It's All in Your Head

Summary

Josh Burger — sports psychologist, former Division III player at Clark University (Massachusetts), former D1 assistant coach at Sacred Heart University, and founder of Tiebreaker Psychology (launched 2019) — joins Lisa Stone for a Season 15 episode centered on the emotional side of junior tennis for both athletes and parents. Season 15 was announced at the start of the year with a theme of parent mental health and mental toughness during the junior tennis journey. Burger addresses self-imposed pressure, the psychological toxicity of UTR obsession, the mechanics of between-point routines, how parents can model the growth mindset they want from their children, and when sports psychology work should begin relative to player age.

Guest Background

Josh Burger grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut and started playing tennis seriously around eighth grade — later than most junior peers. He played all four years at Clark University (Division III) and was an all-conference performer. He studied psychology at Clark and was introduced to sports psychology through Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis and Brad Gilbert’s Winning Ugly. He completed a master’s degree in sports psychology, coached tennis at Sacred Heart University (D1) and the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, and launched his private practice, Tiebreaker Psychology, in 2019. Approximately 60% of his clients are tennis players; the balance spans other sports. He works with junior athletes, adult league players, and a handful of professional players.

Key Findings

1. Pressure Is the Primary Mental Challenge — and Most of It Is Self-Imposed

Burger identifies pressure as the most prevalent issue he encounters across all ages and levels. He distinguishes two types: situational pressure (tournament finals, tiebreakers, high-stakes draws) and self-imposed pressure (the belief that a player is “supposed to” win based on UTR differential, ranking, or investment). He notes that the NIL era and the increasing businessification of junior sport have added new pressure layers — parents and players experience tennis more as an investment requiring a return than as a sport with inherent developmental value. This framing is self-defeating: the more results are demanded, the more fear-based the play.

2. UTR Is a Snapshot, Not an Identity — Hyper-Focus on the Number Is the Problem

Burger and Stone discuss the phenomenon of parents opening coaching emails with “my kid’s UTR is X” as the identifying frame. Both agree UTR is algorithmically useful as a ballpark for competitive level and college recruiting context — but the hyper-focus on it creates measurable harm. His specific observations: players can be at their all-time UTR high after two months off with an injury (meaning the number doesn’t reflect current ability); players who play great but lose can see their UTR drop (decoupling effort from outcome in a demoralizing way); and fear of UTR consequences leads players to avoid certain opponents or play “not to lose” rather than to win. He cites Aryna Sabalenka (career-high ITF junior ranking: 225) and Jannik Sinner (133) as proof that junior rankings don’t predict professional success — both reached world number one or two.

3. Parents Are Performers Too — and Need Their Own Preparation Strategy

Burger reframes the parent’s courtside role as a performance with its own preparation requirements. Just as a player sets a match intention (“I want to attack the second serve”), a parent should enter a match with explicit intentions about their own behavior: keeping a poker face through momentum shifts, having language ready for the post-match conversation, deciding in advance what they will and will not say in the first 30 minutes after a match ends. He supports Stone’s practice of encouraging parents to acknowledge their own courtside failures honestly to their children — modeling the same mistake-own-it-learn-grow cycle the player needs to embody. This parental growth mindset modeling sends a more credible message than instruction alone.

4. The Between-Point Routine Is the Most Trainable Mental Skill in Competitive Tennis

Among the concrete tools Burger recommends, the between-point routine receives the most specific treatment: a 20-second reset process after each point that allows the athlete to put the previous point behind them and approach the next one with clear intention. He references Dr. Jim Loehr’s “16-second cure” framework and notes that even at the professional level, players frequently fail to complete the reset — they step into the next point while still carrying the previous one. The routine components: acknowledgment of what happened, physical reset (a movement cue — bouncing, walking to the baseline, towel use), and a clear intention for the next point. Burger frames routines as automaticity training: the routine becomes as unconscious as the forehand if practiced consistently.

5. Trust Your Training — Technical Self-Coaching During Matches Is Self-Defeating

Burger identifies a specific pattern that destroys in-match performance: players giving themselves four or five simultaneous technical instructions during a point (“closed stance, step into it, racket back, contact out front, finish across”). This multi-cue internal monologue signals to the player that they don’t trust themselves — and the body responds by tightening up, producing exactly the error they were trying to prevent. The solution is to practice technique on the practice court and then trust it during competition. JTCC (Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland) has a large sign visible to all athletes that reads “Trust Your Training” — Burger says this is exactly the right message because confidence is largely trust-in-preparation made visible under pressure.

