I’ve heard you often refer to a lost point as “a good miss”?Why, you still lost the point!?
It’s understandable that you might question the idea of a “good miss” since losing a point is never ideal. However, the concept of a “good miss” is rooted in strategic thinking and risk management in tennis.
Statistics from Tennis Analytics show that hitting the ball into the net is one of the most common errors in tennis.If you study the table below, two lightbulb moments will jump out at you:
1.The vast majority of points, at any level of the game, are lost (typically 90% of points are lost!), and
2.Over 40% of those errors result from hitting the ball into the net.
By avoiding this FUNDAMENTAL error of hitting the ball into the net, players increase their chances of winning the point. Therefore, a “good miss” refers to a shot that does not result in a net error but may still end up out ofcourt.
By aiming to avoid the net and hitting with margin, players can reduce the risk of making unforced errors and increase their chances of winning the point.Moreover, they give the opposition a change to miss and make an error.
Of course, a shot that lands in the ideal location is always the goal, but it’s not always achievable. In those situations, a “good miss” can be a strategic and effective approach to minimize mistakes.
In summary, a “good miss” is not about celebrating a lost point, but rather a strategy to minimize unforced errors and increase the likelihood of winning the point, and the match, in the long run.
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This week’s question comes from a parent of a junior player. “Thank you very much for sharing your doubles strategies. What are some tips for coaching my child in singles?”
As a parent of a junior player, you may be wondering how to improve both your and your child’s singles play. Singles play requires a different set of skills and strategies to doubles play. Here are some practical tips to help your child improve their singles game:
Focus on the serve: A strong serve is critical in singles and can give your child a big advantage from the outset. Encourage your child to practice their serve regularly, and vary the placement, speed, and spin of their serves to keep their opponent guessing.
Play to your child’s strengths: Help your child identify their strengths and weaknesses, and encourage them to play to their strengths. For example, if your child has a strong forehand, encourage them to run around the ball to use it to dictate play. I call this the “Nadal Variation.”
Stay aggressive: In singles play, it’s important to stay aggressive without being overly aggressive and to take control of the match. Encourage your child to hit their shots with pace and depth to keep their opponent on the defensive and look for opportunities to move forward and finish points at the net.
Be patient: While staying aggressive, it’s important to be patient and wait for the right opportunities to attack. Encourage your child not to try to hit winners on every shot, but to play long rallies as/when required and force their opponent to make a mistake. To win the point, you have get into the point first!
Stay focused: Tennis is as much a mental game as it is a physical one, so it’s important to stay mentally focused and composed throughout the match. Encourage your child to stay positive and focused on the present moment and not to get too caught up in mistakes, talking to their opponent, or bad calls.
Adapt to your opponent: Encourage your child to see what’s happening with their opponent on the other side of the net and adapt their game to their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. If their opponent has a weak backhand, they can target that side of the court more often. If their opponent is a good net player, they can keep them back at the baseline with deep shots and lobs.
Be prepared to change your game: In some cases, your child’s game may not match up well against their opponent’s game. They may be overpowered. Encourage them to have a “Plan B” that may involve coming to the net to volley more often; hitting high, slow balls, or slow short balls to bring the opponent to the net, particularly if the opponent has an extreme Western grip. “Plan B” is never having to make the old chestnut excuses: ” I lost because I played badly” or “the other guy cheated”!
Remember, the real secret of the game is the player who hits the ball over the net and into the court the last time, wins the point!
With these strategies, your child will be well on their way to becoming a well-rounded tennis player who can play both singles and doubles at a high level, giving them a priceless gift of lifelong enjoyment and potential life long social connections through tennis.
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This week’s question comes from another mid level club member. “I play doubles at the club a couple of times a week. What can I do to improve my tennis without making major changes inmy game?“
As an avid tennis player, you know that the key to success on the court is constant improvement. While you enjoy playing doubles at the club a couple of times a week, you also recognize that there are areas in your game that could use some work.
However, you don’t want to make any major changes that could throw off your entire game. So what can you do to improve your tennis without making any major changes?
First, start by assessing your strengths and weaknesses. Consider which parts of your game are already strong and which could use some improvement. For example:
Are you struggling with your footwork? This is typically a problem of your balance and inertia accelerated with age.
Is your serve not as consistent as you’d like it to be? Typically a poor ball toss due to lack of rhythm and balance.
Are you having trouble with your backhand? Typically a dominant eye issue.
Could your volleys need some help? Typically a ball watching issue causing you to be slow to react to the ball.
Note these suggestions are simple and DO NOT require you to make major changes in your game!
In 1933, Mercer Beasley wrote a book titled “How to Play Tennis.” Beasley was the coach of the tennis legends of his time, including Vines, Austin, and Parker. In his book, Beasley outlined the three greatest tennis tips of all time: 1) Keep your eye on the ball, 2) Get your racket back as quickly as possible, and 3) Move your feet
Although there have been advancements in racket technology, court surfaces, and shot selection, the fundamentals of the game have remained unchanged. Our Whisperer Notes provide a timeless reference to elaborate these tennis tips. They may help you identify your area(s) of weakness, and the simple steps you can start to focus on improving them.
Finally, if you are willing to make an investment in $$$, and the time/frustration to change, you might consider taking a couple of private coaching lessons to get some expert advice on specific shot(s). A professional coach may help you identify areas for improvement and address them.
Remember, improving your tennis game is a continuous process that requires patience and dedication. By making small adjustments, at any age, you can improve your tennis without making any major changes to your overall game.
https://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ATPICON150.png150150Robhttps://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-LOGOWhisperer1024-300x300.pngRob2023-04-26 13:10:482023-12-22 05:09:58What can I do to improve my tennis without making major changes in my game?
I hear it all the time…a parent, coach, friend, or even the athlete themselves explain away poor behavior because “they are so competitive”. Or, “they don’t like to lose!”
Examples of competing poorly happen when we observe broken rackets, verbal abuse and, generally, a player going ballistic. Google Nick Kyrios top 10 ballistic moments to see a few examples. In all these situations, let’s be clear, there is nothing competitive going on! Being competitive is about focus, adversity management, regaining calm, and never giving up. Certainly, when a player gets defaulted, they have given up their choice to be competitive. And when the player goes ballistic, they also are not focused, and managing adversity. If they were being competitive, then the player would be focused on what’s important now (W.I.N) at that moment in the match.
So, what does it mean to compete? Just look at Rafael Nadal’s entire career and especially the 2022 Australian Open come back against Daniil Medvedev, few would argue the importance of competing consistently in achieving long-term success.
I’d like to highlight eight keys that indicate a true competitor.
1. Focus on what you can control: A competitor stays focused on what they can control: such as effort, energy, patterns, routines, attitude, breathing, and bouncing back from adversity—to name a few. They understand that they cannot control how well their opponent plays, court conditions, winning, losing, and their draw.
2. Humility /Sportsmanship: It’s important that an athlete respects themselves, their opponent, and the game. Their focus is on trying their best. A competitor plays with belief but checks their ego at the door. This allows them to play free and adjust to situations. They acknowledge their opponent for putting him or herself on the line and understand that their opponent is not an enemy. Rather, they view them as a challenge, an opportunity, and a partner that is necessary to take their game to the next level.
3. Respect for the process: A competitor understands that their development is a process, and while a loss may hurt in the short term, there are lessons that can be learned. They see setbacks and losses as an opportunity to grow, not as a problem.
4. Never, ever, ever, ever give up: A competitor never gives up. A true competitor understands that not every day is going to bring top-level performance. Perfection is not even possible. Such a player cam embrace adversity, especially the adversity of having to figure out what to do when their game is not on. A true competitor doesn’t mind winning a tight, or even ugly, contest. They have perspective; they prioritize learning from the experience over the result.
5. Adapt and adjust to situations: Constantly adjusting and adapting within a match is imperative. Momentum shifts are a given in a tennis match. What’s most important is to be aware of what is happening and adjust and adapt. Too often in the heat of competition, athletes get caught up solely on the result. This singular focus takes them away from akey question: What do I need to do now, or to get back in the match?
6. Be ok with being uncomfortable: A competitor understands that during competition they may have to take a calculated risk, try something new, or hit a shot not quite the way they would ideally like to. They understand the idea of being ok being uncomfortable
7. Be aware and make high percentage choices: A competitor makes high-percentage choices during all stages of their competition. For example, they don’t try to hit a screaming winner down the line that may appear on ESPN, rather they counter with a neutral shot that will get them back in the point. Usually, the best choice is to stay patient, stay in the point until an opportunity presents itself.
