The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
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STRATEGY MADE EASY
Strategy can be so easy yet so complicated. Strategy is changing, adapting and yet ritualistic. It is science and art. It is psychological yet physiological. It can be beautiful and oh so ugly. Strategy applied correctly allows your child to meet the opponent under advantageous conditions. Applying strategy keeps your child focused and in the correct optimal performance state of mind.
Let’s look at strategy in a simple but effective format. Below are three categories of on-court strategy that elite players must understand and master: generic, stylistic and customized.
Generic Strategy
Generic strategy is simply applying the player’s core strengths with pre-planned patterns and strategies. The goal is to expose a player’s natural strengths and force their opponent to respond to those strengths. Generic strategy consist of your child’s optimal serving patterns, return patterns, rally patterns, short ball options and net rushing patterns. These tactics are identified and practiced prior to match play and will be used January through December, from the first round through the finals, in Miami or Moscow, on clay or on hard courts. The Generic strategy is your child’s everyday “nuts and bolts” game plan. Learning to apply one’s genetic tactical assault, will lead to your athlete hitting the same old “boring” winners match after match.
If your athlete’s generic (day-in-day-out) strategy is working, there is no need for change. In fact, juniors who change a winning strategy usually suffer the consequences. If it is not working, then it’s simply time to shift into the second phase of strategy called stylistic strategy.
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 their winning tactical system just because the opponent changes game styles. A change is only made if the opponent starts to win and the momentum switches to the opponent’s favor. Styles include retriever, hard hitting baseliner and all court players. It is imperative that high performance tennis players develop and rehearse patterns used to beat each style of opponent.
If your athlete has spotted the opponent’s style of play and is still struggling, I recommend shifting focus to the third tier called custom strategy.
A smart competitor will change a losing style of play (shift to plan B). Has your child developed rock solid B and C game plans? The players who are winning national titles also have solid B and C game plans. Please remind your athletes to rehearse all three styles of play.
Encourage your child to play lesser players in practice sets. This will allow them to rehearse their B and C game plans- often your child’s A plan (hard hitting baseliners-style) is exactly what the opponent enjoys and playing that system is a losing proposition. Shifting to plan B (steady retriever- style) may be ugly but is the exact system the opponent hates playing against and an extremely difficult match becomes another routine win.
Custom Strategy
Custom strategy is your child’s ability to adapt to the day. Your child has to customize to different environmental elements (wind, heat, and shadows), court speeds, brand of ball, elevation as well as the particular strengths and weaknesses of the current opponent (See Opponent Profiling later in this section.)
A common word in the custom strategy phase is tendencies.
To borrow from the boxing world, your child needs to spot what is causing the opponent to “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.
When to Modify versus Change:
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.)
Strategy Basics:
1) Get 66% of your first serves in and preferably into the opponent’s weaker side.
2) Simply return deep balls high, heavy and deep.
3) Attack any ball landing inside your short ball range.
4) Apply the laws of offense, neutral and defensive shot selection.
