Hey everyone, welcome to the third episode of Baseline Intelligence. The podcast is a better tennis player and a smarter athlete. I'm your host Jonathan Stokke. Today's guest is Craig O'Shannessy, the leading strategy analyst for the ATB Tour. He recently spent three years on Novak Jokovic's team as his data and strategy analyst, helping him win four major titles and regained the top spot in the rankings.
In today's episode, we're going to discuss how he got his start in analytics, what your strategy should be in the first four shots at the point, why coming to the net is still an effective play, and what makes him cringe when he watches the tennis match. So sit back, relax, prepare to become a smarter tennis player. All right, Craig, welcome to the pod. Well, I'm here in beautiful stunning Melbourne Australia and it's great to talk to you this morning.
Yes, I appreciate you taking the time. I know you're going to be busy down under, but you know, first thing I wanted to get into is, you know, you had a long career as a player, you played in college, and then obviously it become a world-renowned coach, but at what point in your career? Did you start to use data and tagging as a way to effectively choose?
The correct strategy to match. I graduated from Baylor University in 1991. That same year was the first time the professional men's tour started recording official data. So before 1991, we have nothing. You know, we're guessing.
And obviously, you know, there's a lot of good tennis and a lot of things happened in our sport before 1991. So when I finished college, I have a journalism degree, I'm figuring out, do I go to the journalism side? I've already worked for Newspaper Australia for about a year and a half before I went to college. So I really enjoy that side of life.
The tennis side kind of drew me over there and I went with the coaching route and, you know, very soon I'm from like, how do I help the players that I'm working with, whether they're juniors at a club or, you know, starting to work on the professional tour? How do I help them win more matches?
And I'm kind of looking at the big picture, the whole pie and, you know, there's technique that means refining this, you know, the agility on the court, there's fitness, there's strength, there's diet. But the one thing that stood out to me the most was this patterns apply.
And in order to figure out which pattern is better than the other, is it actually better to hit a four-year and then a back end? Is it good to go to the net or stay back? You know, is it good to be a consistent player is a better to be an aggressive player?
So in order to figure out all of those questions and to help the players that I'm working with, when more matches, you just need data. You need, you need to figure out, you know, it's the percentages that are going to dictate, you know, what is right and what's right. Certainly what is better.
So early on, what was the most significant thing that you learned through the video and the data that maybe disproved something you previously believed to be true by your feel or just something that you intuitively thought was correct as a player?
Yeah, I would go back to probably 1998. There was, I'm running an academy in Aubrey and I have some players staying with me. There's probably five players that are there. One of them was an extremely good junior. He would go on a couple years later to be the number one ranked junior in Australia, Andrew Bronnerberg.
And they had recorded the Washington ATP final, which was Andre Agassi versus Scott Draper. And they came home one evening. They're sitting down, you know, after the final they put the VHS tape in the recorder and they start watching it. And they're sitting having dinner. I'm back at another table that I'm kind of watching the match from afar. But most importantly, I'm listening to what these kids are saying. And Draper starts hot.
In the first 10 points, he's hit six winners. And I'm watching this from a viewpoint is that it's completely unsustainable. And he's going for winners because he has to. Andre is controlling the point. But at this stage, Scott's kind of getting lucky at the end of the point. But I'm listening to the players in the room watching the TV and they are enamored with what Scott is doing and loving what Scott is doing.
So I keep listening and keep watching and it gets to to all in the first set. And they're like, you know, we kind of pause it. And I asked him, like, well, who do you think it's going to win? And they're like, well, we think Scott's going to win because we didn't know the final result because he's, you know, he's hitting more winners. He's paying more spectacular tennis. You know, he's kind of red wine. He ain't like Scott Scott this match. There's no problem.
At the end of the match, Scott doesn't win another game. It's six to six for Andre. So after dinner, I go back and sit down with them and pause things. So, you know, Andre, I would say, where do you think Andre serving you? Scott being a wefty, the back ends a little bit weaker, he sizes it a lot.
