Tennis Makeover in 20 Minutes a Week – Part 3

How to Improve Your Consistency, Depth, Placement AND Power in less than 20 minutes

Part III

Some Pro Personal Bests (PB’s) you can test yourself against.

First Serves – 65% of first serves in. Naturally pro’s serve at a much greater speed than the club player. But you will find that when you serve at 65% of first serves in at your relative level you will stand a good chance of holding serve comfortably for the most part (all other things being equal).

Serve speed – Male Pro’s now serve very fast. Reaction times are now measured in split seconds. Male first serve speed are typically between 180-200km/h and anywhere up to 220 km/h with the odd freak serve reaching into the 240km/h. Second serves can range from 130’s all the way up to 180 or 190 km/h.

Winners: Unforced Errors Ratio – 2 Winners: 1 Error– This is where consistency really comes in. You must keep enough quality balls in play to create opportunities to convert winners. This is one of the toughest numbers to achieve and it can vary greatly from match to match. It is an ideal to strive for. Pro’s will hit this level with regularity.

As your skill levels improve you will start to see more winners for every error you make. This is natural. When starting out, all players make more errors and struggle to hit a winner. This gradually changes as you become more skilful. The closer you are t Pro level, the more often you will see this 2:1 ratio appear as a minimum. Sometimes you will have matches that even exceed this. That’s when you can call yourself a pro.

Double Faults per Set – 1 per Set. Do I need to say any more?

Conversion of Opportunity – this is when you have a player in trouble and an opportunity to take control of the point presents itself. Pro’s will win these points in 60% - 90% of these situations. Keep in mind that this can vary depending on the circumstance. I often keep statistics on this in more cases than error, winners etc because I have found that the player who is converting opportunity the most wins.

The set-up is what will also vary these numbers. For me, it can be an opportunity when someone is out positioned. Whilst the shot making is still solid there is an opening in the court and I am looking for my players to have the skills to convert these opportunities into points.

In other situations it is less subtle and more obvious. An opponent may drop a ball shot and present an easy opportunity to put a ground stroke away to maybe it’s an easy volley or smash.

So you can see that the 60% - 90% will vary but with experience, tracking and recording and awareness of these numbers you soon get the feel for what’s acceptable and what should be improved on.

Return of Serve Consistency - 80% of returns back into play at a neutral to aggressive level on 2nd serves. Less than 20% of second serves should be sent back as error or as defensive shots that give the server an opportunity. The higher the level you play the harder it is to maintain this level.

Rally Speed – My research shows to be competitive at the higher pro levels you want the following speeds over a ten ball rally. Male 11-13.5 seconds per 10 balls. Female 12-14.5 seconds per 10 balls. To be accurate the ball must travel the full length of the court for the full 10 balls.

Use these numbers to gauge and improve your game. Remember that you cannot hit a target that you cannot see. You can improve which ever area of your game you like by simply keeping count and putting pen to paper. These exercises take less than 20 minutes a session but they will add to your game in a big way.

“What gets measured gets achieved.”

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