8. Learn from mistakes: Mistakes are only bad if the player does not learn from them. Mistakes provide a player the opportunity to learn and adjust, essentially correcting their mistakes from the previous setback. Nothing great was ever achieved without mistakes.
It may be the oldest question about sports… Does tennis teach character or reveal it?
Some would answer both or even neither, but after coaching for more than 40 years now. I have come to a conclusion based on more than 65,000 hours of teaching tennis on the court.
Tennis CAN teach character, but only if it is intentional. The coach needs to have character as one of the pillars of his teaching philosophy.
Studies show that sports participation does NOT in and of itself teach character. In fact, studies show that the more time and energy athletes put in to becoming elite, that more likely they may be in justify cheating.
Just looking at the professional world of sports and you can see many examples of this happening from using illegal performance enhancing drugs as an obvious example.
Today we have a multitude of players that feel like they are failures because they don’t win as often as they think they should. A big reason is that players have been taught by peers, parents, and coaches, that winning is the ultimate goal.
Instead, we need to realize that tennis is a nearly perfect vehicle to teach players the many life lessons that are so important for all champions to learn.
Below is a list of these core values that tennis COULD teach, if the coach is intentional:
1. CHARACTER: Through the responsibilities each player has to call the lines on their side of the court, keep score accurately, and give the opponent the benefit of the doubt, tennis offers a great opportunity for players to build character.
A player’s character can also be seen in the way they keep score during a drill or even by their line calls while they drill. Good coaches can be very helpful if they can get the players to realize that their self-worth as a person has nothing to do with how well they strike a little yellow ball.
2. COURAGE: Tennis gives players the opportunity to play through tough times. The one-on-one style of competition certainly requires the guts to put it on the line. Few other sports require as much courage from their youngest athletes as tennis does in this area. Another example is when players find it necessary to confront or question someone that is cheating them.
How many times have we seen players avoid that uncomfortable job, only to wait until the match is over to tell the entire world how their opponent was the biggest cheater on the planet? Think of it, aren’t those skills the exact ones that will best serve the players in their adult life? It’s all about how you look at the situation.
Some will think this is an awful burden that no young player should have to endure, while others recognize it as a great opportunity to teach an important life lesson and skill.
3. HONESTY: Tennis is one of the only sports where the players make calls on each other’s shots. Can you imagine a Little League game where the batter calls the balls and strikes? Although this huge responsibility in the hands of immature competitors can and has caused problems, no other sport allows for the development of honesty like tennis does.
Parents and coaches can facilitate the development of this core value if they seek out opportunities to compliment players when the players get it right.
4. SPORTSMANSHIP: Like in other sports, tennis players will play opponents that are jerks and try to cheat. In the short run, this is uncomfortable for players and parents, but it does give young kids the chance to start to develop coping skills with these kinds of people.
I know many competitive junior players are mature beyond their peers in this area simply because they have had more chances to practice these skills than non-tennis players. Parents should view these episodes as opportunities and resist the urge to get involved and “save” the child.
5. INTEGRITY: More than any other sport, tennis has the potential for “retaliatory” calls because it allows for your opponent to make calls that directly affect you. There will be times when people get cheated, whether on purpose or by honest mistake. How a player reacts to these times offers the player a chance to test and prove their integrity.
Will they get even, or will they do the right thing despite the opponent’s actions? Refusing to retaliate will teach players that they should avoid situational ethics by refusing to get even “because he did it to me first”.Players that succeed in this area can have a profound sense of satisfaction even if they lose the match, but only if a coach or parent is dedicated to looking for and rewarding their successes in this area.
6. COMMITMENT: Reaching the highest level of tennis requires a great deal of commitment on the player’s part. The lessons of self-discipline and delayed gratification are great life lessons that will surely serve the player later in life.
Even within a player’s game, they will need to make decisions to try new techniques that may hurt them in the short run. Commitment to these new techniques is critical for future tennis success and teaches a valuable life lesson that players will surely benefit from as adults.
7. HUMILITY: Through competition and partaking in drill classes, players soon come to realize people do not look upon arrogance very highly. Tennis offers players the chance to learn the difference between arrogance and confidence.
Team settings and class settings are the best arenas for players to learn this. Parents and coaches can not shun their responsibility to tell players when they are acting arrogantly.
8. EXCELLENCE: I believe the practice court is the best arena to teach players to strive for excellence. Many players find it difficult to practice with the proper level of intensity after a long day at school.
These challenges are similar to the ones they will have in college, and ultimately when they enter the workforce and become parents. The ability to work hard when you don’t feel like it is a major life lesson in the area of striving for excellence.
If we can produce players that strive to excel in these areas and look at tennis as a vehicle to become a better person, then they will have learned valuable life lessons and in the process experience less stress in competition.
This is because they will no longer view the “win” as the ultimate goal. Instead, they will be aiming at a more important target. Almost every tough loss in tennis can be a victory if the player is tuned into the life lessons that tennis offers.
Jorge Capestany, USPTA Master Professional
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We often tell our players at the club that tennis is the world’s toughest sport.
In the beginning, they think we are kidding, but after reading the reasons laid out in this post they grow to appreciate just how tough our sport really is. Below are 15 reasons why tennis is the most psychologically demanding sport.
1) TENNIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT.
In tennis, you are all alone on the court. No one shares in the glory or the blame. There is no teammate to pass off to if you are playing poorly and you cannot be taken out of the game for a while you recuperate from your poor play.
2) NO COACHING IS ALLOWED.
Tennis is one of the only sports where young players are not allowed to receive any coaching. Except for a handful of exceptions like HS tennis, Zonal teams, or Davis Cup, nearly all tournaments do not allow for coaching. The no coaching restriction is unusual in sports and clearly forces young competitors to deal with the pressures and problems of playing on their own.
3) INTENSE PRESSURE AT A YOUNG AGE.
Many successful professional players have reported that the stresses of junior tennis were the greatest of their entire career. For example, Chris Evert has reported that she felt more pressure during her junior career than she did at any other time as a player. The junior player must deal with the same frustrations during tournament play as the adult, but with fewer resources and life experiences to handle them.
4) TENNIS PROVIDES NOWHERE TO HIDE.
Tennis players must remain in full view of spectators, regardless of how they perform. They may desperately wish to hide from the world but they cannot due to the structure and rules of the game. Embarrassment, discouragement, anger, choking, euphoria, they’re all there for everyone to see. Some players dislike this aspect of tennis while others embrace it. Either way, tennis provides little shelter for the emotions that accompany such an exciting game.
5) NO SUBSTITUTES / NO TIME-OUTS.
Many sports allow players to regain their composure or get back on track through the use of substitutions and time-outs. This is not the case in tennis. Players must stay in the game, regardless of how bad or uncomfortable things may get. This is particularly difficult considering that matches can be two or three hours in length.
6) ONE-ON-ONE COMBAT.
Tennis is similar to boxing. You have a real one-on-one opponent that you must defeat to emerge victorious. A match can quickly become a personal confrontation between opponents, especially if an opponent resorts to gamesmanship tactics. Such direct competition can fuel intense rivalries and threaten friendships in powerful ways among young players.
7) THE ACCURACY OF LINE CALLING.
Completely objective, professionally trained linesmen make mistakes all the time. And they are motionless and concerned only with one line. Expecting players in a match to call the lines with the same accuracy is at best unrealistic. Balls traveling at speeds over 50 miles per hour with fractions of an inch separating “out” from “in” provide distinct opportunities for conflict and controversy. Recent studies show that players are actually legally blind at the moment they land on the court when running, this is added to the fact that many matches can be dramatically changed with only one bad call, makes mistakes unavoidable and it is easy to see why tempers can flare. (Imagine what would happen if the batters in little league baseball were responsible for calling balls and strikes against themselves)
8) THE “HONOR” SCORING SYSTEM.
Unlike most other sports, in tennis, a player can take a point that is rightfully their opponent’s by deliberately calling a shot out that had fallen within the lines. The point can be the most important of the match, yet the call stands. There is nothing a player can do about it. Pressures associated with being cheated or being accused of cheating can place tremendous psychological strain on young players.
9) TENNIS REQUIRES TOUCH AND FINESSE.
Tennis is primarily a fine motor skill sport, meaning that it is comprised of many precise movements requiring “feel”. As such, these movements can be influenced significantly by subtle changes in emotion. Anger, fear, frustration, embarrassment, and other such emotions can be very disruptive to the delicate motor control needed in tennis skills such as serving and volleying
10) CONSTANTLY CHANGING CONDITIONS.
