The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thank you for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Those strategy books seems so technical. Can you make it easy?
What is strategy? Tennis is a very strategic sport. Strokes may get you into the match, but strategy brings success.
- Strategy can be so easy yet so complicated
- Strategy is changing, adapting yet ritualistic It is science and art
- It is psychological yet physical
- It can be beautiful and oh so ugly
- Strategy applied correctly allows your child to meet the opponent under advantageous conditions
- Strategy keeps your child focused and in the correct mind set
Let’s look at strategy in a simple, yet effective format. There are three factors in understanding strategy on the tennis court. They are generic, stylistic and customized.
Generic Strategy
Generic strategy is simply applying the player’s core strengths in patterns. The plan is that the opponent has to respond to your child. Create your child’s patterns, plans and tactics ahead of time. Your child’s generic strategy is to run their patterns and plays. Generic strategies and tactics could include getting in 70 percent first serves or staying neutral until you get the opponent vulnerable, then attack. Patterns can be detailed or so simple. In times of trouble, saying “bounce, hit” as the ball actually bounces off the court and hits their racquet is an s age old generic tactic. It is a wonderful tool used to control the player’s vision and calm them down when they are overcome by the occasion. These generic tactics will be used in January through December, from the first round through the final, In Miami or Moscow, on clay or hard courts. These are your child’s everyday “nuts and bolts” game plan. The idea is to make the opponent react to them.
Stylistic Strategy
Stylistic strategy is your child’s ability to adapt tactics depending on the current style of the opponent. Remind your child not to change a winning tactic just because the opponent changes game styles. A change is only made if the opponent starts to win and the momentum has switched to their side. Styles include retriever, hard hitting baseliner and all court players. It is imperative that your player develop and rehearse patterns used to beat each style of opponent.
Custom Strategy
Custom strategy is your child’s ability to adapt to the day. Your child has to customize or adapting to different elements (wind, heat), court speeds and surfaces as well as the particular strengths and weaknesses of the current opponent. A common word in this phase is tendencies. To borrow from the boxing world, your child needs to spot what is causing the opponent to hurt or “bleed” and then do it more. It is just as important for your child to spot what is causing their own “bleeding” and systematically stop the bleeding. If your child is competing well in every game and often has the winning shot on his/her racquet, it is in their best interest to modify their tactics slightly while keeping the current strategic style of play. If they are losing and are not even in the points or games, a much larger shift of complete game styles may be in order. (For example: Take a bathroom break then change from a hard hitting baseliner to a steady retriever style of play.)
SPECIAL NOTE: A wonderful tool is video analysis. Record a tournament match every week. Have a weekly “Match Play Video Analysis Lesson” with an experienced coach. That’s right, a non- hitting lesson.
The preferred learning style of most players is “Visual Learner”. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Together, they will spot strokes that break down under stress, movement and footwork issues, opponent awareness issues and of course tactical and strategic issues that arise under stress. This allows your coach to customize the lessons as they actually provide solutions to the real issues!
For more information: The Tennis Parent’s Bible Thank you for visiting, Frank
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
wwwMaximizingTennisPotential.com
