CONCENTRATION-(focus):

Man, when we see a player like Rafa Nadal we marvel at his “concentration”.  We know that his concentration is the best among the players that we see play.  “Wow, I’d sure like to be able to play like that!” 

Let’s think of concentration like any other part of our games.  It needs to be practiced in the same way a stroke needs to be practiced.  Now let’s also understand that concentration naturally peaks and wanes, even for the best players.  Since most of the time we are playing someone whose abilities are within some range of ours, concentration can easily be the determining factor. 

When I played someone good my goal was to stretch my periods of good concentration over a longer time than they could.  Let’s say my periods of “good” concentration could last 5 minutes at a time and my “not so good” periods lasted 3 minutes.  If my opponents corresponding periods were 4 minutes for “good’ and matched my 3 minutes for “not so good” it was likely that I would have a period of at least a minute where my “good” was matched against their “not so good” early in the match.  That could easily be a break of serve.  THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! 

Looking at it another way even if it doesn’t turn out that the first advantage doesn’t end up as a break, over time the player with a longer concentration period will be playing at their best for quite a few more minutes than the other player.  This is a huge factor at any level.