Monday, 05 June 2017 / Published in Strategy Courses

You Are Facing A Nasty Can Opener…

Don’t Stand In The Wrong Spot.

Rafa is a lefty. He likes to serve wide in the Ad. “Like” is an understatement…

G’day from Roland Garros 🙂

Rafael Nadal defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Court Suzanne Lenglen yesterday. Roberto is currently No. 18 in the world – with a career-high of No. 13 in October 2016. He is one of the best clay-court players in the game and has five ATP World Tour titles to his name, coming on clay, hard, and grass. He is rock solid.

It was such a pleasure to sit a few rows back and watch Rafa in full flight against Roberto yesterday. Rafa was dominant in all areas of the game. He clobbered 18 forehand winners, won 11/18 at the net, and won an outrageous 73% (19/26) behind his second serve. He is seeing the ball like a watermelon.

But something kept bothering me – something out of place. I went back through the photos I took and found it. The out of place was… Roberto.

In the Ad court, Roberto was standing to return serve like he was playing a right-hander – not the premier left-hander in the world!

Every time Rafa began the point serving in the Ad court, everyone knew that out wide was the primary target. He has one of the nastiest sliders in the game, pulling the returner out wide past the doubles alley to return serve.

It’s what he does best. I know it. Rafa knows it. The guy selling chilled champagne right outside the stadium knows it as well. Everyone seemed to know it… but Roberto.

Firstly, let’s consider where Rafa DID hit first serves for the match.

Rafael Nadal – 1st Serve Location

1St Serve Location	Deuce Court	Ad Court
Wide	7	15
Body	7	3
Center	8	2

Rafa stuck to the gameplan – like glue. He constantly served out wide in the Ad court and reaped the benefits of his favorite strategy. Why? Was it because he just hit his spots all day? Or was there something more to it – something more to do with Roberto?

Here’s the breakdown of Rafa’s 1st Serves Made & WON from the Ad court.

WIDE – 15 Serves Made – 14 Points Won
BODY – 3 Serves Made – 1 Point Won
CENTER – 2 Serves Made – 1 Point Won

This is crystal clear. Nadal owned the Ad court because he owned the wide serve. Was Roberto sitting on it, trying to take it away? Actually, just the opposite…

PICTURE 1

Roberto is standing well inside the SINGLES line to return serve! How is that possible? He should be all the way in the alley – in fact, both feet standing in the alley to “visually” take away the wide slider. It also lets him lean forward on the return instead of leaning sideways to hit it. An important point to remember is that you can’t cover everything – you can’t successfully cover out wide and down the center. Roberto needed to shut down the wide serve first and foremost. You simply can’t from THAT starting position.

PICTURE 2

This is what Nadal sees. He sees a wide-open space out to the backhand to make a first serve – that he will then follow up with a Serve +1 forehand. The point is basically over right there. Pour the Veuve Clicquot please…

PICTURE 3

Here’s another example, with Roberto standing even further to the middle – covering the middle first! This serve went wide, and Roberto lost the point. That pattern happened again and again for Rafa yesterday.

PICTURE 4

What’s so weird is where Roberto stood to return in the Deuce court. He actually had a foot in the alley, but the majority of first serves went down the center.

PICTURE 5

Lastly, let’s take a look at Nadal returning in the Deuce court against Roberto’s natural righty slice serve out wide. Rafa is absolutely taking the serve away with his court position. THIS is what Roberto failed to do with Rafa serving in the Ad court.

This error happens all over the world, every day, with players at all levels of the game. We stand where we feel comfortable, rather than stand where it’s best against different opponents. Roberto likes to stand there, and it works a lot against right-handed opponents. It did not work at all against Rafa yesterday.

Learn from this, and make the necessary adjustments in your game.

Lastly, more than 75% of all breakpoints in tennis are played in the Ad court. These “King-Maker” points matter the most. Stop hitting so many groundstrokes up and down the middle of the court in practice, and start improving your Ad court return. It’s what’s for breakfast (to go along with your coffee & croissant).

Au Revoir,

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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You Are Facing A Nasty Can Opener…

<img decoding="async" src="https://www.braingametennis.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Screen-Shot-2020-12-08-at-10.33.46-PM.png" />

Don’t Stand In The Wrong Spot.

Rafa is a lefty. He likes to serve wide in the Ad. “Like” is an understatement…