The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
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How do we assist our son in decreasing his unforced errors?
All of his coaches say he is one of the most talented players they have ever seen. His form looks great. Why does he lose to less talented players? Let’s look deeper into the different causes of errors, starting with the mental side.
Shot selection starts with understanding that in between each shot in a rally, there are only about two milliseconds of actual decision-making time. So, how much can you analyze in that small amount of time? The answer is not much. This means that most shot selection options are learned behaviors acquired on the practice court. That is right. These tools must be wired into a player’s game way before the tournament begins. This is mental training.
To explain the importance of shot selection, we will use two of my students, Jack and Jason (brothers that couldn’t be more different). Jason has chosen to focus on tennis’s mental/emotional sides early in his development, while Jack was and still is too cool to listen to this silly stuff.
Strength and Weaknesses
Situation: It is add-in. Holding serve means a comfortable 5-2 lead.
Jason: Selects to serve a big kick serve wide to the opponent’s weaker side; He runs a boring, successful pattern to close out the game.
Jack: Selects to go for a huge ace down the center (the one that he made once in 2010); He misses, gets angry, and rushes into a double fault.
Broad Vision
Situation: Our player just hit an offensive shot and has the opponent on the dead run; the opponent is stretching and lunging at a low slice backhand.
Jason: Spots the visual clues like the defensive court position, body language, open racket face, and defensive strike zone of the opponent. He moves in, takes away the opponent’s recovery time, and steals an easy volley winner.
Jack: Didn’t bother to learn to spot these clues, so he stands at the baseline, lets the opponent float the ball back, and he re-starts the rally. Jack just missed an
