The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Question: How do we assist our son in decreasing his unforced errors?
Frank: In my opinion, decreasing unforced errors always starts with the identification process. On numerous occasions, I have asked parents and coaches to chart ranked players utilizing The Cause of Error Chart. (Found in Match Chart Collection at Maximizingtennispotential.com). The results were very interesting.
While the majority of the international coaches solely focused on stroke production year in-year out, the main cause of errors were consistently shot selection and NOT form.
I suggest applying the cause of error chart to identify your athletes leading cause of error. I have found that the most common cause of errors in high level athlete’s are Mental-Shot Selection, followed by Movement-Spacing, a very close third was Emotional-Performance Anxieties…and last on the list…Technical-Stroke Mechanics!
Because poor shot selection is the leading cause of errors at the higher competitive junior levels. Shot selection starts with understanding that in between each shot in a rally, there are only about 2 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. Pre-setting offence, neutral, defensive and directional options is mental training.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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