Changing temperature, wind intensity of light, court surfaces, balls, altitude, indoor/outdoor play, and equipment add to the depth of the competitive challenge in tennis. Players are forced to deal with changes such as these, many times within the same match. A player’s responses to these situations can provide an indication of their level of mental toughness. Those who are not affected by changes in conditions are often the ones who win.
11) LENGTH OF THE BATTLE.
Few sports require kids to concentrate and perform for as much as three hours at a time. It is not uncommon for 12-year old players to be required to compete in two singles matches and two doubles matches on the same day. Mental toughness and physical fitness become critical if a player is to become successful.
12) THE UNIQUE SCORING SYSTEM IN TENNIS.
The scoring system in tennis adds to the pressure a young player experiences. Unlike many other sports, there is no overall time limit. Play continues until one of the players wins two out of three sets. Consequently, there is no room for coasting on a lead or waiting for time to run out. Each player is always just a few points from a complete turn-around, and a lead is never safe. In contrast, if a basketball team is ahead by 30 points, they will almost certainly win, because their lead is too large to overcome within the time of the competition. In tennis, a player can be ahead 5-0 in the third set, lose two games, and immediately have reason to fear a loss and a huge comeback on their opponent’s part because there is no time clock to run out.
13) JUNIOR TENNIS RANKINGS.
Junior tennis establishes a clear pecking order very quickly through an intricate system of sectional and national rankings. For some young players, rankings become synonymous with self-esteem. They develop feelings of expectation, hope, and failure surrounding rankings, seeds, and titles. This can lead to a great deal of unhappiness if the player’s enjoyment is tied to winning and losing. If you’re one of the best players in 12 & under baseball players in your state, you still won’t ever be ranked so that you know if you are the 1st or 5th best player. But in tennis, you will know exactly where how you compare to your peers and friends.
14) “BIG vs. LITTLE” and “YOUNG vs. OLD”.
Another dimension of tennis is the fact that a nine-year-old child can successfully compete against a 14 or 15 year-old-teenager. A young girl of 14 may be capable of beating a seasoned veteran on the pro tour. Small can beat large, and young can beat old. A 12 year-old boy losing to a 9 year-old or a 6’3” boy losing to someone half his size can be extremely stressful.
15) TENNIS TRAINING CAN BE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.
Tennis training for the competitive player can be a very large expense for a family. Many times the pressures from these expenses can add additional stress to the young player who feels guilty if they are not winning because of all the money his parents are putting into his tennis.
Parents can quickly lose sight of what is important and begin to expect a “return” for their investment. This issue is one of the most frequently mentioned by families with players competing at the high national levels.
Despite all these difficulties, tennis is still the best sport for a child to play. It is the only sport that challenges players on the physical, strategic, and psychological levels. It is no coincidence that so many junior tennis players are the best students in their classes. The goal setting and work ethic needed to be successful in tennis are life skills that will help all players as they get older and enter society.
Even the difficulties experienced in junior tennis like dealing with an abusive or cheating opponent, are opportunities to learn life skills that will be an important advantage later in life. Few other sports offer as many of these types of learning opportunities.
Parents and coaches often make the mistake of wanting to get involved or “fix” on-court problems when they happen. The best thing to do is to recognize those episodes as opportunities to learn important life lessons. Children who develop the skills to deal with difficult people at an early age are usually far more successful.
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Craig O’Shannessy is a well known tennis statistician. He recently republished the stats below in the context of the Australian Open.
Our Tennis Whisperer attempts to explain the WHYs underlining Craig’s stats in simple terms of the three primary skills underpinning every tennis stroke: ball watching, balance and rhythm . [See WHY comments in these brackets].
These are the seven basics of tennis strategy and, as always, they will be the key to winning at this year’s Australian Open.
Lesson 1: Forehands and Backhands
Nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic has arguably the best backhand in the world. But who cares.
When Djokovic last won the “Happy Slam” in 2021, he struck 98 forehand winners and 45 backhand winners. That’s why you see players running around backhands to hit forehands. They desperately seek to upgrade.
The forehand is the sword. The backhand is the shield. The sword accounts for about two out of every three winners from the back of the court.
Forehand and backhand winners
M/W
Forehand winners
Backhand winners
Men
70 per cent (3228)
30 per cent (1386)
Women
64 per cent (2236)
36 per cent (1247)
[Whisperer: The NADAL VARIATION creates more extreme angles because of the racket position in relation to body.]
Lesson 2: Tennis is a game of errors
The Australian Open features the best players on the planet, who rally back and forth ad nauseam on the practice court with precious few mistakes. Then matches start, and errors flow.
Winners and errors
M/W
Winners
Errors
Men
34 per cent
66 per cent
Women
30 per cent
70 per cent
Winners are rising at Melbourne Park, jumping from 30 per cent for the men in 2015 to 34 per cent last year. In the women’s game, there was a jump from 27 per cent in 2015 to 30 per cent in 2022.
Because errors are so prevalent, it’s much smarter to make opponents uncomfortable and force mistakes than chase winners. Obsess over the bigger pool of points.
[Whisperer: Minimizing errors by staying in the point has always consistently won more points. ]
Lesson 3: Eight ways to force an error
There are actually eight ways to make the opponent uncomfortable and extract an error.
[Whisperer: WHY explained in Where column of the three primary skills in any stroke: ball watching, balance, rhythm—strength is NOT necessarily the key.]
Eight ways to force an error
#
8 ways
Where
1
Consistency
Court: Watching
2
Direction
Court: Balance
3
Depth
Court: Balance
4
Height
Court: Balance
5
Spin
Ball: Watching
6
Power
Ball: Rhythm
7
Court Position
Me: Balance
8
Time
The clock: Rhythm
These eight elements are the holy grail of tennis. If a player hits a shot that contains just one of these eight, such as depth, they will have gained the upper hand in the point.
If their shot includes two or more qualities, such as power and direction, they will be standing inside the baseline hitting with authority when the weak ball comes back.
If they combine three elements – such as height, spin and court position – the ball doesn’t come back.
Lesson 4: Rally length
Winning the short rallies is the best way to walk off court with a victory. The study of rally length started at the 2015 Australian Open and shook the foundations of the sport because of just how many short rallies occur.
Rally length
Shots
Men
Women
0-4
70 per cent
66 per cent
5-8
20 per cent
23 per cent
9+
10 per cent
11 per cent
[Whisperer: Impact of powerful racket technology and advantage to server. Corollary: get into the point as much as possible. Use typical Djokovic/Medvedev strategy of deep returns to put server off balance to nullify server advantage.]
Rally length is predicated on the ball landing in the court, not hitting the strings. So a double fault has a rally length of zero as the ball didn’t land in, and a missed return is a rally length of one as the serve went in and the return was missed.
Seven points out of 10 are contested by players hitting the ball a maximum of two times each (four-shot rallies) in the court.
The data also blew the doors off the myth that winning long rallies equated to winning matches. There are, typically, not enough long rallies to make a difference.
Lesson 5: Mode
The mode simply means the most common value in a data set. We can predict with certainty that the most abundant rally length at this year’s Australian Open will be the same as last year, and the year before that. One shot in the court. No more. No less.
Ask someone which rally length is the most frequent, and the typical answers are from four to eight shots. You can tell them that Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray thought they played more four-shot rallies than anything else. They were very surprised, like all players, that they play more one-shot rallies than any other. That equates to a made serve and a missed return.
2015 Australian Open men: Most common rally lengths
Rally length
Percentage
1 shot
30
3 shots
15
2 shots
10
5 shots
9
4 shots
8
As you can see from the table above, one-shot rallies are incredibly frequent in a match (30 per cent). The next closest rally length is three shots at 15 per cent.
Notice that three-shot rallies occur more than two shots, and five-shot rallies occur more than four shots. That’s because of the halo effect of the serve, or how long the influence of the serve lasts before things become even in a rally.
[To repeat. Whisperer: Impact of powerful racket technology and advantage to server. Corollary: get into the point as much as possible. Use Djokovic /Medvedev strategy of deep returns to nullify server advantage.]
Lesson 6: You win a higher percentage at the net than the baseline
The baseline seems like a safe haven for players, while the net seems a risky place to win points. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The baseline as a safe haven?
M/W
Baseline win percentage
Net win percentage
Men
47
67
Women
48
66
If you rally from the back of the court, you are lucky to win half of your baseline points.
[WHISPERER: Volleys are an ESSENTIAL stroke for any serious tennis player, and particular for junior development, not an afterthought. Moving forward to the net (from GHOSTLINE) wins about two out of three points.]