And I went, where do you think Andre serving? They're like, well, probably wide the Scott's back end. What, well, where do you think that balls coming back cross courts Andre is for him? And then where do you think Andre is going to hit that ball? So once we go through those those first four games and get to two all. These kids, all of a sudden, because we're pausing and asking questions and adding up what's happened so far in the match and looking at the patterns of play.
When, and essentially when a point had started and flowed initially through the ad court, which is Scott's lefty for into Andre's back end, Scott had won all six points. When the point flowed through the juice court, Andre went one five and last one. So it was a very kind of even obvious game plan, you know, juice court points were favoring Andre and had court points for favoring Scott.
But overall, Andre was understanding that and Andre was countering that strategy by starting to play more through the middle. So we finished it about one in the morning. And these kids said at the end that there weren't more in that period of time analyzing those first four games of that match than they had in their entire tennis career is combined. So I finally figured out video, but the it's not only just watching video, it was the ability to pause the video.
It was the ability to pause the video midpoint and asked the question, where should this go and why should it go there and where is it coming back? Because the kids it was kind of the first time that they've contemplated a point from a two way perspective. So that really stood out to me and helped a lot. I then did 2000 Australian open a couple of matches there. There was around a 16 Scott, excuse me, Mark Phillip, versus against Andre Agassi where Andre wins that in four.
And then the final against the Feltico where he wins in four. And so I put three of those. I got the VHS tapes and and Bernadolts were DVD. So I start with the first four games against Draper, then a few points against Paul Pussis, then then a few points against the Feltico. And what you see with Andre is that he's modifying his game based on these three opponents against Scott.
It was pounding the juice caught out wide of the backhand against Mark. It's pounding the backhand out wide now on the ankle because he's a righty, but also running him hard to the juice caught what he stuck over there. And against the Feltico, it's just running inside the side making an athletic battle. So the kids could see that Andre's modifying his game based on the opponents is not just doing exactly what he wants to do. He's plugging into the weaknesses.
So you know, this is on the 1998 to 2000 and you know, that's where everything came together for me, you know, to look at the court and to understand it in a different manner. You know, you're talking about Andre changing his game plan, you know, to the weaknesses of his opponent on that day.
Do you think you still want to focus, I've heard you say this before, but you want to focus more on your opponent than yourself that you are the second most important person on a court. But does that philosophy change based on the level of your opponent. So if you're, you're much stronger than your opponent, do you still maintain that philosophy?
Yeah, it's a really good question. And so it's like a slide rule that goes back and forth, you know, is the attention more on me and what I want to do today is to attention more on the opponent. You know, working with Novak for three years, when he four slams during that period of time, getting him back to number one in the world.
You know, that's the ultimate test. That's the ultimate test. You know, do I go in to the strategy sessions with Novak and say, no, that you're just, you're just flat out better than this other guy on the other side of the court. Just do what you want to do. That's not the conversation that I would continually have with him. And it wasn't the feedback that he was searching for. Our first discussion was the 2017 Australian Open, where we first got together.
And we're at Melbourne Park, we're in the play a restaurant, we sit down, it's Murray and Vider and Novak myself. And, you know, the first question is like, Novak, you know, how can I best help you? He's answer said was great. There's three things, three things that I want from you. The first is my game. The first is understanding me goes for sure.
There's things that I'm doing on the court that I think are right. But your data may prove that it's maybe not the best option. It's not the highest percentage option. I want you to study my game. I want you to figure out, you know, the things that I'm doing well that I should do more of and the things that areas that I need to improve.
So that was kind of number one. The second is every time I step on court against an opponent, I want a game plan. I want to know about them. I want to know their strengths and weaknesses. I want to know, you know, I don't want to do on any surprises when I walk out there. There'll be some players that I've never played before and there'll be some players that maybe haven't played great, but all of a sudden I've got hot and a tournament. We need to know why we need to be ready for that.
And then the third thing was I want you to pay particular attention to my main rivals, the guys at the top and just what we need to know those guys inside out. We need to know them better than they know us. So through those three years, the majority of the time, almost, you know, 95% of the time, the discussion was always about the opponent, the discussion was how to plug into that opponent.
