Playing Your Precentages

By Tom Veneziano

It may sound like an oxymoron, but tennis is about playing your percentages, not playing excellent, or outstanding, shots. What exactly does this statement mean? It means that you don’t consistently win by constantly making outstanding shots. It means that, to win, you shouldn’t think in terms of hitting great shots but hitting those shots that you can make a high percentage of the time.

This concept is a difficult but necessary one for all players (pros included) to learn—particularly if you want to play at a higher level and win. As you improve and become capable of hitting better shots, you will more likely confuse excellent shots with playing great tennis. Why? Because you can now make more spectacular shots! Consequently, to reel yourself in and play your percentages becomes an increasingly tougher task. Yet, you must resist the urge to go for too much until the correct situation presents itself to hit the winner. To play your percentages you’ll need self-discipline in your mental arsenal.

Here’s an example of playing an excellent shot as opposed to playing your percentage:

You are up at the net in a doubles match and one of your opponents is  on the baseline. The opponent on the baseline hits a hard low ball at your feet. With laser precision (of course) you skillfully go for a winner, hit a  dynamic sharp angle, and win the point. Everyone applauds your outstanding volley. You are “the player.”

Yes, indeed, it was a great shot, but not the way to win consistently. Be-cause, let’s face it, what is the percentage that you can execute that shot time and time again?

In fact, the minute you start thinking, “What a great shot—I’ll have to hit more of them to win this match,” you’re in trouble. Now you’re thinking in terms of individual excellence, not percentages. By the way, the percentage shot in the preceding situation is to hit the hard low ball back to the player on the baseline and wait for a better opportunity to go for a winner.

Although many junior players are guilty of going for the big shot, believing that hitting speedy winners is cool (and these shots are cool, but unfortunately not consistent), adults engage in their own forms of razzle-dazzle relative to their skill level. Even if adult players developed some on-court patience, they still think in terms of hitting excellent shots to win. Unfortunately this high-octane strategy ends in a crash-and-burn ash heap of unforced errors. The feeling that you have to make great shots all the time to win begs a question: Why are you always in so much trouble that you have to make great shots to win points?

In college, billiards was practically one of my majors. I would spend hours in the recreation hall shooting pool. I remember reading an excellent billiards book that taught me the concept of percentage play. The book was written by Willie Mosconi, who was world champion in the 1940s and 1950s and an unbelievably skilled player. His high run in 1954 was 526 balls without missing! Incredible isn’t it? But, it is not the highest run recorded, as Michael Eufemia was reported to have a continuous run of 625 balls in a tournament in 1960. One of the most important concepts that I learned from this book was that the greatest players were not the players making exceptional and exciting shots. In contrast, the great players have such superb control of the cue ball that they don’t need to make spectacular shots. They’re able to position the cue ball well enough to make easy shots 75 percent of the time.

Are you frequently in trouble on the court? Do you often have to make great shots to win? Maybe it’s time to examine your overall thinking. Are you going for too much too soon? You’re not alone, as most players do this. In fact, the majority of your shots should be easy shots, positioning yourself for the winner and continuously playing the percentages. You know the acronym: KISS—“Keep it simple, stupid!”

Here is another concept that I teach relentlessly: “Do the simple right, then do the simple better, then simply be the best at doing the simple. The pros do the simple so well you think their play is complicated!”

The true dynamics of playing at a high level is keeping it simple. Don’t take years to understand this formula. If you don’t believe me, watch the top pros with an informed eye and see this truth for yourself. The foundation for their tennis success is always rooted in percentage play, not individual excellent shots. Sure they occasionally show some flare when they make exceptional shots, and you can too. The key is not, and I repeat not, to build a game plan around those exceptions.

If you’re still not getting this concept I have one question: If the best tennis players in the world can’t build their game plan around constantly hitting excellent shots, how do you think you can?

Tom Veneziano, a tennis coach for more than 30 years, currently teaches at the Piney Point Racquet Club in Houston, Texas. As the developer of the Tennis Warrior System, Veneziano has produced numerous books, audiotapes and CDs. For more information, visit  www.TennisWarrior.com.