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TennisOne Lessons 
Tacit Tactics Philippe Azar
Technique is all well and good, but it’s overrated. You don’t get extra points for bending your knees or watching the ball. The only way to win points in tennis is to get the ball in the court one more time than your opponent and the beauty of it is, you are allowed to do it any way you want (as long as you use your racquet!) – whether it be standing on one leg, upside down, or looking and playing like a monkey. No extra points for perfect form. Ultimately the winner will be the player who is superior based on a combination of four factors: mental, physical, tactical, and technical. Much has been written on technique and there’s plenty of literature on improving mental and physical fortitude. Hence this feature is devoted to the tactical aspect of playing tennis and just a few of the many strategic guidelines that apply at all levels of the game, regardless of whether you’re a beginner or a top 10 player. Tactics have always fascinated me more than technique because a good proportion of errors in the game are due to poor shot selection rather than poor technique. Even the best forehand will break down if used at the wrong time. However, players who raise their tactical awareness during matches have a much better chance of winning than those who are solely focused on solving technical issues. One of the fun aspects to come out of the recent WTA Masters is getting to hear the coaches talking to their proteges at the end of sets. They were allowed to come out on court at the request of their player and give advice. Interestingly, there was very little technical advice being exchanged. Most of the information was strategic - for example: Michael Joyce drew Sharapova’s attention to the fact that Kuznetsova was hitting all her serves at Sharapova’s backhand - interspersed with some mental boosters. The reason is that, in the heat of a match, there is very little you can do about poor technique and even less you can do for your physical state. However, small tactical pointers can make a huge difference.
Brad Gilbert, author of the best-selling “Winning Ugly” is quite possibly the master-tactician of recent times. He states of himself: “What set me apart, maybe, was my eye for the game, my memory for how people played it, and my drive to pay attention.” Here’s an example of a player with very limited technical talent who nevertheless managed a successful career in the top 10. He not only won ugly but played ugly too. He was infamous for his dirty on-court tricks designed to psyche out opponents. But most importantly, he also held a little black book (which he still updates to this day) of observations of all the players on the tour. Notes like "Forehand - every time he gets tight, he misses it." Or, "Huge serve in the ad court; his money ball, that out-wide serve.” He knew better than anyone what everyone’s strengths and weaknesses were and executed some wonderful winning strategies given his limited repertoire of shots. Keep the Ball in Play The most fundamental tactical rule of tennis is get the ball back into court – any way you can. Take that one step further, by getting the ball back one more time than your opponent and you will never loose a match again. Imagine a world where you never missed a ball and got every single shot your opponent had to offer back in the court. Theoretically, it’s impossible to lose if you reach everything and never miss. It means your opponent will always make the first mistake. In practice, the Michael Chang’s and Leyton Hewitt’s of this world have built very successful careers around the simple principle that players who work on consistency have more consistent success than players who base their whole games on striving to hit as many winners as there are points in the match. Sure, Fernando Verdasco or Mark Philippoussis might have the occasional great win or golden week based on just banging the ball, but over the long term, it is an unsustainable strategy as it involves too much hit’n’miss.
One of the most common questions I get from students is when to hit down-the-line and crosscourt. Many years ago when Brad Gilbert took Agassi under his wing, the first change he made was to get Agassi smarter about hitting down-the-line. Agassi had a tendency to hit in that direction just for the sake of it with no particular intention other than to move his opponent around. It led to a disproportionate number of unforced errors. Gilbert simplified things by having Agassi hit crosscourt and use the down-the-line primarily for winners and only when there was a clear opening or a clear weakness on that side. Agassi went all the way back up to number one in the world in part due to a couple of very simple tactical alterations. From a technical perspective, it’s easier to hit the ball back in the direction from which it came than to change direction and it’s all too easy to get caught up in trying to change the direction of the ball too often. This led to the unforced errors Agassi was suffering from early in his career. Do’s and Don’ts From a Tactical Perspective Avoid hitting down-the-line when in an emergency. Any time you are in trouble, you are more likely to hit a weak, short ball. If that shot lands down-the-line it allows your opponent an easy opportunity to go for a crosscourt winner. When in trouble, strive to hit high, deep and down the middle to give yourself time to recover and remove the angles from your opponent. The one time you might want to go for down-the-line in an emergency situation is if you know that your opponent is storming the net. For much of the same reasons above, avoid hitting down-the-line from your weaker side. Two exceptions are if there is a clear opening or if the opponent’s weakness lies down-the-line and it outweighs your weakness.