The net has always been a fun, prosperous place to win points and nothing has changed statistically to think otherwise.
Lesson 7: Serve and Volley works
No tennis strategy has been more maligned and misunderstood than the serve and volley. Pundits say it belongs to another era and is too difficult to employ in today’s game. It’s simply not so.
Serve and volley works
M/W
Played/won
Percentage won
Men
709/1053
67
Women
36/57
63
Both men and women won about two out of three points serving and volleying at last year’s Australian Open.
That is a far superior tactic than serving, staying back and trying to eke out a living from the baseline to hold serve.
[WHISPERER: Enhances probability of winning the point because of the geometry and physics of relative court positions of each player]
00Robhttps://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-LOGOWhisperer1024-300x300.pngRob2023-01-16 08:58:522023-01-16 08:58:52Seven Basics of Tennis Strategy | ATP
Tennis is on the verge of a belated Moneyball revolution. In the northern spring, the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs the men’s tour, is planning to open up ball-tracking data from every match to all its players and coaches.
The shift will do much to level an uneven playing field. Until now, millionaire players such as the “Big Four” men have had the opportunity to buy better-quality data analysis than their less wealthy rivals.
One might imagine that access to data would be a basic right for all leading professionals. In fact, anyone wanting to use the information gathered by Hawk-Eye, the leading ball-tracking provider since 2014, has had to pay a £150 ($263) processing fee per match. On top of that, tour rules say you can order data only from matches you played in.
In April, this will change. “We want to give players more equal access to this information,” says Ross Hutchins, the Association of Tennis Professionals’ chief tour officer. “We believe it will improve performance levels. We are looking to bring player and ball-tracking online from every ATP tournament. We’re hoping to make this happen by the second quarter of 2023, and then bring in wearable technology, such as heart monitors and GPS location devices, by the second half of the year.”
Despite the relatively large amount of money at stake, tennis must rank as one of the most backward major sports when it comes to sophisticated data analysis, mainly because there are few economies of scale.
Six-figure sums for data
If you are lucky enough to come from a grand-slam nation such as Great Britain or the United States, you can usually dip into your federation’s sizeable dataset. Otherwise, the only way to gain access to more than a tiny percentage of matches is to hire one of the big analytical companies, such as Golden Set Analytics (GSA), which used to charge Roger Federer a six-figure sum annually for exclusive access to its scouting and performance reports.
“In tennis, the teams are smaller than most other sports, and almost everything has to come out of the player’s pocket,” says Philip Mauerhofer, who runs a well-regarded analytics firm called Tennis Stat. “Unless you’re at the top of the game, adding more expenditure to your coaching and your physio and your fitness training is always going to be a stretch. So to have a trove of data available on every player would be a game-changer.”
Agent Patricio Apey welcomed the ATP plan. One of Apey’s clients – America’s Sebastian Korda – has been able to benefit from his close relationship with the United States Tennis Association, which logs all the information from its home tournaments and has a data-pooling deal with Tennis Australia.
But another of Apey’s stable – Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas – has had no such support. Tsitsipas thus needs to spend considerably more to gain the same level of tactical insight. As a top-five player, he can probably afford the difference. Those lower down the ladder are not always so fortunate.
“I’m cautiously hopeful that the governing bodies will see that making this information available to all players and their teams will only make the sport better,” Apey says. “Look at how sophisticated Formula One is when it comes to using data. Maybe in the future we will see cutting-edge analysts in the player boxes doing their work in real time and passing useful feedback to coaches and players during matches.”
Test run for courtside coaching
Tennis has many governing bodies, and at the moment only the Association of Tennis Professionals – as opposed to the grand slams and the Women’s Tennis Association – is committed to opening up its dataset. But the scenario Apey mentions is already here, even if it was used only on an experimental level at last November’s ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan, where coaches were allowed to advise their players during matches, as is becoming the norm on the ATP Tour, and at the two hard-court slams. They were also given an electronic tablet showing live data from the match as it progressed.
“It was challenging to use at first,” says James Trotman, the British coach whose player, Jack Draper, was eliminated in the semi-finals of that event. “There was so much data, whether it be the direction of the serve, the accuracy of the return, or the speed of each player’s forehands and backhands.
“I had to keep it simple, so I just focused on the first of those categories. There was one opponent who was always serving in the same place, so when it came to the tie-break I was able to tell Jack to sit on that return, which helped a great deal.”
Four years ago, Germany’s No. 1 Alexander Zverev said that “all the big guys are using data analysis, they just don’t like to talk about it” – and leading players are still coy about their data support. A rare exception is the world’s best player, Novak Djokovic, who allowed his former analyst, Craig O’Shannessy, to speak publicly about their work together.
The bigger your database, the easier it is to supply reliable scouting reports on every opponent. GSA says it has an automated algorithm that “scrapes” data directly from TV coverage, but for the smaller operators, many thousands of hours have been spent on hand-tagging matches. The going rate for a one-off scouting report from these lesser outfits is $US300.
So what kinds of insight can a big company provide? “A lot of added value is obtained from using data richer than anything the human eye can detect,” says Ben Depoorter, GSA’s vice-president of player analytics. “Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking system generates millions of data points. And the insights that show up are not always what you might expect.
“Contrary to most expectations, Djokovic is outstanding with his backhand on fast returns hit towards his feet, and weaker on loopy balls that land short but with more of an angle, because he likes to hit on the rise. People come in with set ideas about what works – and the only way to disprove their preconceptions is with data.”
Source: The Telegraph, London
00Robhttps://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-LOGOWhisperer1024-300x300.pngRob2023-01-14 10:14:492023-01-14 10:14:49Moneyball Comes to Tennis
If you want to get better at tennis and improve your fitness, these gadgets maybe a starting point?
Tennis is a very physical sport. For example, the tennis serve represents a complex movement that requires muscles throughout the entire body to rotate in unison to deliver accuracy and power.
Whether you’re new to the game or a seasoned veteran looking to get just a little bit better, there are a handful of tech gadgets you should check out.
These gadgets can track and analyze your swing, keep track of the score, and measure the speed of your serves, among other things.
00Robhttps://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-LOGOWhisperer1024-300x300.pngRob2023-01-11 16:51:312023-01-11 16:51:316 Gadgets Which Improve Your Tennis (Maybe??)
I know this sounds pretty crazy, but you should not be trying to think while you are playing a point.
This idea goes against what our mind is telling us as well as what it is trying to do. We will usually have the tendency to try to work things out in our head during the exchange of shots in a point. Unfortunately, this will have a negative impact on all of the practice and training we have done, and it may cause us to make errors due to indecision.
It is much better to just play the point once it starts. [Just focus on bounce hit: Whisperer]
Before the point, choose one technique idea and one strategy idea to remind yourself how you would like to hit the ball and play the point.
After the point is over, assess what has just happened and repeat the one technique, one strategy idea. You may have to make some adjustments based on what the last point was like, but try to keep things simple.
On the changeovers you can have a little more detail in your own self-coaching, but overall, try not to over analyze.
Letting your body react automatically and instinctively gives you the best chance to execute your shot and play the point the way you want to. To do this, we need to have less going on in our head.
Don’t think during the point!
Steve Annacone, USPTA Pro
00Robhttps://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-LOGOWhisperer1024-300x300.pngRob2023-01-08 17:39:002023-01-08 17:39:00Don’t overthink each point | AskThePro
Too often, the average player’s focus is on their “Hardware” — coordinating muscles to hit the ball. True, for most, just coordinating your body to consistently hit the ball week in and week out is difficult to say the least. It quickly becomes very frustrating when playing in the wind, changing court surfaces or against, what I will call, an awkward opponent. And escalates even faster as we age and our muscles lose strength and coordination.
Our Hardware skills pathway includes three essential skills which underpin any tennis stroke: ball watching, balance and rhythm. The basic Tennis Whisperer program teaches the development of the core supporting muscles to both enhance those skills and prevent injury. As an example, just improving your ability to “really see the ball” rather than merely trying to “watch” it during play can go a long way to improving your consistency — at any age and stage of tennis. These basic skills can be taught or refreshed at any age.
But Hardware is only one part of the equation. Hardware is very much about muscles, joints and physical traits. “Software” is brain perception, action and decision making. Software is what often gives a player a head-start on those who might be physically stronger, quicker or, dare I say, younger! And from time to time, a win against the ‘better hitter’.
Your neural system is the third part of this equation, and in basic terms, connects a player’s “Software” to their “Hardware”.
