The Between-Point Routine: Junior Tennis Mental Game

The junior tennis mental game is won between the points, not during them. At SRQ Tennis in Sarasota, Coach Michael Boothman teaches every junior the same five seconds of work that happen after a point ends and before the next one starts. We call it the Between-Point Routine. It is the most practical mental skill a young player can own, and most kids have never been taught it.

Here is the thing parents see at tournaments. A kid misses an easy ball, the head drops, the racket gets a little squeeze, and the next two points are gone before the player has settled down. The talent was never the problem. The reset was.

Why the reset matters more than the shot

Tennis gives a player about 20 to 25 seconds between points and a changeover every two games. That adds up. In a typical match a junior spends far more time between points than actually hitting a ball. If that time is spent stewing over the last mistake, the body stays tight and the next decision gets worse.

This is Pillar 6 of our coaching philosophy: Channel the Fire. Competitive fire is not a problem to coach out of a kid. It is fuel. The players who hate losing the most usually have the highest ceilings. The emotion is not wrong. The direction is. The Between-Point Routine gives that fire somewhere useful to go.

The USTA has said the same thing for years in its player development work: emotional control and consistent routines are trainable skills, not personality traits a kid is born with or without. You can read more in the USTA's coaching resources. We just make it concrete enough that a 10 year old can do it on the third court at Pineview Park without thinking.

The five steps we teach

The Between-Point Routine has five parts. We teach them in order and then drill them until they run on their own.

Three breaths. Eyes on the strings, three slow breaths. This is not a relaxation exercise. It is a physical signal that the last point is over. The racket hand loosens. The heart rate settles.

A statement cue. One short phrase the player picks for themselves. "Next ball." "Heavy and high." "My feet." It is a single instruction, not a pep talk. The cue points the brain forward.

A target decision. Before walking to the line, the player decides where the next ball is going. Crosscourt with margin. Deep to the backhand. The decision is made early so the body is not improvising under stress.

Visual rehearsal. A quick mental picture of the shot working. Two seconds. The brain rehearses success instead of replaying the miss.

Then go. Walk in, set up, play. The routine ends and the point begins clean.

Three breaths, a cue, a target, a picture, go. That is the whole thing. The power is not in any single step. It is in running the same five steps every single time, win or lose, so the routine becomes automatic before the pressure arrives.

How we build it at SRQ Tennis

We do not lecture kids about mindset. We train the routine the same way we train a forehand, with reps inside live ball. This is Pillar 4 in action: Confidence Is Built, Not Given. The routine earns its place because the player feels it work, not because a coach told them it would.

A common drill at our Sarasota sessions: play a live point, then the player has to complete all five steps out loud before the next ball is fed. Miss a step, replay the routine. Within a few weeks the out loud part disappears and the habit stays. We track it the way we track everything else, with real numbers. If a player held the routine on 7 of 10 pressure points last month and 9 of 10 this month, that is not a compliment. That is a fact the kid can stand on.

It connects to accuracy too. A settled player makes a clear target decision, and clear targets are how we build placement under pressure, the same idea behind the 85/100 Rule. The mental game and the shot are not separate projects. They feed each other.

Quick questions parents ask

My kid melts down after a bad point. Is that bad? No. It means they care. We do not try to remove the fire. We give it a routine so it stops costing points.

How young can a player learn this? We start a simple version with our 10 and Under players at Potter Park. Three breaths and one cue is enough at that age. The full five steps come later.

Can we practice it at home? Yes. Have your player pick their cue and run the five steps during any backyard rally or wall session. Repetition away from a coach is what makes it automatic.

Wrap up

The Between-Point Routine is not a trick. It is five seconds of structure that turns competitive frustration into the next good decision. It is one of the Six Pillars that shapes how we coach every junior at SRQ Tennis. Want your player to build a real junior tennis mental game in Sarasota? Read more about the Six Pillars, take a look at our junior programs, or text Coach Michael at 941-239-4703.

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Coach Michael Boothman is a USPTA Elite Professional and the founder of SRQ Tennis in Sarasota, Florida. He coaches juniors and adults at Potter Park and Pineview Park. Text 941-239-4703 or email [email protected] to talk about your player.