Are you triggered? From Cool Minded to John McEnroe Rage

I never had the best temper as a kid. I can still get so competitive in a simple card game like Uno. Shit, my childhood tennis racquet was so bent that it looked like it had melted in the sun and deformed into the shape of a capital D. The mental game of tennis is the first and probably the most important part of playing at a higher level of competition.

Tennis is one of the most frustrating sports you can play. People will always tell you the same things; you can only blame yourself, the most important opponent you are playing on the court is yourself, focus on one point at a time etc. etc. One factor that I have always found frustrating while playing is the crowd, or officials. I once got into a verbal (I wouldn't say verbal if someone won't responding to what you are saying) argument with someones parents from the sideline because they kept giving their son options on where to hit the ball to me. I hate that stuff. Coaching from the sidelines is the worst kind of sportsmanship from the parents. Let your child play the game, not yourself. Especially if their kid starts to beat you from their advice, I would just lose my shit in those situations.

Moving onto the professional game, I believe there are two ends of the spectrum for the mentality of professional tennis players. The cool end of the spectrum is the Roger Federer side while the other side is John McEnroe. John McEnroe is the peak of bad tempers within the game of tennis, no one has ever had consistent tantrums like he has. We have seen famous tantrums such as Baghdatis and his infamous racquet smashing during the Australian Open. Viktor Troicki even had a break down in Rome where he took one of the television cameras onto the court and showed the viewers where he thought the ball mark was.

No one is perfect when it comes to mental toughness. It even took Federer a long time to get where he is today for his mental game. I would even say Andy Murray is still a head case even though he does not throw his racquet, he just yells at himself and his team watching on from the sidelines.

SHOUTOUTS OF THE DAY

- Eugenie Bouchard for winning a quality match for the first time in 3 months

- Ilie Nastase for now getting banned from Wimbledon AND the French Open

- Novak Djokovic goes nuclear are departs from his ENTIRE team