Software should be view as a “Pyramid”. At its base be more aware of your end of the court: basic court positions when returning serve or covering the net. And the positions change depending on the opponent and the conditions. For the more powerful opponent, it’s better to play further back when returning serve — not only to give yourself a little more time to watch the ball, but more importantly to ensure you’re moving forward into the shot to stay on balance. This is why Nadal, one of the best players in the world, plays so far back to improves his balance by moving forward into each shot.
Moving up the Pyramid, and still at your end of the court, where you stand in the court, particularly in dubs, has a huge impact on your ability to stay in the point. For example, at ANY level of tennis, Tennis Physics means that EIGHTY PERCENT (80%) of shots fall in a two (metre) circle around the middle T of the serve line. Merely standing in that circle guarantees you’ll get a shot at most balls — you might not make the shot but you’ll be in the point.
As the Pyramid narrows, and looking at the opponent’s end of the court, action and decision-making comes to the fore. Your focus is on the Hardware of the opponent. Do they have any “obvious weaknesses” — not just the weaker backhand side but where do they consistently return the ball? Any physical limitations in running down lobs? Are they comfortable hitting volleys or overheads? Are they comfortable moving forward, backwards, sideways? What did you learn from the warm-up? [You didn’t try to win the warm-up, right??]
Even further up the Pyramid, and still at your opponent’s end of the court, your focus is on the opponent’s Software. How can you identify and find a way to exploit their limitations? Where do they stand in the court, to return serve, at the net etc? Do they stand too close to the net and therefore are suckers to a simple lob return? What’s their state of mind at different times of the match? Do they rush under pressure? Consistently miss first serves on game and tie breaker points?? How can you adjust your Software and Hardware to take full advantage of your observations during play??
And lastly, at the very Pyramid Top, and now we are back to your end of the court, what’s your decision-making style to analyze opponents during match play. It’s the rare player who can change their Hardware midpoint to hit a different shot under pressure. Even rarer, the player who can consistently play more than one type of game — to unsettle an opponent and match the conditions. For most of us, suffice to say, it’s better to rely on a simple ritual to prepare to play each point — at least to start out each point standing in the right position and with a calm mind.
Tennis is a great game. And you’ll get so much more enjoyment by NOT leaving your Software on the sidelines. And who knows, perhaps a few more wins.
00Robhttps://www.tenniswhisperer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-LOGOWhisperer1024-300x300.pngRob2022-12-19 14:08:022022-12-19 14:08:02Tennis Intelligence: It Takes Pyramid Power | ATP
23°C
What’s a Good Miss?
/in Ask the Pro/by RobI’ve heard you often refer to a lost point as “a good miss”? Why, you still lost the point!?
It’s understandable that you might question the idea of a “good miss” since losing a point is never ideal. However, the concept of a “good miss” is rooted in strategic thinking and risk management in tennis.
Statistics from Tennis Analytics show that hitting the ball into the net is one of the most common errors in tennis. If you study the table below, two lightbulb moments will jump out at you:
1. The vast majority of points, at any level of the game, are lost (typically 90% of points are lost!), and
2. Over 40% of those errors result from hitting the ball into the net.
By avoiding this FUNDAMENTAL error of hitting the ball into the net, players increase their chances of winning the point. Therefore, a “good miss” refers to a shot that does not result in a net error but may still end up out of court.
By aiming to avoid the net and hitting with margin, players can reduce the risk of making unforced errors and increase their chances of winning the point. Moreover, they give the opposition a change to miss and make an error.
Of course, a shot that lands in the ideal location is always the goal, but it’s not always achievable. In those situations, a “good miss” can be a strategic and effective approach to minimize mistakes.
In summary, a “good miss” is not about celebrating a lost point, but rather a strategy to minimize unforced errors and increase the likelihood of winning the point, and the match, in the long run.
What are some tips for coaching my child in singles? | AskThePro
/in Ask the Pro/by RobThis week’s question comes from a parent of a junior player. “Thank you very much for sharing your doubles strategies. What are some tips for coaching my child in singles?”
As a parent of a junior player, you may be wondering how to improve both your and your child’s singles play. Singles play requires a different set of skills and strategies to doubles play. Here are some practical tips to help your child improve their singles game:
Focus on the serve: A strong serve is critical in singles and can give your child a big advantage from the outset. Encourage your child to practice their serve regularly, and vary the placement, speed, and spin of their serves to keep their opponent guessing.
Play to your child’s strengths: Help your child identify their strengths and weaknesses, and encourage them to play to their strengths. For example, if your child has a strong forehand, encourage them to run around the ball to use it to dictate play. I call this the “Nadal Variation.”
Stay aggressive: In singles play, it’s important to stay aggressive without being overly aggressive and to take control of the match. Encourage your child to hit their shots with pace and depth to keep their opponent on the defensive and look for opportunities to move forward and finish points at the net.
Be patient: While staying aggressive, it’s important to be patient and wait for the right opportunities to attack. Encourage your child not to try to hit winners on every shot, but to play long rallies as/when required and force their opponent to make a mistake. To win the point, you have get into the point first!
Stay focused: Tennis is as much a mental game as it is a physical one, so it’s important to stay mentally focused and composed throughout the match. Encourage your child to stay positive and focused on the present moment and not to get too caught up in mistakes, talking to their opponent, or bad calls.
Adapt to your opponent: Encourage your child to see what’s happening with their opponent on the other side of the net and adapt their game to their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. If their opponent has a weak backhand, they can target that side of the court more often. If their opponent is a good net player, they can keep them back at the baseline with deep shots and lobs.
Be prepared to change your game: In some cases, your child’s game may not match up well against their opponent’s game. They may be overpowered. Encourage them to have a “Plan B” that may involve coming to the net to volley more often; hitting high, slow balls, or slow short balls to bring the opponent to the net, particularly if the opponent has an extreme Western grip. “Plan B” is never having to make the old chestnut excuses: ” I lost because I played badly” or “the other guy cheated”!
Remember, the real secret of the game is the player who hits the ball over the net and into the court the last time, wins the point!
With these strategies, your child will be well on their way to becoming a well-rounded tennis player who can play both singles and doubles at a high level, giving them a priceless gift of lifelong enjoyment and potential life long social connections through tennis.
Good luck!
Rob Tennis Whisperer
Ps: Questions always welcome.
What can I do to improve my tennis without making major changes in my game?
/in Ask the Pro/by RobThis week’s question comes from another mid level club member. “I play doubles at the club a couple of times a week. What can I do to improve my tennis without making major changes in my game?“
As an avid tennis player, you know that the key to success on the court is constant improvement. While you enjoy playing doubles at the club a couple of times a week, you also recognize that there are areas in your game that could use some work.
However, you don’t want to make any major changes that could throw off your entire game. So what can you do to improve your tennis without making any major changes?
First, start by assessing your strengths and weaknesses. Consider which parts of your game are already strong and which could use some improvement. For example:
Note these suggestions are simple and DO NOT require you to make major changes in your game!
In 1933, Mercer Beasley wrote a book titled “How to Play Tennis.” Beasley was the coach of the tennis legends of his time, including Vines, Austin, and Parker. In his book, Beasley outlined the three greatest tennis tips of all time: 1) Keep your eye on the ball, 2) Get your racket back as quickly as possible, and 3) Move your feet
Although there have been advancements in racket technology, court surfaces, and shot selection, the fundamentals of the game have remained unchanged. Our Whisperer Notes provide a timeless reference to elaborate these tennis tips. They may help you identify your area(s) of weakness, and the simple steps you can start to focus on improving them.
Finally, if you are willing to make an investment in $$$, and the time/frustration to change, you might consider taking a couple of private coaching lessons to get some expert advice on specific shot(s). A professional coach may help you identify areas for improvement and address them.
Remember, improving your tennis game is a continuous process that requires patience and dedication. By making small adjustments, at any age, you can improve your tennis without making any major changes to your overall game.
Good luck,
Rob Tennis Whisperer
Eight Keys to Competing
/in Ask the Pro/by RobI hear it all the time…a parent, coach, friend, or even the athlete themselves explain away poor behavior because “they are so competitive”. Or, “they don’t like to lose!”
Examples of competing poorly happen when we observe broken rackets, verbal abuse and, generally, a player going ballistic. Google Nick Kyrios top 10 ballistic moments to see a few examples. In all these situations, let’s be clear, there is nothing competitive going on! Being competitive is about focus, adversity management, regaining calm, and never giving up. Certainly, when a player gets defaulted, they have given up their choice to be competitive. And when the player goes ballistic, they also are not focused, and managing adversity. If they were being competitive, then the player would be focused on what’s important now (W.I.N) at that moment in the match.
