In competitive tennis, the difference between good and great often comes down to what happens between the ears. Dr. Larry Lauer, Director of Mental Performance for USTA, has spent over a decade revolutionizing how tennis players approach the psychological aspects of their sport.
“How you do what you do is way more important than the outcome,” Lauer emphasizes. “You can’t really get the outcome without the process.”
This philosophy has guided Lauer from his beginnings as a multi-sport athlete in rural Pennsylvania to becoming the first full-time mental skills specialist for the USTA in 2013. His curiosity about performance inconsistency first sparked while coaching baseball: “I don’t understand why you could go 3-for-4 on Saturday and Sunday, go 0-for-4 and strike out three times. What’s going on there?”
That question led him through academic pursuits at Clarion University and UNC Greensboro, studying under renowned sports psychologist Dr. Dan Gould. Lauer’s research revealed a critical gap between sports psychology theory and practical application—coaches had information but struggled to implement it effectively.
“One of the things that we learned was it just wasn’t practical enough,” Lauer explains. This insight led to creating the “USTA Mental Skills and Drills Handbook,” making mental training techniques more accessible to coaches nationwide.
Throughout his career, Lauer has witnessed significant evolution in how mental training is perceived. “I’ve seen the stigma come down quite a bit,” he notes. “In the past it was ‘Don’t tell anybody we’re meeting.’ Now they’re starting to tell other people.” This shift represents broader acceptance of mental performance as an essential component of athletic development.
Central to Lauer’s approach is the critical role coaches play in athlete development. “Coaches are often the most important people outside of their parents in the lives of young athletes,” he states. Rather than working in isolation with athletes, Lauer advocates collaboration between mental coaches and tennis coaches to prevent conflicting messages and accelerate development.
This collaborative approach extends to coaching methodology. Lauer promotes a balanced style that provides both challenge and support: “When you get after a kid… you don’t make it personal. You make it about the behavior, about the performance, never about them as a person.” Effective feedback includes follow-up encouragement: “If you’ve given what we call tough love… it doesn’t end when you give that critical feedback. It continues where you then follow up and let them know that you believe in them.”
Such supportive environments enable athletes to take necessary risks and perform at their peak. “When the athlete feels supported, they can go out on that limb and take chances, take risks that are necessary to perform at a high level,” Lauer explains.
For tennis players dealing with confidence issues, Lauer helps reframe negative self-narratives to focus on strengths and process. This approach has helped struggling professionals regain their footing and achieve successful careers. He also addresses the unique challenges facing junior players, particularly those who develop physically early and then struggle when peers catch up.
Perhaps most importantly, Lauer champions the integration of character development into daily training. Mental skills like resilience, focus, and discipline aren’t just performance enhancers but valuable life skills. “If you’re resilient and tough-minded, super professional… these character things… need to be part of your training every day,” he advises.
This approach creates a powerful argument for parents who might question the value of mental training. As Lauer explains to them, techniques like between-point routines teach essential life skills: “We’re teaching them discipline. We’re teaching them how to focus, how to be resilient, and all these different things that they’re going to need in life.”
Lauer’s work reminds us that while “not everybody’s going to be at the Olympic trials, everybody can be better through sport if we emphasize these character values, which, by the way, enhance performance.” In this vision of tennis development, success isn’t measured solely by trophies but by personal growth that serves players throughout their lives, both on and off the court.
For those interested in learning more about mental performance in tennis, Dr. Lauer co-hosts the “Compete Like a Champion” podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, and can be found on LinkedIn and X.
