“I can't lose. Otherwise, my ranking will drop.”

A player told me he lost the first set 0–6.

I know the feeling. It feels terrible. And getting your head ready for the second set after that is hard. 

But then he made a decision:

“I won’t focus on the score anymore. I will just play my style.”

He won the second set. Then the third.

What changed? His focus.

Instead of thinking about results and rankings, what this loss might mean and how bad it will look, he shifted into “task mode”.

He started thinking about what he wanted to do on the court, not what might happen if he failed.

Caroline Garcia talked about this on her podcast.

She said that in 2023, her main thought during matches was “I can't lose. Otherwise, my ranking will drop.” 

That kind of thinking puts your brain in “threat mode”.

You start playing not to lose instead of playing to win. You’re afraid of mistakes. Your body gets tight. You stop playing freely.

“Task mode” is the opposite. You’re thinking about your game. You’re in control of what you do next.

We’re always thinking about something when we play. So choose what that is.

Pick one or two things about your game and focus on those. Not the score. Just your game. 🙂