So, what does it mean to compete? Just look at Rafael Nadal’s entire career and especially the 2022 Australian Open come back against Daniil Medvedev, few would argue the importance of competing consistently in achieving long-term success.
I’d like to highlight eight keys that indicate a true competitor.
1. Focus on what you can control: A competitor stays focused on what they can control: such as effort, energy, patterns, routines, attitude, breathing, and bouncing back from adversity—to name a few. They understand that they cannot control how well their opponent plays, court conditions, winning, losing, and their draw.
2. Humility /Sportsmanship: It’s important that an athlete respects themselves, their opponent, and the game. Their focus is on trying their best. A competitor plays with belief but checks their ego at the door. This allows them to play free and adjust to situations. They acknowledge their opponent for putting him or herself on the line and understand that their opponent is not an enemy. Rather, they view them as a challenge, an opportunity, and a partner that is necessary to take their game to the next level.
3. Respect for the process: A competitor understands that their development is a process, and while a loss may hurt in the short term, there are lessons that can be learned. They see setbacks and losses as an opportunity to grow, not as a problem.
4. Never, ever, ever, ever give up: A competitor never gives up. A true competitor understands that not every day is going to bring top-level performance. Perfection is not even possible. Such a player cam embrace adversity, especially the adversity of having to figure out what to do when their game is not on. A true competitor doesn’t mind winning a tight, or even ugly, contest. They have perspective; they prioritize learning from the experience over the result.
5. Adapt and adjust to situations: Constantly adjusting and adapting within a match is imperative. Momentum shifts are a given in a tennis match. What’s most important is to be aware of what is happening and adjust and adapt. Too often in the heat of competition, athletes get caught up solely on the result. This singular focus takes them away from akey question: What do I need to do now, or to get back in the match?
6. Be ok with being uncomfortable: A competitor understands that during competition they may have to take a calculated risk, try something new, or hit a shot not quite the way they would ideally like to. They understand the idea of being ok being uncomfortable
7. Be aware and make high percentage choices: A competitor makes high-percentage choices during all stages of their competition. For example, they don’t try to hit a screaming winner down the line that may appear on ESPN, rather they counter with a neutral shot that will get them back in the point. Usually, the best choice is to stay patient, stay in the point until an opportunity presents itself.
8. Learn from mistakes: Mistakes are only bad if the player does not learn from them. Mistakes provide a player the opportunity to learn and adjust, essentially correcting their mistakes from the previous setback. Nothing great was ever achieved without mistakes.
source: Compete: The Key to W.I.N’ing | Long Island Tennis Magazine https://longislandtennismagazine.com/compete-key-wining
Core Values that Tennis Teaches
/in Ask the Pro/by RobIt may be the oldest question about sports… Does tennis teach character or reveal it?
Some would answer both or even neither, but after coaching for more than 40 years now. I have come to a conclusion based on more than 65,000 hours of teaching tennis on the court.
Tennis CAN teach character, but only if it is intentional. The coach needs to have character as one of the pillars of his teaching philosophy.
Studies show that sports participation does NOT in and of itself teach character. In fact, studies show that the more time and energy athletes put in to becoming elite, that more likely they may be in justify cheating.
Just looking at the professional world of sports and you can see many examples of this happening from using illegal performance enhancing drugs as an obvious example.
Today we have a multitude of players that feel like they are failures because they don’t win as often as they think they should. A big reason is that players have been taught by peers, parents, and coaches, that winning is the ultimate goal.
Instead, we need to realize that tennis is a nearly perfect vehicle to teach players the many life lessons that are so important for all champions to learn.
Below is a list of these core values that tennis COULD teach, if the coach is intentional:
1. CHARACTER: Through the responsibilities each player has to call the lines on their side of the court, keep score accurately, and give the opponent the benefit of the doubt, tennis offers a great opportunity for players to build character.
A player’s character can also be seen in the way they keep score during a drill or even by their line calls while they drill. Good coaches can be very helpful if they can get the players to realize that their self-worth as a person has nothing to do with how well they strike a little yellow ball.
2. COURAGE: Tennis gives players the opportunity to play through tough times. The one-on-one style of competition certainly requires the guts to put it on the line. Few other sports require as much courage from their youngest athletes as tennis does in this area. Another example is when players find it necessary to confront or question someone that is cheating them.
How many times have we seen players avoid that uncomfortable job, only to wait until the match is over to tell the entire world how their opponent was the biggest cheater on the planet? Think of it, aren’t those skills the exact ones that will best serve the players in their adult life? It’s all about how you look at the situation.
Some will think this is an awful burden that no young player should have to endure, while others recognize it as a great opportunity to teach an important life lesson and skill.
3. HONESTY: Tennis is one of the only sports where the players make calls on each other’s shots. Can you imagine a Little League game where the batter calls the balls and strikes? Although this huge responsibility in the hands of immature competitors can and has caused problems, no other sport allows for the development of honesty like tennis does.
Parents and coaches can facilitate the development of this core value if they seek out opportunities to compliment players when the players get it right.
4. SPORTSMANSHIP: Like in other sports, tennis players will play opponents that are jerks and try to cheat. In the short run, this is uncomfortable for players and parents, but it does give young kids the chance to start to develop coping skills with these kinds of people.
I know many competitive junior players are mature beyond their peers in this area simply because they have had more chances to practice these skills than non-tennis players. Parents should view these episodes as opportunities and resist the urge to get involved and “save” the child.
5. INTEGRITY: More than any other sport, tennis has the potential for “retaliatory” calls because it allows for your opponent to make calls that directly affect you. There will be times when people get cheated, whether on purpose or by honest mistake. How a player reacts to these times offers the player a chance to test and prove their integrity.
Will they get even, or will they do the right thing despite the opponent’s actions? Refusing to retaliate will teach players that they should avoid situational ethics by refusing to get even “because he did it to me first”.Players that succeed in this area can have a profound sense of satisfaction even if they lose the match, but only if a coach or parent is dedicated to looking for and rewarding their successes in this area.
6. COMMITMENT: Reaching the highest level of tennis requires a great deal of commitment on the player’s part. The lessons of self-discipline and delayed gratification are great life lessons that will surely serve the player later in life.
Even within a player’s game, they will need to make decisions to try new techniques that may hurt them in the short run. Commitment to these new techniques is critical for future tennis success and teaches a valuable life lesson that players will surely benefit from as adults.
7. HUMILITY: Through competition and partaking in drill classes, players soon come to realize people do not look upon arrogance very highly. Tennis offers players the chance to learn the difference between arrogance and confidence.
Team settings and class settings are the best arenas for players to learn this. Parents and coaches can not shun their responsibility to tell players when they are acting arrogantly.
8. EXCELLENCE: I believe the practice court is the best arena to teach players to strive for excellence. Many players find it difficult to practice with the proper level of intensity after a long day at school.
These challenges are similar to the ones they will have in college, and ultimately when they enter the workforce and become parents. The ability to work hard when you don’t feel like it is a major life lesson in the area of striving for excellence.
If we can produce players that strive to excel in these areas and look at tennis as a vehicle to become a better person, then they will have learned valuable life lessons and in the process experience less stress in competition.
This is because they will no longer view the “win” as the ultimate goal. Instead, they will be aiming at a more important target. Almost every tough loss in tennis can be a victory if the player is tuned into the life lessons that tennis offers.
Jorge Capestany, USPTA Master Professional
WHY TENNIS IS THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST SPORT!
/in Ask the Pro/by RobSeven Basics of Tennis Strategy | ATP
/in Ask the Pro, Whisperer/by RobCraig O’Shannessy is a well known tennis statistician. He recently republished the stats below in the context of the Australian Open.
Our Tennis Whisperer attempts to explain the WHYs underlining Craig’s stats in simple terms of the three primary skills underpinning every tennis stroke: ball watching, balance and rhythm . [See WHY comments in these brackets].
These are the seven basics of tennis strategy and, as always, they will be the key to winning at this year’s Australian Open.
Lesson 1: Forehands and Backhands
Nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic has arguably the best backhand in the world. But who cares.
When Djokovic last won the “Happy Slam” in 2021, he struck 98 forehand winners and 45 backhand winners. That’s why you see players running around backhands to hit forehands. They desperately seek to upgrade.
The forehand is the sword. The backhand is the shield. The sword accounts for about two out of every three winners from the back of the court.
Forehand and backhand winners
[Whisperer: The NADAL VARIATION creates more extreme angles because of the racket position in relation to body.]