And yes, I'm constantly giving that feedback about who he is as a player and what he does well. And, you know, should he be hitting more forearms than back hands and, you know, the answer is absolutely yes. You do have the world's best back in, but the foreign is still the bigger weapon. The sword and the shield analogy was great for him. The data analytics on where he's hitting winners was great for him.
So, so yes, in general, there will be days that you'll go out there and step on the court. It's just like, I don't care who's on the other side of the court. It may as well be a fog over there. I'm just hitting it at this fog. I can't see the person. I don't know if they're left hand or right handed, but you know, I'm going to do what I like to do. And that's going to be good enough.
Yes, there will be days like that, but the majority of the time is not spent that way. The majority of the time is doing your homework on the opponent, knowing their tendencies, forcing them into law for any options that they don't want to be playing. And, you know, it's you've got to know your enemy. You've got to know what's happening on the other side of the court. So if they get hot for a little bit in a part of the court.
It's okay. We waited out. We know that, you know, you're not that great in that area. We know I have a two sets that things aren't, you're not going to continue this. So, yeah, I'm still a huge believer and proponent of the opponent is the most important person on a tennis court, not yourself.
When you were scouting for Novak and looking at his opponents, how did you control for the tactics that they were using on that particular day. So, for example, if Agassi was playing a lefty, he might be serving wide in the do's court to the backhand more often than he normally would. How would you control for that when scouting an opponent?
There's a couple of areas there is that because our game plan very much focused on the opponent, you know, it was, if you know if Novak's playing, you know, it was, it was basically very much modeled on what Andre was doing. You know, three matches. If he's playing a lefty, we're going to play more to this part of the court. If he's playing a righty with a week backhand, you play more to this part of the court.
You know, so Novak's tactics were constantly evolving. And I would talk to him all the time and say, good luck to the opponents trying to scout you because we're constantly more thing and adapting to the opponent. So, you know, I think it'll be very difficult to watch five Novak's matches and seeing him doing the identical thing against all five opponents. It just, it's just not happening because he's changing up based on based on the opponents.
So that was, there was one thing and the second thing was there was areas of his game that the statistics that, you know, I sit on the side of the court and watch the match or I'm on the other side of the world recording the match. And I wanted this coaching Regie Brown back in, I think 2011. So, you know, the story starts. I'm at Wimbledon.
You know, it's later in the afternoon. I think I just worked with Melinda Zink. And she wins, she beat Sam Stoße at Wimbledon, who was like the number eight seed. We go to the Dog and Fox, we're celebrating the victory. It's all about the game plan, Melinda followed it perfectly and it works. Emwellks Regie, and a good friend of mine, Andy Miller. And, you know, we're like, hey, Regie, how you doing? You know, we're up here celebrating a big win.
And he's like, well, I got knocked out of qualities, my ranking struck, you know, I won Atlanta. She's now won Newport. You go, but all those points are gone. I'm now back to like 180 the world, 28 years of age. You know, I'm being told that I shouldn't serve and volley. I've been told that, you know, it's all about the baseline. I'm trying to adapt my game, but I'm just, it's just not working.
So, I talked to him like, you know, your game style is to go forward. Your game style is serving. You're games. I was going to the net. I'm like, I don't know who's telling you to stay back, but you know, you could be one of the slowest players to ever, to ever play our sport. It's just not your, it's just, you know, not your wheelhouse to do that.
And finally, he said, well, I've hired a fitness trainer to get fitter and faster. And I know this guy is actually from my 110 in Australia. I'm Robert Ballard. And he's a great friend of mine. And I said, well, you know, the first thing you need to do is buy your fitness trainer and start working with me because I want to teach you the patterns of play that you need.
And so we kind of got in and it got a little argy bargey throughout the evening and the other guys are saying, well, it's all about fitness. I'm like, it's not about fitness. It's about patterns. So the night ended, I wasn't quite sure, you know, if we're she was going to call me again, or if we needed a couple of months to let that simmer and settle down, but, you know, about a week later, it calls me up.
