You need only need 52%
Guess what? When you play a match, you’re not going to win every point. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But how many do you have to win, on average, to win more matches than you lose? 75%? 65%? 60%?
Lleyton Hewitt won 52% of the points he played in his career. While Roger Federer won 55% of his points. Even in his best season Roger only won 58%. Puts things into perspective doesn’t it? It means that on average, you can lose nearly every second point and still win the match.
Deep win. Shallow loss.
Thinking about this is really important because the way a player responds and reacts to losing points is critical, especially when they'll lose almost half of the points in a match.
One of the theories I've heard around matches is deep wins, shallow losses. The idea is that you celebrate the wins deeply, because they don’t come along that often, and you move on from a loss quickly.
Players who win matches only win 52 to 54% of the points
Wipe away the point.
You can take the deep win, shallow loss theory into point play.
Win an important point - ride the wave of the emotion and make sure your energy stays up. Lose an important point – move on quickly.
A practical way to build a habit of moving on is to go to the back of the court, grab your towel and use it as a physical cue to wipe away the point and refocus on the next one.
Don’t ride the loss train
Why this is so important is because of what I call riding the loss train. Let’s say you play a match that has 100 points. And you win 54 of them, so 54%. That means your opponent has won 46 points or 46%. Chances are you will have won that match. But let's say your opponent won an extra point. So, they've won 47%. That means that you have now won 53%. Still probably a win. But every time your opponent wins a point, you lose one and this push pull mechanism means that each time you play a point, its almost worth two.
So, if you're holding on to negative emotions and lose two, three, four points in a row, you can almost double that in the context of the match. And suddenly what could have been a win, becomes a loss. You’ve just rode the loss train.
Focus on what happens next
As coaches, a way to avoid our players riding that loss train and teach them to move on, is to not dwell on what they have done wrong in the point but instead focus on what should happen next. The message should always be ‘That point is done, wipe it away and focus on what’s next.’
Because players will lose a lot of points in a match – that’s a given. But they only have to win a few more points than their opponent to walk away with the win.
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Regards,
Marc Sophoulis