Watch and Learn
Videotaped matches are great feedback for high school and college teams as well as for league and tournament players.
ByJay Davern

Have you ever had an opportunity to view a tape of yourself playing tennis? It is actually quite amazing how many players have not seen themselves playing the game. So why not have one of your competitive matches videotaped so that you can review and evaluate your play? Videotaped matches are great feedback for high school and college teams as well as for league and tournament players.

A friend, coach, or teaching professional can videotape one of your matches. You also can purchase video match analysis products. If you arrange the videotaping, be sure footage of the match is taken from behind the baseline at one end of the court and as close to net level as possible. During each point, try to capture the entire court with all players in view, and be sure to include the score.

Video match analysis is a very specific approach to improving your on-court performance and it gives you the individual attention you deserve. It is realistic for players to expect success in a short period of time because the guesswork in coaching is taken out of the equation, and the analysis and corrections are made within the context of an actual match.

Video match analysis allows problem areas—such as tactics, physical fitness, psychology, nutrition, court movement, understanding of the game, and styles of play—to be accurately identified and improved. Through video match analysis, you can systematically work on the problem areas that have been identified and gradually improve your match play. Simultaneously you can learn how to replicate aspects of your game that work well, but currently may be underutilized or not implemented to their full effect. Basically, match by match, you can eliminate the problems that cause you to lose matches and increase the skills that enable you to win. If done for a long enough period of time, you will become a very difficult player or team to beat.

Watching a videotape of one of your matches helps answer, or better yet address, questions such as:

• How can you give yourself every opportunity to win and to achieve
  your goals?
• Are you maximizing your natural abilities to be the most effective player you can be?
• How can you increase your chances of winning in the pivotal stages in tight matches?
• Why does everything go so smoothly in one game, set, or match and not in others?
• Are you tired of making technical changes and suffering through the adjustment period?

As part of my role as the Official Coach and Video Match Analyst at the Salem Open in Hong Kong in 2002, I wrote an article that was published in the Player Guide, titled “When Winning Is the No.1 Priority.” In this article, I discussed video match analysis and my thoughts about its use and effectiveness. Then I spoke to numerous players, coaches, officials, and trainers to see what they thought of the concept.

One player, Paradorn Srichaphan, implemented video match analysis into his training and immediately went on a winning streak. After losing in the first round in Hong Kong in 2002, Srichaphan went 15–3 in his last four tournaments and improved from No. 31 to No. 16. That same year he also won the title at Stockholm in Sweden by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, Gustavo Kuerten, and Tim Henman in these events.

Srichaphan had sat down and started watching his videotaped matches with his father and coach Chanachai. He then worked on specific areas of his game that needed improvement. Match analysts need to be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time and effort on reviewing, evaluating, and planning how to prioritize what needs to be improved or enhanced in a player’s game. However, this is time well spent. Look at Srichaphan’s 2002 accomplishments:

• achieving the highest-ever rankingby an Asian-born player
• winning the ATP Most Improved Player Award
• becoming the first Thai player to win an ATP title
• making the biggest improvement in match victories from the previous season (he won 39 more matches)
• making the second-biggest climb into the Top 20 (improving 110 positions in the ATP Entry Rankings during that year)
• reaching a career-high No. 9 in May 2003
  

Also, when a father is prepared to quit his bank job to coach his son, as Chanachai did for Paradorn, it does not seem like such a large time investment. And video match analysis need not be a large investment for any player serious about improving and increasing his or her enjoyment of the great game of tennis.

So next time you head off to a match, consider including a video camera in your tennis bag. Then watch and learn.

Jay Davern is an advanced international coach and tennis-specific fitness trainer. He was the Official Coach and Video Match Analyst at the Salem Open in Hong Kong. For information about video match analyses, and the discount offered to Tennis Life Magazine subscribers, please email at protourcoaching@tennis.com.