It's like I've been thinking what about what you said. It completely makes sense. Let's get started. So the first one was Atlanta. And he went a couple of times qualifying. I go to Atlanta for main draw. He's got Dimitrov, I believe in the first round. And be team in straight. Then he's got healed in the second round, be team in three. And then has match points against Ryan Harrison and loses. But here's where this story comes together.
I sat on the side of the court and watched all three matches. So you think from a coaching standpoint, my understanding of those three matches is through the roof. But I went a step further. I, you know, I was the coach that bought my cam quarter and a pole and I hung it up at the end of the quarter. I was the only coach doing it back at the time and I video the match.
So then you like Craig, you've gone the extra step and you've got the video of the match to study. Well, there's another level is that I put it into done fish and I tagged the match. And so I've got all the, all the analytics of the match as well. I've got everything cut up. So you would say, Craig, there's no possible way you could learn more from doing this, but there was another way.
So I looked at all three matches and I'm like, okay, we're just you know that this is happening. This is happening. And then by accident, I happened to pull. I didn't even know I could do this. But I haven't pulled all three matches in to the tagging panel at once, which made all the analytics combined.
And all of a sudden I look at it's like, oh, this is interesting. I've got three matches of analytics together as one unit. And all of a sudden, I look and notice the opponents had 18 back in when there's a regime to have one. And that's kind of a red flag. I'm like, you know, that's that's way off. You know, we won two of the matches have match point in the other. 18 to one is very off sided.
So I don't look at regime one back and winner. It's a net court. So it may as well be zero. So he played three matches and had zero back in winners. I'm like, jeez, is he's back in really that bad. So I go, hopefully he's hitting back ends down the line.
Forcing for hand errors. So I've gone look at the opponent for hand errors. I think there were 54. There was not one of them not one. Force from a route, a regime's back in down the line. So I'm like, we've got ourselves a real hole here. He's back and is not only not producing any winners whatsoever. But it's not forcing any for and errors down the line, which back in the other lines, it should be.
So I talked to a jeep about this. I'm like, do you realize that you had basically essentially no back in winners in these three matches like, yeah, it's a real hole. You know, I lose to lefties and I've lost a righties with with a much better back. So we figured out from that that hitting his back and cross caught was basically counterproductive. You know, he received love system in the middle of the court hit four hands.
He's kind of old school is not about the run around for hand is about the juice court for and hitting it through the juice court. So to cut, you know, the long story short, for the next year, you go from 180 back into 80 in the world. We had him serving the following all the time. We're adding chipping and charging on returns all the time. And we had him basically hitting no back ends cross caught.
The backhand went to position B, which is down the middle, slightly in the juice court. It comes back slightly in the middle to the juice court. The him many crushing four hands. So my goal as a coach was to get him out of the out of the wide backhand position of the court and we were able to achieve that. But it was only because I luckily stumbled on the 18 versus one, which I would never have known if I hadn't put all those things together.
So that's kind of the evolution of strategy and how how you can help a player and how something very small and almost a mistake help resurrect these singles career. That's a really neat story. And I just had him on my last podcast. Yes. My favorite my favorite part might be that you called him the slowest player in the history of the sport. I think he probably is. I mean, you're not really ready. It's he's great. He managed that that might be so well.
That is so funny. All right. Let's let's shift gears a little bit. You're kind of famous for bringing awareness to the fact that most points are four made shots or less. Do you think it's more important to learn how to make the first two shots you hit or to learn how to make your opponent miss those first two shots? Good question. So you've got a first serve, a first serve return, a second serve, a second serve return, and then a serve plus one and a return plus one that follow that.
So if the and the four very, very distinct battles that produce wildly different statistics. So if you're serving with the first serve your job and I learned this from making highlight wheels of videos for players. So the highlight with the typical highlight reel from a player starting points with their first serve is that the highlight was going to be full of three shot rallies.
