How to Integrate
Mindfulness
Into a Drill

Before talking about how to integrate mindfulness into a drill, it helps to be clear again about what we are actually doing when we are being mindful, whether intentionally or intuitively.

First, I am paying attention to something that matters. Either I need to direct my attention there with effort, or, when I am playing well, my attention is already where it should be without me having to interfere.

Second, I am noticing something relevant within that field of attention. Not just anything. Not something irrelevant to performance. I am noticing something that actually enhances performance in that moment.

And third, I am allowing pleasant and unpleasant experience to be there without push or pull. This is a skill too, even though a lot of people forget that it is a skill to begin with. It is often treated as if somebody either can do it or cannot do it. Or if they cannot do it, they should somehow just decide to. But that is not how it works.

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So how do we integrate this into a drill?

The first thing is that we simplify.

Let's say a player is working on forehand topspin. And for this particular drill, the only thing that matters right now is how much the racket head gets under the ball before contact, and then how steeply the player swings in order to brush the ball.

Of course, that is not the only thing that matters in a forehand. The player may also need better spacing, a more relaxed arm, or a different contact point. But this is already where one of the most important things comes in when we integrate mindfulness into any drill:

So in this case, the player is not trying to pay attention to everything. The player is paying attention to one thing.

If the goal is to notice how low the racket head gets before contact, then that is where attention goes. The location of attention is the racket head in relation to the ball. That is the first skill.

Then the player is trying to notice, in real time, whether the racket head is actually low enough. Is it as low as it should be? Is it too high? Is it coming more from behind the ball than from underneath it? And then, after that, is the swing steep enough to really brush the ball, or is the player swinging too much through it?

That is the second skill.

Now comes the third one.

Because the player is learning this, mistakes are going to happen. I am not even mainly talking here about whether the ball lands in or out. If this drill is about getting the racket head under the ball and brushing more steeply, then that is what we are training. And because that is what we are isolating, there will be little failures inside the process.

The player may not get under the ball enough. Or they may get under it but not swing steeply enough. Or they may overdo it. Or they may do it correctly once and then lose it again on the next rep.

All of that can create frustration or annoyance.

And that is exactly where the third skill comes in.

The goal is not to somehow not be frustrated. Of course not. Frustration is a natural result of caring, wanting to get better, and working at the edge of what you can do reliably. The point is not to pretend it is not there or to suppress it. The point is to notice it and allow it, without letting it dictate what happens next.

If the player feels frustrated, but can let that frustration be there and still come back to the actual task, getting the racket head under the ball, noticing whether it is low enough, noticing whether the swing is steep enough, then in that moment the player is practicing mindfulness inside the drill.

That is what this looks like in a practical sense. It is built into the drill itself.

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This is also where coaches often make things too complicated. They give the player three or four technical thoughts, then maybe add some mental cue on top, and then wonder why nothing really changes. But if the player is trying to pay attention to too many things, usually they are not really paying attention to any one thing well enough.

So if you want to integrate mindfulness into a drill, one of the first questions is: what is the one thing this player needs to pay attention to right now?

Then: what exactly are they trying to notice about it?

And then: when they start getting annoyed, frustrated, rushed, or discouraged, can they allow that experience to be there without losing the task?

That is already enough.

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The next important piece is grading the drill correctly.

It cannot be too easy, because then there is not enough challenge for the skill to develop. But it also cannot be so difficult that the player is overwhelmed and cannot track what matters.

If the ball is too fast, too random, or too live, the player may no longer be able to keep attention on the racket head and notice the right detail in real time. In that case, the drill is too hard for that training goal. If the drill is too simple, the learning may not transfer.

So you grade the drill to where the player can just barely do it well enough to actually train the skill.

That may mean hand feeds first. Then easier rally balls. Then a more live ball. Then more movement. Then more pressure. Then eventually more match-like situations.

That progression matters.

Because once the player can do this in a simpler drill, now you start asking different questions. Can they still do it when the tempo goes up? Can they still do it when they are moving more? Can they still do it after missing two in a row? Can they still do it when they get a ball they want to do too much with?

Now the drill is no longer only technical. It is perceptual and emotional as well.

It is training a player to put attention where it needs to go, to notice what actually matters, and to allow experience to be there without getting pulled off the task.

That is what you are really doing when you integrate mindfulness into tennis practice.

A player is not training mindfulness simply by being on court. They are only training it when they are actually using these skills: putting attention where it needs to go, noticing what matters, and allowing experience to be there without getting pulled off the task.

Sometimes players do this intuitively, without thinking of it as mindfulness at all. Very often they do not. They get hooked by frustration and try to suppress it. Or they act out of it and intensify it. They cling to outcome. They stop paying attention to what the drill is actually asking for. And that is exactly why these skills need to be trained deliberately.

This post is part of a series exploring how mindfulness shapes performance in tennis. Also worth reading: Why Knowing What to Do Is Not the Same as Being Able to Do It.