This particularly poisonous plague pesters people of our persuasion with a perfidious and portentous preoccupation with our peers' presumptions and preferences apropos our performance precipitating putrid and pusillanimous play on our part!

Imagine yourself playing doubles with a group of talentoids with whom you would very much like to ingratiate yourself. You are returning serve, and the ball is coming mostly to your forehand. You could go for that big topspin forehand you have been practicing and possibly force an error from the server or even win the point outright, but wait! If you miss (which, let's face it, highly possible), your partner will resent your obvious attempt to play above your station in the tennis world and would probably prefer you shovel the ball back into the court somehow, preferably not in the direction of the net man. So, not wanting to disappoint your opponent, you get out your shovel and push the ball into the net (or wide, or long - anywhere but in the court). You have just missed a shot that any beginner could get into the court 4 out of 5 times and you did not look terrific doing it. Now your partner really is steaming, and if he is somewhat less than gracious he will entreat you to try to "be more careful next time" (or words to that effect) thereby reinforcing your neurotic compulsion to meet their expectations by tearing the living guts out of your own tennis game leaving it a pathetic, broken mess.

The source of this neurosis is a profound need or desire to please others. Most would say that such a thing is not so bad. It describes a lot of very nice people. It may also be the source-in-truth of one of the oldest sayings in sport - "Nice guys finish last."

Narcissists are mostly immune to expectationism and all of the best and most talented athletes I have known display at least a touch of narcissism. After all, the term "prima donna" is associated with success, not failure. I am not suggesting that to play better, more enjoyable tennis you should somehow remake yourself into an unbearable ass. I am saying you need to give up the goal of meeting people's expectations with your tennis because expectationism is a performance killer.

The psychopathology of expectationism is rooted in the relationship between the cortex and thalmus in the brain. The thalamus records and plays back complex motions, like a tennis stroke, in response to a stimulus, like a ball coming at your head. The neurons in the thalamus are excitatory, by and large. Thalmic neurons are affirmative; when one fires, it tends to cause other neurons to fire. The thalamus, therefore, could be called a "YES!" engine, like "YES - that's my ball...YES - get the feet moving toward it...YES - get your racket back...YES - swing your hips...". The cortex, the part of the brain we think with, is more of a "NO" engine, like "NO - wait; that might not be my ball. Let me think about it for a few sec...whoops! It went by. So sorry!" When we worry about what other people might think about how we address the ball we put our cortex into overdrive - we keep saying to ourselves: "NO - don't make an error! NO - don't make an error! NO, NO, NO!" The inhibitory impulses coming from the cortex bombard the thalamus, paralyzing it, interfering with the playback of the stroke and turning it into a herky-jerky mess. Even the simplest stroke, like our shovel shot, is beyond the abilities of the cortex.

The quickest and easiest solution to this very challenging issue is to stop counting errors. Most of us were raised into tennis on the mantra that the goal of tennis, the measure of a tennis player and the quickest route to victory is to stop making errors. If you don't make errors, or at least make fewer errors than your opponent, you will always win, and all will be right and bright in your tennis world. Winners are "OK" as long as they in no way increase your error percentage. The same applies to hitting hard, deep or placed shots. We were told that our goal should be "error-free tennis" (cue music - "Dream the Impossible Dream"). By the way, the people who taught us these things made plenty of errors themselves but hit so many winners or deep and well-placed forcing shots that no one bothered to count their errors. We were basically patted on the head and told "Don't worry about hitting good shots dearie, just keep shoveling the ball back into your opponent's court until they make an error and your trophy case will be almost as full as mine!" One wonders how good they could have been if they had allowed themselves to hit out.)

No one cares about your errors. They are way more concerned about their play. After a match, everyone will remember you for your winners, not your flubs. Only you care about them, so get over it and stop trying not to make errors! If you stop trying not to make errors you will still make errors, but you will make fewer of them, and you will hit the best shots you own. You will come to love the sport of tennis again, as you did before the "error-free tennis" people got hold of you. Concentrate on the number of good shots you hit! Ignore errors, especially the unconscionable errors (like the shoulder-high volley in the base of the net from three feet away or double-faulting on match point). Don't even count a well hit out ball as an error; count it as a well-hit ball that happened to go an inch out. The next three times you attempt the same shot it will probably be a winner. How does it even merit your chagrin? You went for it - great! You almost hit the line - great! You have conquered (at least momentarily) your fear and expectationism - super great! The only attention you should give to errors is as alerts that you might be slipping into expectationism again. Sorry, but the Expectations Syndrome is not curable. The best one can do; recognize the signs and symptoms, actively manage the condition and learn to recognize and treat remissions.