Wednesday, 13 May 2015 / Published in Tennis

Matches > Practice

Too many players excel at practice. Who cares…

G’day!

I can’t tell you how pumped I am to go to Waco tomorrow for the NCAA Championships – Men’s Rd16 at Baylor. It’s a nice, easy 90 minute drive from Austin to see an incredible day of tennis.

I have said it before, and I am going to say it again here – the NCAA Round of 16 is one of the Top 10 TENNIS days of the entire year. Period. Anywhere. It’s that good. If you are going to be there, please come and say hello – love to catch up.

Practice vs Competition

I was chatting with a coach recently, and we were talking about the state of junior tennis, particularly in the U.S., and he was saying he greatly enjoyed the 25 Golden Rules of Singles because it provided tools for his players to win more matches with. Somewhat jokingly, he said too often his players looked fantastic in practice, had outstanding technique, but could’t win a match. Sound familiar?

Num3ers exposes the fundamental difference between practice & matches.

The primary focus of practice is long rallies.

The primary focus of matches are short rallies.

Let’s look at the Practice Court: Consistency must be trained. Repetition must be built. Shot tolerance must be developed. If you don’t have consistency, if you miss too much, you have not even ticked the first box – which is “I can get the ball in the court.”

But here’s where things get sideways. It becomes overkill, an unhealthy obsession with mindless rallying. Once you are proficient in this area, don’t beat it to death. Banging up and down the middle of the court may look great in practice, but it’s not winning you titles.

Let’s look at the Match Court: Rallies are typically short. What greatly matters here is the serve and return. Doing well in these two areas helps you get to the extended rallies you have redundently overloaded on in practice. The primary problem is that points in a match are mostly short – they just don’t mirror the practice court routine. Average rally length is under 5 shots in most cases, and sometimes even under four shots. Here’s 5 examples of average rally length from the 2015 Australian Open that will make you wonder why you just hit your 10th backhand in a row in practice.

Rd16 Raonic v Lopex = 2.7 shots
Final Williams v Sharapova = 3.1 shots
Rd16 Sharapova v Peng = 3.2 shots
Djokovic v Muller = 3.5 shots
Serena v Cibulkova = 3.3 shots

GO DO THIS

Don’t spend 90% of your time on the practice court trying to develop something that happens less than 10% of the time in a match (long rallies).
Work on your serve. Especially work on your second serve.
Practice a ton more returns. It is practiced the least, but always has a significant impact on the final outcome. Give it some love.

Put matches first. Figure out what needs improving, and then spend your time on the practice court specifically working on building strengths and fixing weaknesses that actually occurred in a match.

Let’s stop wasting our time on the practice court.

Get smarter. Know the facts. Know the Num3ers, and make practice count for something.

All the best,

Craig

The practice court is clearly broken. Here’s the proof.

Points are "front loaded". By far the majority of the action, and the winning, takes place in THE FIRST 4 SHOTS. The practice court is full of long rallies. Matches are dominated by short rallies. There is a massive disconnect occurring.

We spend too much time grinding, banging balls up and down the middle of the court – that have no real benefit to winning tennis matches.

There are 3 specific rally lengths in tennis. Here is their percentage breakdown of total points.

0-4 Shots = 70%
5-8 Shots = 20%
9+ Shots = 10%

The First 4 Shots is specifically the serve, return, Serve +1 groundstroke and Return +1 groundstroke. Those are normally the shots that get practiced the least, but matter the most to winning tennis matches.

The net is an extremely high percentage place to be!

If you love playing tennis for fun, spend as much time at the baseline as you like. But if you compete – if the score matters – then you must turn your attention to the net to maximize your potential.

The “herd mentality” in tennis thinks it’s too tough to approach the net in today’s game. The conversation starts with improved string technology, more powerful rackets, and finishes with stronger, faster athletes. The herd think approaching is a relic of the past. The herd is WRONG!

AVERAGE WIN %
Baseline = 46%
Net = 66%

Data from ALL Grand Slams provides the facts about approach and volley, and the data is crystal clear – it’s immensely better than staying back at the baseline, grinding for a living.

The baseline is a tough place to create separation. Here's how to do it.

