ParentingAces with Lisa Wellstead

Summary

Lisa Wellstead, a yoga and mindfulness trainer at Janepri Performance Tennis Center in East Cobb, Georgia, describes her work bringing the UK-developed dot-b mindfulness curriculum (Mindfulness in Schools Project) into tennis training. She references the UK government’s 9 million pound grant for mindfulness in schools as evidence of institutional validation, and makes the practical point that only 30 minutes of a 3-hour tennis match involves actual ball-striking — the rest is mental and emotional management.

Guest Background

Lisa Wellstead is a yoga and mindfulness trainer who works with tennis players at Janepri Performance Tennis Center in East Cobb, Georgia. She is trained in the dot-b curriculum (from the Mindfulness in Schools Project, UK), which is a structured secular mindfulness program developed for student populations. Her work applies the dot-b framework specifically to competitive tennis players as a mental performance tool.

Key Findings

1. Only 30 Minutes of a 3-Hour Match Involves Actual Ball Contact

Wellstead’s most striking statistic: in a 3-hour tennis match, approximately 30 minutes involves actual ball-striking. The remaining 2.5 hours is movement, recovery, between-point rituals, changeovers, and waiting. This means the mental state management that fills the non-playing time is a larger determinant of match outcome than ball-striking quality — yet almost all training time is allocated to the ball-striking portion.

2. The dot-b Curriculum Is a Structured Secular Mindfulness Program from the UK

The dot-b curriculum (the “dot” represents the pause, the “b” represents the breath) is part of the Mindfulness in Schools Project developed in the United Kingdom. It is a secular, structured curriculum designed for young people that teaches present-moment awareness, attention management, and emotional regulation through specific exercises. The UK government committed 9 million pounds to its deployment in schools — institutional validation at scale that signals evidence-based credibility.

3. Body Scan Meditation Builds Present-Moment Awareness in Tennis Contexts

Wellstead’s primary tool is the body scan — a mindfulness technique where attention is moved systematically through different body regions to build present-moment somatic awareness. For tennis players, she applies this specifically to between-point and changeover moments: instead of catastrophizing about the previous error or worrying about the next game, players practice bringing attention back to physical sensation in the current moment. This is practical, teachable, and repeatable.

4. Thinking Mode vs. Present Mode Is the Core Cognitive Distinction

Wellstead distinguishes between “thinking mode” — when attention is engaged with narrative, planning, analysis, or evaluation — and “present mode” — when attention is on immediate sensory experience. Competitive performance is degraded by thinking mode during play; present mode is the optimal competitive state. Mindfulness training is specifically the practice of noticing when you have moved into thinking mode and returning to present mode — a skill that transfers directly to competitive mental performance.

5. Negative Self-Talk Is Observable and Interruptible with Mindfulness Tools

Wellstead frames negative self-talk not as a character flaw but as an observable cognitive event — a thought pattern that can be noticed, named, and released rather than argued with or suppressed. Mindfulness training builds the capacity to observe negative self-talk with some distance (“there’s the voice again”) rather than being consumed by it. This is more effective than positive thinking (which typically just creates competing internal noise) or suppression (which tends to amplify).

Actionable Advice for Families

• Calculate your player’s actual ball contact time in a typical match — the 30-minute figure is a reality check on where training time is most needed
• Introduce the dot-b curriculum or similar structured mindfulness programs as a complement to technical tennis training — the UK government’s institutional investment validates its evidence base
• Practice the between-point reset as a specific trainable skill: after every point in practice, have your player execute a three-breath reset before preparing for the next point
• Teach the thinking mode/present mode distinction as vocabulary — once players can name the shift, they can more quickly notice and return to present mode
• For players with chronic negative self-talk patterns, mindfulness training (not positive affirmations) is the evidence-supported intervention

INTENNSE Relevance

• Mindfulness as competitive performance infrastructure: Wellstead’s 30-minute ball contact finding is directly relevant to INTENNSE’s between-point culture — the team format’s timeouts, changeovers, and substitution windows are mental management opportunities that a mindfulness-trained player uses more effectively
• dot-b for INTENNSE player development: The dot-b curriculum’s structured, secular, evidence-based design makes it appropriate for INTENNSE’s player development pipeline — applicable across cultural and religious backgrounds, validated at institutional scale
• East Cobb / Atlanta connection: Wellstead’s work at Janepri Performance Tennis Center in East Cobb places her in INTENNSE’s home market — a potential partner for INTENNSE’s Atlanta franchise’s player wellness programming
• Broadcast commentary application: The thinking mode/present mode distinction is a broadcast-ready analytical frame — INTENNSE commentators can use this vocabulary to describe the mental performance dynamics visible between points, adding analytical depth to match coverage

Notable Quotes

“In a three-hour match, you are actually hitting the ball for about 30 minutes. What are you doing with the other two and a half hours? That’s where matches are won and lost.”

“The UK government put 9 million pounds into mindfulness in schools. They did that because the evidence is real. This is not alternative medicine.”

“You can’t stop negative self-talk by arguing with it or drowning it out with positive thinking. You have to learn to see it clearly. Once you can see it, you can let it go.”