Lesson 2: Tennis is a game of errors
The Australian Open features the best players on the planet, who rally back and forth ad nauseam on the practice court with precious few mistakes. Then matches start, and errors flow.
Winners and errors
Winners are rising at Melbourne Park, jumping from 30 per cent for the men in 2015 to 34 per cent last year. In the women’s game, there was a jump from 27 per cent in 2015 to 30 per cent in 2022.
Because errors are so prevalent, it’s much smarter to make opponents uncomfortable and force mistakes than chase winners. Obsess over the bigger pool of points.
[Whisperer: Minimizing errors by staying in the point has always consistently won more points. ]
Lesson 3: Eight ways to force an error
There are actually eight ways to make the opponent uncomfortable and extract an error.
[Whisperer: WHY explained in Where column of the three primary skills in any stroke: ball watching, balance, rhythm—strength is NOT necessarily the key.]
Eight ways to force an error
These eight elements are the holy grail of tennis. If a player hits a shot that contains just one of these eight, such as depth, they will have gained the upper hand in the point.
If their shot includes two or more qualities, such as power and direction, they will be standing inside the baseline hitting with authority when the weak ball comes back.
If they combine three elements – such as height, spin and court position – the ball doesn’t come back.
Lesson 4: Rally length
Winning the short rallies is the best way to walk off court with a victory. The study of rally length started at the 2015 Australian Open and shook the foundations of the sport because of just how many short rallies occur.
Rally length
[Whisperer: Impact of powerful racket technology and advantage to server. Corollary: get into the point as much as possible. Use typical Djokovic/Medvedev strategy of deep returns to put server off balance to nullify server advantage.]
Rally length is predicated on the ball landing in the court, not hitting the strings. So a double fault has a rally length of zero as the ball didn’t land in, and a missed return is a rally length of one as the serve went in and the return was missed.
Seven points out of 10 are contested by players hitting the ball a maximum of two times each (four-shot rallies) in the court.
The data also blew the doors off the myth that winning long rallies equated to winning matches. There are, typically, not enough long rallies to make a difference.
Lesson 5: Mode
The mode simply means the most common value in a data set. We can predict with certainty that the most abundant rally length at this year’s Australian Open will be the same as last year, and the year before that. One shot in the court. No more. No less.
Ask someone which rally length is the most frequent, and the typical answers are from four to eight shots. You can tell them that Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray thought they played more four-shot rallies than anything else. They were very surprised, like all players, that they play more one-shot rallies than any other. That equates to a made serve and a missed return.
2015 Australian Open men: Most common rally lengths
As you can see from the table above, one-shot rallies are incredibly frequent in a match (30 per cent). The next closest rally length is three shots at 15 per cent.
Notice that three-shot rallies occur more than two shots, and five-shot rallies occur more than four shots. That’s because of the halo effect of the serve, or how long the influence of the serve lasts before things become even in a rally.
[To repeat. Whisperer: Impact of powerful racket technology and advantage to server. Corollary: get into the point as much as possible. Use Djokovic /Medvedev strategy of deep returns to nullify server advantage.]
Lesson 6: You win a higher percentage at the net than the baseline
The baseline seems like a safe haven for players, while the net seems a risky place to win points. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The baseline as a safe haven?
If you rally from the back of the court, you are lucky to win half of your baseline points.
[WHISPERER: Volleys are an ESSENTIAL stroke for any serious tennis player, and particular for junior development, not an afterthought. Moving forward to the net (from GHOSTLINE) wins about two out of three points.]
The net has always been a fun, prosperous place to win points and nothing has changed statistically to think otherwise.
Lesson 7: Serve and Volley works
No tennis strategy has been more maligned and misunderstood than the serve and volley. Pundits say it belongs to another era and is too difficult to employ in today’s game. It’s simply not so.
Serve and volley works
Both men and women won about two out of three points serving and volleying at last year’s Australian Open.
That is a far superior tactic than serving, staying back and trying to eke out a living from the baseline to hold serve.
[WHISPERER: Enhances probability of winning the point because of the geometry and physics of relative court positions of each player]
Tennis Whisperer
Source: Craig O’Shannessy, SMH
Moneyball Comes to Tennis
/in Ask the Pro, Goss/by RobTennis is on the verge of a belated Moneyball revolution. In the northern spring, the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs the men’s tour, is planning to open up ball-tracking data from every match to all its players and coaches.
The shift will do much to level an uneven playing field. Until now, millionaire players such as the “Big Four” men have had the opportunity to buy better-quality data analysis than their less wealthy rivals.
One might imagine that access to data would be a basic right for all leading professionals. In fact, anyone wanting to use the information gathered by Hawk-Eye, the leading ball-tracking provider since 2014, has had to pay a £150 ($263) processing fee per match. On top of that, tour rules say you can order data only from matches you played in.
In April, this will change. “We want to give players more equal access to this information,” says Ross Hutchins, the Association of Tennis Professionals’ chief tour officer. “We believe it will improve performance levels. We are looking to bring player and ball-tracking online from every ATP tournament. We’re hoping to make this happen by the second quarter of 2023, and then bring in wearable technology, such as heart monitors and GPS location devices, by the second half of the year.”
Despite the relatively large amount of money at stake, tennis must rank as one of the most backward major sports when it comes to sophisticated data analysis, mainly because there are few economies of scale.
Six-figure sums for data
If you are lucky enough to come from a grand-slam nation such as Great Britain or the United States, you can usually dip into your federation’s sizeable dataset. Otherwise, the only way to gain access to more than a tiny percentage of matches is to hire one of the big analytical companies, such as Golden Set Analytics (GSA), which used to charge Roger Federer a six-figure sum annually for exclusive access to its scouting and performance reports.
“In tennis, the teams are smaller than most other sports, and almost everything has to come out of the player’s pocket,” says Philip Mauerhofer, who runs a well-regarded analytics firm called Tennis Stat. “Unless you’re at the top of the game, adding more expenditure to your coaching and your physio and your fitness training is always going to be a stretch. So to have a trove of data available on every player would be a game-changer.”
Agent Patricio Apey welcomed the ATP plan. One of Apey’s clients – America’s Sebastian Korda – has been able to benefit from his close relationship with the United States Tennis Association, which logs all the information from its home tournaments and has a data-pooling deal with Tennis Australia.
But another of Apey’s stable – Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas – has had no such support. Tsitsipas thus needs to spend considerably more to gain the same level of tactical insight. As a top-five player, he can probably afford the difference. Those lower down the ladder are not always so fortunate.
“I’m cautiously hopeful that the governing bodies will see that making this information available to all players and their teams will only make the sport better,” Apey says. “Look at how sophisticated Formula One is when it comes to using data. Maybe in the future we will see cutting-edge analysts in the player boxes doing their work in real time and passing useful feedback to coaches and players during matches.”
Test run for courtside coaching
Tennis has many governing bodies, and at the moment only the Association of Tennis Professionals – as opposed to the grand slams and the Women’s Tennis Association – is committed to opening up its dataset. But the scenario Apey mentions is already here, even if it was used only on an experimental level at last November’s ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan, where coaches were allowed to advise their players during matches, as is becoming the norm on the ATP Tour, and at the two hard-court slams. They were also given an electronic tablet showing live data from the match as it progressed.
“It was challenging to use at first,” says James Trotman, the British coach whose player, Jack Draper, was eliminated in the semi-finals of that event. “There was so much data, whether it be the direction of the serve, the accuracy of the return, or the speed of each player’s forehands and backhands.
“I had to keep it simple, so I just focused on the first of those categories. There was one opponent who was always serving in the same place, so when it came to the tie-break I was able to tell Jack to sit on that return, which helped a great deal.”
Four years ago, Germany’s No. 1 Alexander Zverev said that “all the big guys are using data analysis, they just don’t like to talk about it” – and leading players are still coy about their data support. A rare exception is the world’s best player, Novak Djokovic, who allowed his former analyst, Craig O’Shannessy, to speak publicly about their work together.
The bigger your database, the easier it is to supply reliable scouting reports on every opponent. GSA says it has an automated algorithm that “scrapes” data directly from TV coverage, but for the smaller operators, many thousands of hours have been spent on hand-tagging matches. The going rate for a one-off scouting report from these lesser outfits is $US300.
So what kinds of insight can a big company provide? “A lot of added value is obtained from using data richer than anything the human eye can detect,” says Ben Depoorter, GSA’s vice-president of player analytics. “Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking system generates millions of data points. And the insights that show up are not always what you might expect.
