Imagery is very powerful, but pretending is not necessary. From what I can tell the most successful practitioners would imagine a strong winning scenario. E.g. going from 1–5 to 10–5 to catch from behind then trounce the opponent. Or imagining being at full power – and ahead – when crossing the 100 meter mark.
No need to make some cognitive dissonance with pretending.

You always shoot to the back of the hoop. You always putt to the back of the cup. When you cook for a group, you always make more food than you think they will eat. When you start a business, you always borrow more capital than you think you will use. When you go into a fight, you always take more ammo than you think you will need. Same old story. Over and over.

To a certain extent. The examples given above are true, and in boxing one learns to not hit the opponent, but rather to put your fist through his body and to the other side – far past him. This is done by training to use the whole body behind the punch – and extending past the opponent. Gruesome, sorry, but true.

However, there is a difference between an actual scenario, with its psychological elements, and an imagined one. I am sure that a trained professional athlete, such as a tennis pro, tries to always imagine being the under-dog – if that tavtic helps him to win.

But I think the 5–1 real element comes into play much stronger. It’s do or die, simply put. Not imagined, but real. You lose one more game – you’re out. That’s real.

Interesting. What if you actually physically trained with a 105 meter track? Would your body pace itself differently – in a good way?
( or even a 101 meter track. I think at that distance, a meter is huge. )

It’s true of a lot of sports stars, including racehorses, they have trouble with leading. They hit the front too soon & succumb to the pressure all too easily. While others perform better when they are behind, the heat isn’t on them. At the top level of world class sport it’s all in the head, most professionals hire sports psychologists to help fulfill their potential. Look at Novak Djokovic, since he helped Serbia win the Davis Cup his career has took off. Another example of a mental blockage supressing an individuals progress. Personally I think there’s a lot to be said for psychology in sport. In a field were the margins between victory & defeat are so small, what goes on in the head can & does make all the difference.
On a related topic, I was pleased to see Andy Murray come through yesterday. A classic case of mind over matter considering his injury & coming back from 2 sets down as he did.

I have played a lot of tennis and I have tried to do as you say but it sure isn’t as easy to do as it is to say! It just seems to be a natural tendency for me anyhow, to play tighter and more conservatively when in front. I guess it is a case of a “more to lose” mentality. But when I am trying to catch up, I go for broke.

These days all professional athletes seem to have full time sports psychologists on their teams, that should make it easier.

@ucme – if the ball kid hadn’t come onto the court and messed up that point, I wonder if Murray could have pulled it off??? That was freaky and so disappointing for Tro (the other guy, I don’t know how to spell his name, another Serb though, they must have an excellent junior tennis program there!)

@rooeytoo Well Troicki did win that game, so it didn’t affect the outcome. I did feel sorry for that kid though, he looked so young.

Interesting observations, Jellies, thanks for that!
Indeed, Andy Murray seems to have his head together, although we will be totally sure when he has won the/a final once.

@mirichards Well, thank you. And welcome to Fluther!