At the 2012 US Open, only 7 men and 14 women had a winning percentage from the baseline. At Wimbledon 2016, Andy Murray won the title only winning 52% of his baseline points - and he is one of the very best at it in the world!

Num3ers deeply explores the data that rules points, especially from the back of the court. Take a "deep dive" into all three rally lengths (0-4, 5-8, 9+), and winner and errors totals from the elite level of our game. The numbers will shock you!

All 4 Grand Slams

Forcing Errors = 41% Men / 37% Women
Winners = 32% Men / 29% Women
Unforced Errors = 27% Men / 34% Women

Num3ers is very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. It's about bringing together different data sets together to create the big picture.

Every recorded match from the 2015 Australian Open - Rd2 to the final.

There is a lot happening on a doubles court. Situations and strategies are constantly being adjusted to create mis-matches with court position. It's hard to keep track of - until now. Dou8les Num3ers is the most comprehensive analysis of doubles data in our sport. The focus is on how a point ends, and it's broken down eight ways to Sunday. Specifically, you find critical information on:

Winners rise to the #1 way a point ends (over forced & unforced errors)

- The last shot of the rally is overwhelmingly struck at the net.
- Center Window: the most important part of a doubles court to control.
- Stephen Huss: an in-depth interview on Wimbledon's Centre Court with the 2005 Wimbledon Doubles Champion.

Dou8les Num3ers leaves no stone unturned. Percentage breakdowns of how often the server or receiver hits the last shot highlight the dramatic influence of the serve. The last shot of the rally is significant, and is broken down into the following categories: volleys, overheads, passing shots, lobs and groundstrokes.

When you play a match, you actually play two matches.

When you walk out onto a tennis court, there are two matches that you are about to play. The first is during the point - a part of the match that you have spent a lot of time preparing for on the practice court. But there is a second match, that takes place in the 20 seconds between the points. This is where the mental and emotional aspects of our sport kick in.

Let's face it, there will be adversity in almost every tennis match that you play. The storm clouds are coming. How bug they are, and how long they last for, are up to you.

Between the points is very tennis specific. It provides a roadmap for the 20 seconds between the points, teaching how to handle the adversity that will surely come, and how to build on the successes that will also be present. Your mind is your biggest asset in a match, and Between the Points takes your hand off the self destruct button and stops you beating yourself.

You don't have to be good at everything, but you have got to be good at something.

You can break tennis down into four key elements - serving, returning, rallying and approaching. Each part has specific patterns of play that consistently deliver higher winning percentages than the others. No more guessing. No more opinions. All facets of our sport are covered in this exceptional product, clearly outlining what patterns to gravitate to, and how to best construct the practice court. Data comes primarily from the 2015 Australian Open.

Building Blocks

MEN = 70% errors / 30% winners
WOMEN = 74% errors / 26% winners

Forcing errors is the best way to construct a point.
You can simply break tennis down into primary and secondary patterns of play - and they are all covered here. Primary patterns include serve and return direction, forehands v backhands, and the best way to approach the net. Secondary patterns include drop shots, serve & volley and 1st volley options. If you play tournaments, this product will greatly help you simplify the singles court.

The conversation starts & ends with the Center Window.

The doubles court is like an hourglass. There are two big ends, but a small neck in the middle where all the action happens. Once you learn the power of the Center Window, where you stand to start the point will take on a lot more significance.

Doubles is a lot more about situations, with four people on the court all "dancing" with one another. Learn all the best doubles patterns, broken down for the server, returner, server's partner and the returner's partner.

Doubles Situations

The "J" - the most ideal movement for the returner's partner to attack the net.

The "V" - a better way of understanding where the server's partner should move to.

Volley Targets - there are four main areas to attack. Know which ones are higher percentage. Beach Volleyball - the idea of a "setter" and "spiker" is ideal for the doubles court.

There are certain parts of the court that the ball travels to a lot, and other low percentage areas that you really don't want to cover at all - like the alley! In general, the serving team wants to keep the ball in the middle of the court as much as possible (to help the server's partner), while the returning team benefits from hitting wider and creating more chaos in the point.

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Matches > Practice

Too many players excel at practice. Who cares…

G’day!

GO DO THIS