The Practice Court for Junior Development is Broken

Parents,  if I told you that of the three categories regarding how the modern game is played from the ATP/WTA on down through to the U12’s globally being 0-4, 5-8 and 9+ hits per point, and within these 60% of all the points fall in the 0-4 category you probably wouldn’t believe me.

But it’s the truth, simply chart your juniors next match the numbers don't lie!

So, if the 0-4 shots, meaning serve ball 1, return ball 2, serve +1 ball 3, and return +1 ball 4 account for such a high percentage, why are tennis pros and even coaches still spending so much time; hours upon hours rallying? 

The answer is simple... they are not developing patterns of play in terms of serve patterns (0-4), return patterns (0-4), baseline (5-8) they are training for the 9+ shots day in and day out! 

Before you can really influence the way your child is being trained you have to know your data, video your child’s next match then at your convenience chart where the % fall. If you have a player who is still in the U12 & U14’s you will find that their return game will be stronger than their serve statistics simply because they are probably not being trained to recover fast enough after the serve to be able to implement what we call a “serve + 1”. Once you have established where the majority of the points are played 0-4, 5-8, and 9+ the next number you need to know about your child is what total % of the points are they winning. From Federer to Serena to your child the magic # is 55!

If you win 55% of the points in a match or over a year you will have a winning percentage.

Conventional teaching or coaching (big difference between the two and will be my next topic) would say the easy floating ball, or the high backhand, or the low slice was their demise so thats where we start in getting to the 55% mark. You couldn't be farther from the truth, here’s how world class coaches develop players.

Let's assume your child is winning 40% of all points they play. They need to get to 55% - that's a 15 point developmental plan that needs to be established:

1- Establish fifteen markers for the 15 points that need to be made up to win, lets call them “success paths”.

2- An example might be if they are playing 57% in the 0-4 and only winning 22% of them.  You might want to look at serve patterns such as serving 1st serve out wide on the deuce side getting a return up the middle and hitting the whole shot.

3- Another example would be 1st serve out wide on the ad court and hitting behind the returner.  

4- They are only winning 15% of the 5-8 shot points which is accounting for 30% of the total points. My recommendation would be learning how to implement the “2-1” strategy (deep to the letter “C” short to “D” then the unspectacular whole shot. 

5- Establish on their serve games whether they are winning the first point or not. If they win the first point there is a 92% chance they will win the game, it drops by 20% if they lose the first point, that is a huge indicator.

6- Look to see how many times in the match they won three points in a row which indicates momentum.

7- Look to see how many times they were the first to get to 30-0 or 30-15 first. That is a 72% chance they will win the game.

8- Watch and you will be amazed how they play the point after they had a 9+ shot rally, win or lose. Winning the 9+ category is a losing proposition. 

This is just scratching the surface of how we are developing players here at the Tournament Players Academy. For a complete analysis of your child’s game or to have us write a “Growth and Development Plan” so that your tennis pro or coach can really give your child an advantage, please don't hesitate to contact Ripley at 407 506 2149.

Note: Data taken from SAP - ATP & WTA with Craig O’ Shannessy 

Be Great!