Physical-Emotional-Pain-Tennis
There isn’t much written material when you do a search for playing with physical/emotional pain in professional tennis.
Physical
That physical pain is a part of a professional tennis players career should be a given. That’s why I was so surprised to ‘not’ find much written about it. The only article I found was from back in 2013. there may be others but they didn’t come up with my search. On reflecting about it, and the nature of tennis being a one on one (singles), or two on two (doubles), the more sense it made. Professional tennis players don’t want their opponent to know the extent or an injury. Make no mistake about it. These players play with pain day in and day out. It is an accepted part of the trade. The extent of the injury will determine whether a player will take the risk to play that tournament. The level of the tournament also measures into the athletes ‘acceptance of risk’ it will take to play a tournament. For example, a player with a slight sprain may elect to play the US Open and not play in a tournament that is a Future’s or Challenger event.
Emotional
A physical injury has a great impact on the emotional state of a professional. If the injury is slight and the player can play with it; i.e. a blister on the foot or hand, they have to have the mental toughness to block out the nagging pain that comes with using it. On the other hand, a serious injury; top five – can force a player to take time off to heal.
The overall effect of a serious injury has an overall debilitative effect on the athlete that has as much to do with their emotional response as their physical recuperation. As much as your mind tells you the injury has healed and you are healthy to compete again, the emotions can have an overall effect of making you ‘hold back’ when you re-enter competition. The emotional recovery from a serious injury is just as important – if not more – than the physical healing process. Depending on the level of tournament, or your ranking, your physical return may take longer or shorter, but emotionally there will be a time of adjustment before you really believe you are healed.
When we watch professional tennis we really are not aware of injuries in the match being played. We tend to ‘not’ think of players playing with some kind of pain, but they are. It goes with the territory. After my playing days and turning teaching pro, I taught for 20 years with knees that the ATP Doctors in New York said I should have replacements of, as they were bone on bone. As we watch the players in these events, they are playing with some kind of pain, noticeable or not. They don’t want the injury to be ‘outed’ due to competition, or betting. However, we all are disgusted when a player calls an injury time out at a crucial time out in the match because they are trying to throw their opponent off their game.
It is a remarkable effect of professional athletes – tennis professionals-that as an independent contractor in their profession, pain is normally present at some level in their body.
Have you ever thought about this aspect of professional tennis and the cost in pain? How about you? Do you think you would accept that as part of your profession and still have the desire to compete professionally?
