Tennis psychology is the same as understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind and gauging the effect of your own game on his/her mental viewpoint and also understanding the mental effects resulting from the different external causes on your own head.

However, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own psychology. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because people react differently in different moods and under different conditions.

You have to understand the effect on your game of the resulting annoyance, joy, bewilderment, or whatever other form your reaction takes. Does it improve your prowess? If so, strive for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the reason, but if that isn’t possible, strive to ignore it.

Once you have accurately measured your own reaction to circumstances, observe your opponents in order to decide their temperaments. Like temperaments react similarly, and you can judge men of your own kind by yourself. Opposite characters you must seek to compare with people whose reactions you know.

A person who can control his/her own mental processes stands an great chance of reading those of another for the minds works along definite lines of thought and can be examined. One may only control one’s own thought processes after studying them meticulously.

A steady, phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. If he was he would not adhere to the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a pretty clear indication of his/her type of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his/her slow mind to work out a safe strategy of reaching the net.

Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would rather remain at the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player and a deep, quick thinking antagonist. He obtains his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variance of his/her game. This player is a good psychologist.

The first type of tennis player mentioned above merely strikes the ball without much thought about what he is really up to, while the latter always has a definite plan and sticks to it.