So the serve went and the one and the rally is predicated by the ball landing in the court not being struck by the strings. So a three shot rally is the serve one in the return one in and the serve plus one is in the next shot can be hit. But it's got has to be an error in order for it to be a three shot rally or that surplus one balls and winner. So the highlight was full of those and it's full of return errors and it's full of the server ending up at the net.
The number one time a player will appear at the net is in the three shot rally. So that's what we're looking for there. So when you're hitting first serves, that's what you're after you're not the longer the point goes the the halo effect of the how effect of the serve last for two shots. So you get a three shot rally and a five shot rally and essentially all odd numbered points can only be won by the server. So if the rally length is one three five seven nine eleven, the server have to win it.
Two four six eight ten the return to have to win it. So essentially behind the first serves you want three shot rallies and you want you want to be at the net. So there's a lot of offense around that on second serves way different. You're lucky. It's a great day at the office. If you win 50% of your second serve points. So the highlight real is actually what I'm looking for and our second says is reduce the double faults. That's a big deal. Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot. So let's push.
Zero is not the number we're after. But you know one or two's fine. But the huge thing is to survive the the surplus one so the return is going to be aggressive. They're probably coming down the middle court at you. And what happens the most you know the number one rally length in tennis is a one shot rally, which is a return error. But the second most prolific rally like this is it's three then it's two and the two is the serve women the return went in and and then there's an error.
So I'm behind a second serve you're looking to survive you're looking to not make the surplus one error on the the flip side on the returning. You want to make against the person you want to make the first serve return and then almost always you're going to be on defense hitting a back end and you want to make that ball cross court. So that's about surviving.
But against a second serve you want to attack. So you want to you want to really get after the second serve. And most importantly you want to hit a return plus one for hand. So for different battlefields each with very different analytics and you've got to kind of switch on and off between them in order to be a successful as you possibly can be so. So that's how I've grown to teach it and you know the analytics have taught me that yes if you're hitting a first serve or a second serve return.
And you're looking to immediately force errors if you're hitting a second serve or a first serve return you're looking to survive the first four shots you're looking to extend past that and and get into into a you know the five through eight range where you can run a successful pattern apply. With the pro players you're working with now what percentage of their practice do you recommend that they work on their serving return plus ones.
Good God I just I was just with Alexi Poperon who I'm now coaching we were 10 days in my Bayer we were seven days into buy preseason the first four days the only thing he hit was returns four days returns. Basically for the rest of it 95% was serves return surplus one return plus one and that's outside of him playing you know practice sets.
But you know we did we also did a lot of volley technique a lot of approach and volley and some patterns that you know again he six foot five and that's who he uses a player it'll be different a little bit different.
But you're working with Diego Schwarzen but not much but not much Diego still you know like all players on the planet he's a first strike player and you know winning and losing happens way more and zero to four than anywhere else so today's game is not about just going out of rowing and hitting balls.
Before we had match analytics before 1991 now we have the match analytics you want to cut the match caught up in the segments and take those segments and go to the practice court and practice those specific segments. That's great advice I mean you've been to plenty of junior tournaments I'm sure in your career and you said it even at the pro level it's it's a lot of just ground strokes back and forth and now that the information is out there I'm still surprised.
That I haven't seen those practices change that drastically I still see a lot of that hitting back and forth and I know consistency is important and you want to feel good but I'm still still shocks me a little bit is that surprise you yeah you know it is it's a really good point there has been changes made you know I speak each year the Australian open coaches conference and there's so many coaches here in Australia that will come up to me and say I've changed my practices I'm doing way more so I'm doing way more returning.
