a mental area that is slightly weaker, this won’t detract from the other area, rather will produce synergetic effect and all the mental performance will improve.

The majority of left brained people can practice a few simple things to be capable of accessing more of the right brain’s power. (The left handed people don’t have the functions of their brain switched, and they will also benefit from doing all the exercises.)

Use the other hand

The logical and rational left brain is connected to the right hand, while the left hand is controlled by the intuitive and creative right brain. In school and life – and tennis – we perform so many things with the right hand and the left brain.

Using your left hand more will stimulate your right brain. Start using your left hand to do familiar daily routines that you normally do with your right hand: move your computer mouse to the left and practice writing left handed. Blend your tea, brush your teeth or comb your hair with left hand. It’s going to be very difficult at first, but be patient and soon you will be equally skilled with both hands.

And going even further… play tennis left handed occasionally! You will develop new body awareness, strengthen your underdeveloped half of the body and build your patience and mental toughness. (I know this – I have been doing it for several years know).

Increase your senses and awareness

Do some things differently: walk around your place with closed eyes and try to feel, hear and smell yourself around. Try to write mirrored or from right to left, or read an article upside down. It will challenge your brain in a different way

Practice complex movements

Complex movements stimulate complex thinking. Try some sports (other than tennis) with complex movements of the whole body to stimulate synchronization of both brain halves, like martial arts, swimming or dancing.

All this can seem very challenging at first, but like with everything, if you remain patient and practice regularly, you become proficient fast. Your brain will function in more synchronized way and you will have extra mental power on the court and off the court.

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Other Related Articles on Tennis Fitness

• Rejuvenate your body in the morning or any time with Sun Salutations.
• Stretch your hips with the pigeon, frog, crocodile twist, spinal twist, external hip stretch, quadriceps, hamstring, calf and groin stretch.
• Do the myofascial release for your feet, booty, hamstrings, IT band, TFL, hip flexor, chest and lower legs.
• Strengthen your legs and booty with lunges, jump squats, windmills, air bench, jumping lunges or one leg squat.
• Strengthen your core with the side plank with leg lift, windmill, plank with arm and leg lifts, plank with hip twists and push up with knee to elbow touch.
• Prevent overuse injuries of your shoulders, wrists and elbows with elbow curls, arm circles, dogs and cats, external rotator strengthening and rotator cuff stretch.
• And if the injury happened and you had a knee surgery, here are exercises for your come back, or how to recover after a sprained ankle.
• Use the beautifully colored kinesio tapes to prevent or heal your injuries.
• Work on your agility, coordination and balance with some fun footwork drills, running the stairs,  agility square jumps, jump rope or one leg squat.
• And because the weather and conditions in Los Angeles are very hot, don’t forget to drink a lot of water, because it will increase your performance and well-being. And don't forget to eat nutritions foods for best recover and performance.
• Learn how to sleep well to feel good and increase your performance.
• And besides working on your body, learn how working on your brain can help too.

For more info: ex Ms Natural Olympia Suzanna McGee is an experienced athletic trainer, competitive tennis player and a freelance writer. She lives in Venice Beach, CA and online at www.sixftlion.com