6. Sports Psychology Work Should Start Early and Proactively — Before Crises

Burger addresses the question of developmental age directly: there are reasonable mental performance expectations at every stage, from a six-year-old showing sportsmanship and completing a post-match handshake to a 15-year-old maintaining between-point routines under pressure. He advocates for introducing mental skills early rather than reactively — most families seek sports psychology help after a problem has emerged rather than as a foundational investment alongside physical and technical development. The mental toolkit (self-talk, visualization, breathing, routine design) benefits from years of practice, not just crisis intervention. Earlier introduction also gives coaches and parents a shared language for mental performance conversations that carry through the development arc.

7. Sportsmanship Must Be Explicitly Taught — It Doesn’t Emerge Organically

Burger makes a specific point about sportsmanship that Stone extends: children learn sportsmanship through explicit teaching, not osmosis. The expectations must be stated clearly (by parents and coaches), modeled visibly (by parents in the stands), and revisited after failures without shame. A child cannot be expected to exhibit sportsmanship behaviors they have never been taught or that are contradicted by what they observe in adults courtside. Burger’s framing: parents who want better behavior on the court from their children need to first audit their own behavior in the stands — since children observe and internalize adult modeling before instruction.

Actionable Advice for Families

• Set a personal match intention as a parent before watching your child compete — decide in advance how you will handle bad calls, emotional momentum shifts, and a difficult post-match ride home
• If you fail your own intention standard during a match, acknowledge it explicitly to your child afterward: “I reacted in a way I’m not proud of. I’m working on it.” This models the growth mindset you want your athlete to apply to their own game
• Treat UTR as useful context, not identity — talk about it as “a snapshot of the last 30 matches” rather than a measure of your child’s worth or potential
• Start between-point routine development early: even with 10-year-olds, a simple physical reset cue (string adjustment, bouncing) before the next point builds the habit that becomes unconscious under pressure at 16
• Before expecting a new skill to appear in a tournament, confirm you have seen it executed consistently in practice matches first — if you haven’t seen it there, don’t expect it under tournament pressure

INTENNSE Relevance

• Coaching psychology in the broadcast format: Burger’s framework for between-point routines and the 20-second reset maps directly to INTENNSE’s between-arc structure — the coaching window during arc transitions is precisely when a mic’d coach functions as a mental reset agent; coaches who understand routine design are more effective in this role than those who default to technical instruction at changeovers
• Trust your training as a format principle: INTENNSE’s format separates practice development from competitive execution more visibly than traditional tennis (structured coaching windows vs. no-coaching competition windows) — this aligns with Burger’s framework that technical coaching belongs in practice, trust belongs in competition; INTENNSE’s arc model enforces this distinction structurally
• Player behavioral standards: Burger’s point that sportsmanship requires explicit instruction, not assumption, is directly applicable to INTENNSE’s player conduct framework; the league’s code of conduct should include specific behavioral expectations at the arc boundary, post-arc, and during opponent interactions — and coaches should be trained to teach these explicitly, not just enforce them
• Parent observation as a pressure variable: INTENNSE’s mixed-audience format (fans watching live, some with personal connections to players) creates parent-like pressure dynamics even in professional contexts; the league’s broadcast and event design should account for how visible spectator reactions affect on-court performance
• Mental skills as a league differentiator: If INTENNSE builds structured mental performance support (sports psychology access, routine design protocols, between-arc reset frameworks) into its player services, it differentiates from traditional tour structures where players must source this individually; this is both a player welfare argument and a performance quality argument

Notable Quotes

“Pressure is probably the biggest one. There’s pressure from the situation, but I find there’s often quite a bit of self-imposed pressure. I have to win this match. My UTR is 0.5 above my opponent, so I should win.”

“Sabalenka’s career-high ITF junior ranking was 225 in the world. Sinner’s was 133. And she’s been number one, he’s been number one. So if we’re so focused on just this number, we might be losing the focus of really what we’re trying to work towards.”

“When there’s too much instruction somebody’s giving themselves when they’re actually out there, it tends to lead to paralysis by analysis — they freeze up or tighten up because they’re giving themselves so many instructions it sends a message that they don’t believe they can do it.”

“JTCC has a big sign all their athletes can prominently see: ‘Trust Your Training.’ I think when players are able to do that, it leads to a certain confidence because they’re not second-guessing themselves.”

“Parents, viewing themselves as performers — just like their athlete is performing — is an important way to manage their own stress and pressure, to talk to themselves well, to breathe, to have a clear intention for how they want to handle the situation.”

“When parents can model that behavior — hey, I’m not perfect, I’m not going to be perfect, but when a mistake is made, I’m owning it — it sends a really important message to the junior athlete that they can do the exact same thing.”