Hit your approach shots down-the-line. While it’s great to see Andy Roddick come to the net much more frequently in the last year, the reason he gets burned so often is due to his tendency to approach crosscourt. The consequence is that he has more ground to cover in order to reach a potential down-the-line passing shot from his opponent. And that is exactly what happened during his epic quarterfinal loss to Gasquet at Wimbledon this year: he got passed time and again because he left himself open for the down-the-line winner from Gasquet. Unless it’s a perfectly executed approach – bordering on a winner – limit the number of crosscourt approaches you make. Although, you might want to throw one in from time to time to give your opponent an element of unpredictability. Warm Up with a Purpose Unless you’re playing a friendly match or against someone whose game you are well-aquainted with, the warm-up time preceding the match is no time for pleasantries or loosening up your muscles. You should walk on court already warmed-up and use those five pre-match minutes to find out what your opponent can and can not do while showing him very little of your own game. Hit hard, soft, wide, straight, with topspin, backspin and all other combinations of those shots. Take note of your opponent’s grip as an indicator of his likes and dislikes. A continental grip will usually indicate a player who likes low-bouncing balls but may struggle on higher bouncing balls, while the opposite is true for a player with an extreme western forehand grip. A player who changes grips when playing volleys will struggle on low or fast balls. Double-handed backhanders often prefer high balls while single-handers struggle with them. How much time does your opponent spend warming up volleys in relation to baseline strokes (if it’s only a couple of volleys, you can bet your socks he won't be camped out at the net)? Does he even ask you to feed him some lobs or does he avoid them altogether? Based on testing and noticing these kinds of small details, you can devise a game plan. We don’t see so much of that at the top of the pro-tour because players generally know each other’s strengths and weaknesses pretty well and they have tennis coaches to scout their opponents and talk strategy to them before the match starts. But, at club level, the warm-up is an opportunity, not an obligation.
Play the Point, Not the Match A match is won point by point and you can improve your chances of winning the match by raising your awareness of the point you are about to play. In his book “Tennis For Life” Peter Burwash – one of the original USPTA master professionals – advocates the awareness of big point and big games. He states that the 3rd and 5th point of every game are the most important points in tennis and winning those increases your chances of winning the game to 80 percent. Similarly the fifth and seventh game of every set are key as winning those can heavily weigh on your opponent’s mental state. Similarly, serve and volley or rush the net on game point. Your opponent is already feeling the pressure of possibly loosing the game and you can add to it by putting visual pressure on him by storming the net. The scoring system in tennis - unlike most other sports – does not reward the one who wins the most points. In fact, you could very well win more points than your opponent and still loose the match. So the key is to get smart about where you stand in each game and exploit the situation. Even at the top level, it often amazes me how oblivious players are to where they stand in the game. It was blatantly exemplified in the Madrid Masters this year when the umpire called the game while it was in fact still only 30-15 in a match between Stefan Koubek and Feliciano Lopez. Neither player contested the score. It was obvious they weren’t keeping track (and neither was the umpire for that matter!)
What makes Federer such a fabulously effective player is the range of shots he has at his disposal and his ability to combine them into a deadly potpourri of backspins, topspins, fast and slow. The reason he flourished later than most prodigies is that it took him a while to figure out how to put his repertoire to good use. Now, if his baseline game is not hurting the opponent, he is not averse to going up to the net. If his topspin backhand isn’t working, he can fall back on his deadly backspin. This is where your technical prowess can be of help and will allow you to develop an A-plan, a B-plan, and possibly C-plan. If you only know how to hit topspin, you are limiting yourself and will soon fall upon an opponent who will outplay you. Many club players live in the illusion that tactics is a lofty ideal reserved for the greats of the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the more beginner a player is, the more likely he is to have clear weaknesses open to exploitation. The key is to look at tennis as a fast game of chess. In chess, you need to think in terms of action and reaction, preferably two or three moves ahead. The same goes for tennis. For every stroke you play at your opponent, he will respond in a particular way. If you’re smart and observant, you will eventually notice trends in his responses. Trends are nothing else than likes and dislikes. And once you know those, it’s matter of devising and executing a game plan that takes into account your own likes and dislikes to exploit theirs. So, next time you’re at the courts, spend some time scouting your opponents. Nothing like standing on the sidelines and looking carefully at what they do, because you never know when that knowledge will come in useful. As Brad Gilbert says: “every victory in tennis is a combination of one player's strengths and the other player's weaknesses. And if you know the other guy's weaknesses, you have a huge leg up.” Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Philippe Azar's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
Philippe Azar is a professional with Peter Burwash International (PBI) and has been teaching tennis internationally for more than 15 years. He is presently based at Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club in Japan. PBI contracts with resorts, hotels and clubs all over the world to direct tennis programs.The company presently has professionals working at 62 facilities in North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean. During its 30 years in business, PBI tennis professionals have taught tennis to over three million students in more than 135 countries. For more information visit: pbitennis.com |
