Do you want to know what is important when it comes to winning the match, well then this episode will tell you what you might want to start thinking about to become more successful NOW!Today, you will learn how to take your game to the next level with the game you presently own.  Not a game that you hope to own or rent to own.  Yes, we want to learn new things, but I want to play better TODAY.

What is important when it comes to winning the match

Answers I get most of the time include:

1. Unforced errors – who has less


2. 1^st serve percentage


3. The player with more winners


4. Total points won


5. Who wins the big points

Let’s go over some basic ideas on why the winner wins the match

In the March/April 2013 Issue of tennis magazine it has a great article on the error ball.They recorded data from the three most recent grand slams, both men and women, totaling 87,000 points for the men and 53,000 points for the women.The consensus, even in the pros, 71% of the points ended in errors in the mens game and 77% of the points in the women’s game ended in errors.This is a combination of forced and unforced errors.

 Let’s define these

In tennis, we keep track of these statistics and many others by charting.

What I did:

1. Started to study the match statistics and found out what was really important when it came to “Why” the winner won the match

2. This allowed me to make a much simpler charting sheet and have it make sense to my students right when they walked off the court (attached at bottom)

Well if you look at the match statistics, and the PDF I made for you, you will see:

For example the player that has 10 winners in 20 unforced errors is not going to be to be as well off as a player that has 5 winners but only 7 unforced errors most of the time

When we coach our students, we try to stress that yes, trying to keep the unforced errors down is important, but we expect you to go for it when you have your favorite shot as well, because it is the ratio of winners to unforced errors that is important.A forced error is the same as a winner when it all come down to winning the point and if you only concentrate on “NOT MISSING” then you are taking a huge piece of the pie out of the equation.

Just think about what your favorite shot is (federer – FH, serena – Serve….etc) I bet your favorite shot is not your favorite, because you miss it a lot.

Have you ever heard anyone ever say, “ I missed my backhand all the time, It is my favorite shot?”…..Of course not, it is probably your favorite shot because you make it all the time (Well then get real and do something with it…….. Help out your percentages)!

 Here is another way to look at it:

If Our objective of each shot we hit is to try to set us up for our next shot. What should happen?

• Make less errors


• more forced errors


• More winners – You might ask Why? You are not going for it as much.  

Here are some examples of how we can set ourselves up for the next shot 

Serves –

1. Hitting it to a weakness (can you do this on a second serve)

2. Wide to open up court (are you brave enough to do this on a second serve)

3. Into the body

4. High kicker ( do you own this effective serve?  Do you even rent it from time to time?)

 Groundstrokes –

1. Hit them deep, forces opponent to hit short more often to set us up

2. Varying Spin.  High balls that kick and low balls that slide are high percentage shots that can set us up for opportunities

3. High balls to backhand side (usually) are high percentage shots that set us up

4. Hitting to a weaker side.  Hit to their strength when you have a forcing shot

Approach Shots – 

1. Keep them deep

2. Slice them low

3. Hit to a weakness

4. Hit to the open court (I SEE SO MANY PLAYERS JUST GET IT IN AND TO THEIR OPP.)

Volleys – 

1. Keep first  one deeper if behind service line

2. Low and angled if close)

3. Doubles – Hit in the direction you are moving

4. Doubles – Hit down the middle

All of these are ways that you can set yourself up for the next shot and don’t necessarily force you to aim for “the line “or a low percentage shot.Don’t fall for the strategy of hitting the ball back and hoping things work out.

 ONE KEY: ALWAYS PREPARE FOR THE BALL TO COME BACK!!

This forces you to recover and not celebrate after you hit the right ball which makes the next shot even easier. An example might be a lob that you think is a winner you start walking away from the court and get caught with your pants down while they hustle on back there and go get it and you look silly. Sounds far-fetched, but I’ve seen this time and time again at every level

I was hitting with a student named Bailey yesterday and asked her what the objective of every shot should be. Knowing that I would be talking about this today.

She said, “To win the point.” (THINKING ABOUT OUTCOME) 

 What will thinking like this cause us to do?

• will cause us to hit  more unforced errors


• OK, Definitely more 1 shot winners


• A lot less forced errors (remember these count the same as winners.  Who cares if they barely touched it or not),   because your unforced errors have risen because you are going for it all the time, you are going to inevitably miss more.

And that’s the problem when we look at tennis by trying to win the point with “This Next Shot” in stead of setting ourselves up.

You can’t think like this! You’re making way too many last-minute decisions which will Cause. too many errors.

YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR YOUR NEXT SHOT (THINKING ABOUT PERFORMANCE)

You should know where you’re going based on the ball you are RECEIVING (we will talk about this in a later episode).  This is called PLAYING THE BALL, NOT THE PERSON.  Only break “the rules “if it’s blatantly obvious.

 All of this will help you:

• create less unforced errors,


• create more forced errors,


• and even more winners (2 shot winners, not 1 shot winners)

I get asked a lot, “Why will you hit more winners if you are not going for it?” Because you will hit more 2^nd shot winners or “follow up winners”  or indirect winners this way.

Let’s say your opponent is at the net and instead of trying to rip a passing shot by them you just get a lowball crosscourt at their feet. If you recover properly, you will move in before your opponent even initiates the volley and when your opponent struggles with this Ball eight out of 10 times, you will be in position to hit the easiest volley of your life, and most likely a winner! (this is the follow up)

This is why those players beat you 6-0, 6-1 and look like they are not even trying. They know how and where to hit  the ball but most importantly where to move after they hit the ball to make the next shot easier for them because they are playing the percentages and good geometric tennis. Plus, this calms  you down as well and keeps you more relaxed which is a good thing

Where does the second serve come in?

If you look at the PDF, the winner most every time has a better % of points won, not necessarily on the first serve, but on the 2^nd serve

And the winner who wins a higher % of the points off the 2^nd serve most every time has more break chances and a higher number of break points won because this directly relates to the 2^nd serve.

Remember, the minimum requirement to win the set is to:

1.    Win every service game

2.    Break their serve once (unless you go into a breaker)

Some Exceptions: If there is a 3 set match where the scores are 6-4, 1-6    7-5, this may not be as obvious because of a nasty second set that was played. I will show an example of this in our video that I plan on producing for you in the next couple of days

 Think about this

When you are receiving a first serve, thoughts like, “just get this back in play” “keep it