And you know it's an honor to give those coaches the information and let them run with it and do it I consult with the Italian Federation and I know for a fact as I go around the country and I speak to all of their coaches that they're making big changes over there but it's not always the same I think probably the state is still
stagnated in the idea that wet's just hit balls and you know it there's a purpose like I a couple years ago I bought a little portable ball machine it's phenomenal you know but I use it to stand next to the player you know I've got a remote control my phone to work on their technique but to also you know I'm putting them in position C which is the run around for
the hitting deep position C so we're working on technique and tactics at the same time you know there's there's almost never in any of my practices is the player just going out on the court you're going okay we're just hitting back and forth there's no control factor there's there's you know there's no purpose it's it's just rallying to the sake of hitting a ball so I think in pockets around the world
federations and academies and coaching groups have really embraced it but you know it's like everything it hasn't it hasn't caught on everywhere yet but you know good luck trying to try to avoid it because you know it's just everything is based on the analytics of the match and you know we've got tons of junior data now we've got tons of college data so we see where the
juniors are going to and you know it's just a progression of the pros and you know you you have to be you have to be good in zero before you have to be in order to be maximizing your potential. Let's talk a little bit about what happens between the points on your website grand game tennis you have a whole course about how you should be handling between the points more of an emotional mental course.
I saw a fantastic video of Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open and his pre-shot routine was almost exactly 13.2 seconds for every shot. I mean the dude was a robot. Do you keep any data of the players that you have that holds them accountable to their pre-shot routine and then maybe the effect that has on the resulting point. Absolutely you know the the first course that I put out was the 25 gold rules a single strategy then I did the doubles version 25 gold rules a double strategy.
The next course was called between the points you know I value what happens between the points so much to the final outcome and that's why I went with that really early on as one of the early courses. There's always two matches that you play and it's what's happening during the point and what's happening between the points and between the points you know the routine that the players doing is so incredibly important.
You know you're exactly right when you talk about is it is having that routine and especially when we talk about Tiger Woods having that routine between the points it's so critical and so vital and it helps you. You know deal with the adversity and I think you know one of the best things I've told players is that is the analogy of the storm cloud is that every single match you play.
There is going to be adversity in this somewhere don't go out on the court thinking no adversity is going to come your way there is going to be moments in time there's going to be break points is going to be. When the opponent starts coming back at you all of a sudden you start missing some points maybe you get a little tight that's normal those moments are going to happen so.
The storm cloud will come it may come early in the match it may come in the first game it may come in the last game it may come in the start of the second set who knows we don't know yet. But you control two elements of that storm cloud you control how big it becomes so when that adversity moment arrives are you going to blow it out of proportion are you going to give it oxygen are you going to blow onto the flames and make it bigger than it needs to be are you going to.
Except that it's there except that it was always coming and deal with it in the right way and deal with it much more in a mental manner than an emotional manner so we want to reduce the size that and secondly we don't want it to hang around for long so you also control how long it stays there you control the size and you control the duration and and that really helps players understand that.
You know these moments are coming it's the job is not to avoid these moments the storm clouds come it's guaranteed they're coming the deal is is how how do you handle that adversity so that that's a big one in the second one that I enjoy is I caught the leaking cup where imagine you have a styrofoam cup and it's you take a pen and you put a little hole right in the bottom just a little hole and so it's just got this slow week.
And I make the analogy that the cup is your brain and the water that fills it is is your thoughts is your strategy is you know what's going on it's all the emotions as well that's in the match it's it's it's the mental emotional component that to understand that the cups leaking so what you want to do that water represent the positive game plan the way that you're figuring out the opponent the strategy adjustments that you're making it's all the things that you're making.
It's all the things that are positive that you need to do well to win the match but because it's leaking it has the potential just to go to zero and there's nothing left in there. You know it's like a period of time I started so well I was thinking but you know after the first set I didn't know what I was doing so I told him that you always must be feeling the cup up with positive thoughts and the right game plan.
You need to have an awareness of that game point you need to have an awareness of what's going on the other side of the court you need to know when an opponent's backhand is all of a sudden breaking down when the 4 and it's getting hot you need to know these things so you're always filling the cup up with little thoughts of a game plan and positive thoughts on how you need to handle yourself and if you don't fill it up all of a sudden there's this air in there and that air represents negativity and represents just nothing at all that's going on.
