Saturday, 24 June 2017 / Published in ATP Tour

Win 1.8% more than lose = Top 20 in the World.

Pablo’s Pathway.

Follow his footsteps to the promised land.

25-year-old Spaniard, Pablo Carreno Busta, is having the best season of his life. He currently has his career best ranking of No. 17 in the world. It’s an outstanding achievement to break into the coveted Top 20, and don’t be surprised to see him crack the Top 10 later this year, or early 2018.

Here’s his performance for the past three seasons.

Categories	2015	2016	2017	Total
Ranking	67	30	17	-
Matches W/L	14/25	41-26	27-14	82-65
Points Won	3113	4995	3149	11,257
Points Lost	3152	4779	2931	10,862
Total Points W/L	-39	216	218	395
Prizemoney	$427,994	$990,822	$1,240,122	2,658,938

Pablo is putting up some pretty impressive numbers. We are going to drill down on three focus points.

Focus 1: 22K+ points

Pablo has played a lot of tennis the past two and a half years. 22K+ points – all over the planet. This is the body of work that has taken him from outside the Top 60 into the Top 20. What is so amazing is the following breakdown:

22,119 points played
11,257 won
10,862 lost
Won just 395 more points than he lost
Represents a 1.8% advantage

This is the reality of our game. We play a sport of incredibly small margins… over incredibly long distances. Think of how many flights, how many airline miles logged, how many hotel nights, how many practices, how much time in the gym it took to win 395 more points than you lost over 2 1/2 years? It’s mind blowing really…

Focus 2: Losing 10,862 points

That’s a huge amount of points to lose. It’s also a very necessary amount, that helped fuel Pablo’s rise to the Top 20. Now, think about this for a second. Pablo has had 10,862 opportunities to get down on himself, to get sad, or mad, or frustrated about losing a point. You just can’t let yourself go there… It creates too much of a mental burden to carry around, and you end up beating yourself much more than the opponent does.

The lesson here is crystal clear – you are going to lose a lot of points on your journey upward. The best way to handle them (mentally & emotionally) is this way:

Review The Point

Figure out the exact reason you lost the point. Did it have to do with footwork, or technique, or bad shot selection, or too much power, or not enough spin, or bad contact outside of the sweet spot of the racquet? Identify the problem.

Fix It

It’s soooo easy to dwell on the point you just lost. Don’t. Once you have identified the problem, fixate on the solution. What could you have done better? How do you avoid this mistake in the future? Focus on the “fix” instead of the error.

Flush It

Once you have identified the problem, and mentally corrected the problem, get rid of it. Errors should live in “short term” memory, where they are quickly “flushed” from the mind. Once it’s gone, you can’t dwell on it anymore. You can’t continue to beat yourself up for the next 20 minutes, or two weeks, about that particular error.

Focus 3: Career Numbers

Her are Pablo’s career numbers.

Matches: Won 102 / Lost 98
Points: Won 50%

You look at a guy making millions of dollars, in the Top 20 in the world, and you think he may as well be Superman. But when you research Pablo’s overall body of work, you see just how close things really are. Once again, tennis is a game of insanely small margins, which is why it is so critically important to know the higher percentage patterns of play when serving, returning, rallying and approaching. That’s what the 25 Golden Rules of Singles Strategy is all about.

Pablo lost in the 1st round of Wimbledon last year to No. 7, Milos Raonic, 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-4. He was unseeded at The Championships in 2016. He will most likely be a 17-24 seed this time around, and will not face another seeded player until the 3rd Round. He made the Rd. 32 at the Australian Open this year, and the Quarters of the French. If he wins a few rounds at SW19 this year, he will be a lot closer to 10 in the world than 20 in a just a couple of weeks.

For the rest of the Carreno-Busta analysis on the ATP website, click HERE.

Cheers,

Craig

The practice court is clearly broken. Here’s the proof.

Points are "front loaded". By far the majority of the action, and the winning, takes place in THE FIRST 4 SHOTS. The practice court is full of long rallies. Matches are dominated by short rallies. There is a massive disconnect occurring.

We spend too much time grinding, banging balls up and down the middle of the court – that have no real benefit to winning tennis matches.

There are 3 specific rally lengths in tennis. Here is their percentage breakdown of total points.

0-4 Shots = 70%
5-8 Shots = 20%
9+ Shots = 10%

The First 4 Shots is specifically the serve, return, Serve +1 groundstroke and Return +1 groundstroke. Those are normally the shots that get practiced the least, but matter the most to winning tennis matches.

The net is an extremely high percentage place to be!

If you love playing tennis for fun, spend as much time at the baseline as you like. But if you compete – if the score matters – then you must turn your attention to the net to maximize your potential.

