During an Olympic volleyball final, two teams started arguing heavily on court.

High tension.
Rigid faces.
The match was slipping out of control.

Then the stadium DJ did something unexpected.

He played John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Within seconds:
the crowd started singing,
players smiled,
tension dropped.

The match restarted.

This scene is interesting for one reason that almost nobody considers in tennis.

Not because it is about peace.
But because it shows something uncomfortable:

👉 your mental state in competition does not depend only on you.

The wrong belief

In tennis we grow up with a simple idea:

“If you lose control, it’s your fault.”
“If you get nervous, you’re mentally weak.”
“Emotional control is a personal trait.”

That is not true.

Emotional control is not only internal.

It is a fragile balance between:
what happens inside you
and what happens around you.

The court is not neutral

Noise.
Provocative opponents.
Crowd.
Umpire.
Bench.

Every match is an open emotional system.

And very often you lose clarity not because you are weak,
but because you are fighting an environment that is constantly pulling you out of balance.

The problem is: almost nobody trains this.

The point nobody notices

The DJ did not “calm” the players.

He changed the context.

And by changing the context he changed:
breathing
muscle tension
inner rhythm
perception of the situation

In tennis, when you lose control, you are often trying to solve internally a problem that was created externally.

That is why it often does not work.

An uncomfortable question

If your mental state also depends on the environment…

how much control do you really have in difficult matches?

And more importantly:

👉 are you losing points because you play worse…
or because you are fighting a tension you are not even aware of?

***

✍️ Who wrote this article

This article was written by Federico Coppini,
mental coach and author specialized in mental performance, emotional stability in competition, and building a resilient competitive mindset.

🧠 Want to train your mind the same way you train your tennis?
👉 https://coppinifederico.com/it/

🎾 From mind to court
👉 https://coppinitennisacademy.com/

Training strokes without training the mind creates weakness.
Training the mind without testing it on court creates fantasy.