According to Bill James, “a philosophy is an organized way of thinking about a problem.” James has described himself as someone who organizes ways to think about baseball and then passes those ideas on to decision makers. In his case, the decision makers are the baseball operations folks of the Boston Red Sox. Nice job. Since hiring James, the Red Sox have won four World Series championships. Before Bill James, nothing since Babe Ruth. Nice work.
Somewhere in the early 2000s I began organizing ways to think about American competitive tennis. The result of that thinking was Universal Tennis, UTR. The early adopters were a relatively small number of college coaches. Eventually the number of coaches grew and with that came an influx of juniors followed by a handful of USTA sections and then more juniors. Within a few years, we had published UTRs for hundreds of thousands of players.
It was a sometimes, oftentimes, bumpy ride to the end of 2017 when Mark Leschly put together a deal and bought out me and 2 other partners. Mark has done a fantastic job making UTR ubiquitous. We wish him every success. Let me note here that, today, none of the three of us has any shares in Universal Tennis and we don’t speak for that company. But we sure hope Mark’s efforts go a long way to changing the tennis culture.
Recently I got into a very short conversation with the dad of a good 14-year-old boy. I asked what his kid’s level was? “You mean his UTR?” “Yes.” “He’s an 11.50. He’s number 2 in the country.” This guy had no idea I ever had anything to do with UTR, but that’s exactly what he said. That’s a culture change.
Next Point
Steve Clark and Darryl Cummings, both former UTR partners, and I are collaborating on a new project: 7 Shot Tennis. 7 Shot Tennis provides a pathway for player development that focuses on the use of mental representations and purposeful and deliberate practice. The “7 shots” refer to the seven areas of the tennis court that are your targets. But, of course, it’s more than that.
If UTR is about games won and games lost to achieve a rating, 7ST is about how points are won and points lost. When you’re keeping score in tennis, the point is the basic or fundamental unit in the whole game. 7ST is an organized way of thinking about what goes on in a point that you can observe. But, if you take that thinking at least one more step, it’s also about the shots that lead up to the conclusion of points. Shots are the fundamental units of points.
In June of 2019, Steve Clark completed the first edition of Standardized Tennis Match Charting, Instruction and Certification Manual (published by 7 Shot Tennis, LLC). The Manual takes you through a step by step process of how to watch a point and, if desired, record pertinent information about points. There are five recognized levels of match-charting, with Level 1 being the most basic and Level 5 being the most comprehensive. Each level of match-charting is useful in its own right as a tool for keeping track of a player’s in-match point-production effectiveness and shot-making strengths and weaknesses. The level of match-charting that you may want to use at any given time will likely depend on how, as either a tennis player, instructor, coach or spectator, you will use that information.
To help identify those individuals who have mastered the fundamentals of tennis match-charting, 7 Shot Tennis now offers online certification tests at each of the five recognized levels of match-charting. Level 1 tests for a fundamental understanding of scoring and recognizing a positive or negative result of the last shot of a point. Level 2 builds on Level 1 to add stroke recognition. At Level 3 you learn to recognize and add the 7 Shot target areas. The first three levels will prepare you to add the final touches to your understanding of shot effects and players’ tactical positions, as well simple concepts of rally counts and multi-shot combinations, which are tracked at Levels 4 and 5. As you complete and pass each level, you will receive a certificate of mastery at that level. Upon completion of the whole 5-level curriculum you will have acquired the skill to be a very sophisticated and discerning point analyst. With a good solid base of Level 1 understanding, and proper preparation for each successive online test, you may be able to finish each test in as little as 30 minutes.
Getting to the Point
So why 7 Shot Tennis? There are, after all, already several tennis analytics businesses. I think they all contribute something. At the same time, whether I’m looking at highly technological products, or relatively easy apps to track points, or programs that segment points from the dead time in matches, I’m still left with questions about what happened in a point. And, frankly, many… if not most… of the analytics that we often hear or read, although technically accurate, simply don’t get to the real point.
For example, many charting systems tell me whether the last shot in a point was a winner, a forced error, or an unforced error. Great!…. but where did that last shot land? Is there a significance to where it was hit from? If I was forced into an error, shouldn’t I be at least as interested in knowing what kind of shot forced me into that error, as what kind of errant shot I ended up hitting? If I hit an easy put-away volley at the net, shouldn’t I be at least as interested in knowing what shot (or sequence of shots) allowed me to get to the net for the easy put-away, as how I hit the put-away, itself. Even if I’m shown where the ball was hit from, was the tactical situation offensive or defensive? Or was it neutral? Very importantly, what was the next to the last shot a player hit before hitting a winner? Often the sequence of shots leading to a winner started 2 to 3 shots earlier in the point. These are among the things I’d want to know if I’m interested in player development.
What has long been needed is a simple, universal, standard language for observing and recording meaningful and useful tennis match information that anyone can use…. on any tennis court for any level of tennis player. 7 Shot Tennis answers that need.
The 7 Shot Tennis Newsletter, THE POINT (that’s what you’re reading right now)
The Standardized Tennis Match Charting, Instruction and Certification Manualestablishes 7 Shot Tennis as the universal standard language for how to observe and describe points. In upcoming issues of THE POINT I’ll be explaining how players, coaches and fans of tennis at all levels can take the information and mental representations you’ve learned and turn them into purposeful and deliberate practices and build game plans for matches.
To get your copy of the Manual and more information about the 7 Shot Tennis Certification Program CLICK HERE.
Email YourGame@7ShotTennis.com to make sure you’re on the mailing list to receive future issues of THE POINT.
Dave Howell