The mental game, one point at a time.
Dr. Santiago Dayenoff, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst working with athletes, explores the psychology of competitive tennis: pressure, confidence, attention, frustration, and the words players use with themselves.
Short episodes connecting research with situations you recognise on court, and practical ideas to test in training.
For competitive players, coaches, and parents.
This new chapter begins with a ten-episode series, entirely in English. Earlier episodes explore other subjects in Spanish.
In a tennis match, you're hitting the ball maybe 20 to 30 percent of the time. The rest, you're standing there. And almost nobody trains it.
This episode is about the time between points: what the best players do with it, and what you're doing with yours. It ends with a simple exercise to try at practice this week.
Four ideas from the psychology of the gap:
1. The gap is where the story gets written.
Nothing happens between points, which is exactly why something happens there. You fill it with something. The only question is what.
2. Ritual is containment, not superstition.
A ritual is a structure that holds you while the emotion passes. That's why every great player
28 Sept 2026
#Episode 2 — Your Opponent Decided Something About You During the Warm-Up
Before a single point is played, your opponent has already sized you up — not your forehand, your posture. This episode covers a real study (Buscombe et al., 2006, Journal of Sports Sciences) where experienced tennis players watched footage of the same opponent, with only his body language changed — upright posture, shoulders back, head up — and rated him as far more likely to win. Same shots. Same ability. Different walk. One idea, one study, one thing to film and check this week.
14 Sept 2026
Stop Telling Yourself to Relax | Self-Talk in Tennis
“Relax.” “Stay positive.” “Come on.”
You talk to yourself on court. But are those words helping you with the next point?
In the first episode of this ten-part series, Dr. Santiago Dayenoff explores instructional and motivational self-talk: how they differ, what research suggests, and how to experiment with two personal cue words in practice.
A starting point for understanding what you say to yourself—and making it more useful.
Episode 1 of 10.
Research discussed: Hatzigeorgiadis, A., Zourbanos, N., Galanis, E., & Theodorakis, Y. (2011). Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611413136
For individual work, contact Dr. Santiago Dayenoff.
Info@santiagodayenoff.com
www.santiagodayenoff.com
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Spotify
4.8 / 5
26 ratings
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Questions about Dr.Dayenoff
Who hosts Dr.Dayenoff?
Dr Dayenoff host the show. Published by SANTIAGO DAYENOFF.
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The show publishes bi-weekly, based on its RSS feed.
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