“Contrary to most expectations, Djokovic is outstanding with his backhand on fast returns hit towards his feet, and weaker on loopy balls that land short but with more of an angle, because he likes to hit on the rise. People come in with set ideas about what works – and the only way to disprove their preconceptions is with data.”
Source: The Telegraph, London
6 Gadgets Which Improve Your Tennis (Maybe??)
/in Ask the Pro, Goss/by RobIf you want to get better at tennis and improve your fitness, these gadgets maybe a starting point?
Tennis is a very physical sport. For example, the tennis serve represents a complex movement that requires muscles throughout the entire body to rotate in unison to deliver accuracy and power.
Whether you’re new to the game or a seasoned veteran looking to get just a little bit better, there are a handful of tech gadgets you should check out.
These gadgets can track and analyze your swing, keep track of the score, and measure the speed of your serves, among other things.
1. Sony Smart Tennis Sensor
2. Zepp Tennis Swing Analyzer
3. Babolat Pop Tennis Wristband
4. Ball Coach Pocket Radar
5. Hit Zone Air Suspension Tee
6. Scoreband Play Wristband
Read more –>
Don’t overthink each point | AskThePro
/in Ask the Pro, News/by RobI know this sounds pretty crazy, but you should not be trying to think while you are playing a point.
This idea goes against what our mind is telling us as well as what it is trying to do. We will usually have the tendency to try to work things out in our head during the exchange of shots in a point. Unfortunately, this will have a negative impact on all of the practice and training we have done, and it may cause us to make errors due to indecision.
It is much better to just play the point once it starts. [Just focus on bounce hit: Whisperer]
Before the point, choose one technique idea and one strategy idea to remind yourself how you would like to hit the ball and play the point.
After the point is over, assess what has just happened and repeat the one technique, one strategy idea. You may have to make some adjustments based on what the last point was like, but try to keep things simple.
On the changeovers you can have a little more detail in your own self-coaching, but overall, try not to over analyze.
Letting your body react automatically and instinctively gives you the best chance to execute your shot and play the point the way you want to. To do this, we need to have less going on in our head.
Don’t think during the point!
Steve Annacone, USPTA Pro
MLTC Seaside Results
/in Ask the Pro, Whisperer/by RobCongrats to a number of our club members who did very well. Bede, Matthew & Milton were amongst the event winners.
Tony Vo [1]
Lochie Mortensen [6]
Bruce Hinchcliffe [3]
Sylvain Sommacal [8]
Adam Walters [3]
Joel Hieswanto [5]
Nicholas Tozer
Luka Drazic
Petar Vuceta
Daniel Curran
Jesse Gothelf [2]
Minhoon Lee
Matthew Curtis [6]
Eitan Smith [4]
Lachlan Ming
Matthew Baker
James Nicols
Scott Browne
Adam Tomka
Ethan Elliott
Patrick Jonathan Anderson
Michael Ian Ridley Taylor [3]
Zedrick Chan
Mahim Khan [2]
Cameron Edward Smith [3]
Eric Tripathi [8]
Jordan Smith [1]
Sam Wensley
Matthew Holl
Jay Andrijic [2]
Nathan Boniel
Ashton Mcleod
Damien Connelly [1]
Elton Richard Stoney
Wayne Pascoe [4]
Tim Sedgwick [5]
Kirsty White [1]
Payal Chandra [2]
Ashleigh eve Robson
Shelley Parsons
Amy Gray
Ashlee Narker [3]
Zarifa Ahmed
Linda Huang [2]
Natalie Gaft [5]
Ruby Quigley
Renee Mcbryde [1]
Kalina Aleksandrov
James Delohery [2]
Andrew Stevens
Ryan Ataii
Lochie Mortensen
Brett Harris [1]
Tony Vo
Aaron Tian [3]
Adam Tomka
Matthew Curtis [1]
Bede Kirwan
Arden Asilo
Geoff Asilo
Byron Waller [2]
Gavin Waller
Eitan Smith
Minh Vu
Joel Hieswanto [2]
Sam Wensley
Nicholas Connellan
Reagan Cooke
Matthew Holl
Chen Liang
Leroy Sze
Nicholas Tozer
Blake Smith [4]
Cameron Edward Smith
Paul Howe [3]
Eric Tripathi
Jay Andrijic [1]
Jordan Smith
Nicholas Turnham
Dimitri Vidin
Milton Da Rocha
Wayne Pascoe
Andy William Phelan
Clive Wilkinson
Manuel Radic [1]
Greg Westwood
Tim Sedgwick [2]
Matt Taylor
Michaela Haet [1]
Renee Mcbryde
Tyra Calderwood [2]
Ashlee Narker
Lia Koulias [4]
Sofia Thorne
Melissa Anderson [3]
Lucia Gonzalez
Kirsty White [2]
William Alan Yang
Ruby Quigley
Bede Kirwan
Lisa A Hartley [1]
Adrian Sturrock
Shelley Parsons
Tim Sedgwick
Linda Huang [2]
Adrian Correa
Tyra Calderwood [1]
Jay Andrijic
Susannah Su [4]
Luke Mcmillan
Hannah Taleb
Daniel Jankoski
Tennis Intelligence: It Takes Pyramid Power | ATP
/in Ask the Pro, Whisperer/by RobToo often, the average player’s focus is on their “Hardware” — coordinating muscles to hit the ball. True, for most, just coordinating your body to consistently hit the ball week in and week out is difficult to say the least. It quickly becomes very frustrating when playing in the wind, changing court surfaces or against, what I will call, an awkward opponent. And escalates even faster as we age and our muscles lose strength and coordination.
Our Hardware skills pathway includes three essential skills which underpin any tennis stroke: ball watching, balance and rhythm. The basic Tennis Whisperer program teaches the development of the core supporting muscles to both enhance those skills and prevent injury. As an example, just improving your ability to “really see the ball” rather than merely trying to “watch” it during play can go a long way to improving your consistency — at any age and stage of tennis. These basic skills can be taught or refreshed at any age.
But Hardware is only one part of the equation. Hardware is very much about muscles, joints and physical traits. “Software” is brain perception, action and decision making. Software is what often gives a player a head-start on those who might be physically stronger, quicker or, dare I say, younger! And from time to time, a win against the ‘better hitter’.
Your neural system is the third part of this equation, and in basic terms, connects a player’s “Software” to their “Hardware”.
Software should be view as a “Pyramid”. At its base be more aware of your end of the court: basic court positions when returning serve or covering the net. And the positions change depending on the opponent and the conditions. For the more powerful opponent, it’s better to play further back when returning serve — not only to give yourself a little more time to watch the ball, but more importantly to ensure you’re moving forward into the shot to stay on balance. This is why Nadal, one of the best players in the world, plays so far back to improves his balance by moving forward into each shot.
Moving up the Pyramid, and still at your end of the court, where you stand in the court, particularly in dubs, has a huge impact on your ability to stay in the point. For example, at ANY level of tennis, Tennis Physics means that EIGHTY PERCENT (80%) of shots fall in a two (metre) circle around the middle T of the serve line. Merely standing in that circle guarantees you’ll get a shot at most balls — you might not make the shot but you’ll be in the point.
As the Pyramid narrows, and looking at the opponent’s end of the court, action and decision-making comes to the fore. Your focus is on the Hardware of the opponent. Do they have any “obvious weaknesses” — not just the weaker backhand side but where do they consistently return the ball? Any physical limitations in running down lobs? Are they comfortable hitting volleys or overheads? Are they comfortable moving forward, backwards, sideways? What did you learn from the warm-up? [You didn’t try to win the warm-up, right??]
Even further up the Pyramid, and still at your opponent’s end of the court, your focus is on the opponent’s Software. How can you identify and find a way to exploit their limitations? Where do they stand in the court, to return serve, at the net etc? Do they stand too close to the net and therefore are suckers to a simple lob return? What’s their state of mind at different times of the match? Do they rush under pressure? Consistently miss first serves on game and tie breaker points?? How can you adjust your Software and Hardware to take full advantage of your observations during play??
And lastly, at the very Pyramid Top, and now we are back to your end of the court, what’s your decision-making style to analyze opponents during match play. It’s the rare player who can change their Hardware midpoint to hit a different shot under pressure. Even rarer, the player who can consistently play more than one type of game — to unsettle an opponent and match the conditions. For most of us, suffice to say, it’s better to rely on a simple ritual to prepare to play each point — at least to start out each point standing in the right position and with a calm mind.
Tennis is a great game. And you’ll get so much more enjoyment by NOT leaving your Software on the sidelines. And who knows, perhaps a few more wins.
© Rob Muir, USPTA
Tennis Whisperer