The “herd mentality” in tennis thinks it’s too tough to approach the net in today’s game. The conversation starts with improved string technology, more powerful rackets, and finishes with stronger, faster athletes. The herd think approaching is a relic of the past. The herd is WRONG!

AVERAGE WIN %
Baseline = 46%
Net = 66%

Data from ALL Grand Slams provides the facts about approach and volley, and the data is crystal clear – it’s immensely better than staying back at the baseline, grinding for a living.

The baseline is a tough place to create separation. Here's how to do it.

At the 2012 US Open, only 7 men and 14 women had a winning percentage from the baseline. At Wimbledon 2016, Andy Murray won the title only winning 52% of his baseline points - and he is one of the very best at it in the world!

Num3ers deeply explores the data that rules points, especially from the back of the court. Take a "deep dive" into all three rally lengths (0-4, 5-8, 9+), and winner and errors totals from the elite level of our game. The numbers will shock you!

All 4 Grand Slams

Forcing Errors = 41% Men / 37% Women
Winners = 32% Men / 29% Women
Unforced Errors = 27% Men / 34% Women

Num3ers is very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. It's about bringing together different data sets together to create the big picture.

Every recorded match from the 2015 Australian Open - Rd2 to the final.

There is a lot happening on a doubles court. Situations and strategies are constantly being adjusted to create mis-matches with court position. It's hard to keep track of - until now. Dou8les Num3ers is the most comprehensive analysis of doubles data in our sport. The focus is on how a point ends, and it's broken down eight ways to Sunday. Specifically, you find critical information on:

Winners rise to the #1 way a point ends (over forced & unforced errors)

- The last shot of the rally is overwhelmingly struck at the net.
- Center Window: the most important part of a doubles court to control.
- Stephen Huss: an in-depth interview on Wimbledon's Centre Court with the 2005 Wimbledon Doubles Champion.

Dou8les Num3ers leaves no stone unturned. Percentage breakdowns of how often the server or receiver hits the last shot highlight the dramatic influence of the serve. The last shot of the rally is significant, and is broken down into the following categories: volleys, overheads, passing shots, lobs and groundstrokes.

When you play a match, you actually play two matches.

When you walk out onto a tennis court, there are two matches that you are about to play. The first is during the point - a part of the match that you have spent a lot of time preparing for on the practice court. But there is a second match, that takes place in the 20 seconds between the points. This is where the mental and emotional aspects of our sport kick in.

Let's face it, there will be adversity in almost every tennis match that you play. The storm clouds are coming. How bug they are, and how long they last for, are up to you.

Between the points is very tennis specific. It provides a roadmap for the 20 seconds between the points, teaching how to handle the adversity that will surely come, and how to build on the successes that will also be present. Your mind is your biggest asset in a match, and Between the Points takes your hand off the self destruct button and stops you beating yourself.

You don't have to be good at everything, but you have got to be good at something.

You can break tennis down into four key elements - serving, returning, rallying and approaching. Each part has specific patterns of play that consistently deliver higher winning percentages than the others. No more guessing. No more opinions. All facets of our sport are covered in this exceptional product, clearly outlining what patterns to gravitate to, and how to best construct the practice court. Data comes primarily from the 2015 Australian Open.

Building Blocks

MEN = 70% errors / 30% winners
WOMEN = 74% errors / 26% winners

Forcing errors is the best way to construct a point.
You can simply break tennis down into primary and secondary patterns of play - and they are all covered here. Primary patterns include serve and return direction, forehands v backhands, and the best way to approach the net. Secondary patterns include drop shots, serve & volley and 1st volley options. If you play tournaments, this product will greatly help you simplify the singles court.

The conversation starts & ends with the Center Window.

The doubles court is like an hourglass. There are two big ends, but a small neck in the middle where all the action happens. Once you learn the power of the Center Window, where you stand to start the point will take on a lot more significance.

Doubles is a lot more about situations, with four people on the court all "dancing" with one another. Learn all the best doubles patterns, broken down for the server, returner, server's partner and the returner's partner.

Doubles Situations

The "J" - the most ideal movement for the returner's partner to attack the net.

The "V" - a better way of understanding where the server's partner should move to.

Volley Targets - there are four main areas to attack. Know which ones are higher percentage. Beach Volleyball - the idea of a "setter" and "spiker" is ideal for the doubles court.

There are certain parts of the court that the ball travels to a lot, and other low percentage areas that you really don't want to cover at all - like the alley! In general, the serving team wants to keep the ball in the middle of the court as much as possible (to help the server's partner), while the returning team benefits from hitting wider and creating more chaos in the point.

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