And so if you're not filling it up and putting water in that cup constantly throughout the match there's a really good chance that that cup is going to go empty and but you know by the second or third set you have no idea what's going on the opponent knows you better than you know them and essentially you have no chance of finishing the match strongly winning the match even though you started so well with a full couple of water so those two analogies of served well teaching that over the years.
Those are fantastic I haven't heard either of those but I'm certainly going to use them so when you talk about the storm cloud coming to me what I hear is that's the 40 to 45% of points you're pretty much guaranteed to lose every single match you play. Or no yes and no yes and no because for some players yes which is ridiculous is that you know they're losing a point and they act like they shouldn't ever lose a point I mean you know it's I did another course with Jeff Greenwald.
And Jeff had this amazing story in there you know it's okay to lose points and you have permission to miss and permission to miss is such a great phrase is that if you're running the right strategy and hitting the ball to the right part of the court and you miss it you have permission to do that.
And buying that with knowing that if you win 6363 you're still losing 45% of all points you play if you're number one in the world you're still you're only 155% of all points you play and the idea that Jeff also has as a quota you know if you go on the court and say I'm okay to lose six games in this match I'm fine you know if I win three and three I'll take that right now I'll sign up for that so if you already give the quota of you know the opponent can win six games when they win one game in two games and three games.
You know it's not freaking you out because you're already preloaded that in so the idea of permission to miss and the idea of quota is really really good for tennis because it's just reality we want to win all points but the reality is 5545 is going to make you number one in the world.
So people like you said it shouldn't be this way but people are somehow still surprised that they're losing points in games in a competitive match and some of the way they lose those points seem to consistently affect people the same way so the first example they came to my mind was if you're playing doubles at any level and you get beat down the line with a return in the alley.
You know I think from from your research it's hey balls going through the center window that's what you want to dominate you can't lose two sets from down the line alley returns and yet people feel like that costs like five points or something that that's the vibe I get how do you use the information out there to help sooth that anxiety for those low percentage loss points.
Well the first thing I show them is this the center window video there's a point from an old tornado in Las Vegas it's the Brian brothers playing early Graham you've got I think nine shots in the rally and every single ball go through the center window I use dark fish to make a yellow area for the center window and I put black dots where the balls going through that area and just show them that that is the high percentage area you know a doubles court is making our glass you know big area at the baseline in the baseline but a small funnel.
Right above the net where the balls constantly going through and that's the area to dominate I also talk about the rule of three is that if you get beaten down the alley once still go to the middle you've been down the alley twice still go the middle if you've been down the alley a third time it's now got your attention it's now go to attention doesn't mean that you're going to ban in the middle at all that you're going to say okay I'm going to I'm going to look at that you know when I in college and in junior I mean I'm love playing doubles doubles was my jam.
And I would quite often keep a running tally of the alley how many times my opponent went down the alley and was successful with it and not successful so I would I would actually count as I get in the alley miss I'm like that's one for me they make one okay we're back to zero.
And you know that they're never they're never getting beyond plus three and that you know that then I'm going to start to shut it down but a lot of times the play that's getting beaten down the alley the real reason is the player your partner at the back is hitting the ball too wide you know feel the serving team especially you want to keep the ball in the middle of the court to enable the net player to go and and get the middle of the court because it's not opening up that wide angle you know once you look at the center window and how many balls go through there and that the traffic that's right there.
That's that's kind of where that conversation starts and and tell them it's okay it's okay to get beaten down the alley and one quick story with that is I remember watching a US Open final I believe there was two Chinese players against.
So Fina and Shabbat and I think it was first point of the match I think it was Shabbat he was serving and the Chinese player went straight down the line of Savannah second point of the match the return go straight down the line I thought that was magnificent because for the rest of the match now.
So be a Savannah and Shabbat and now looking for that ball down the line so they're going to cover that ball down the line and it's leaving that center window area wide open for the for the Chinese team to go and to go and take control of that right now so I think if you're returning I think going down the line in the first game is a great idea
it doesn't matter if you win always the point it's you're sending a message to hopefully hold that player on the line for the next hour and a half and then just enabling you to hit through the middle of the court and control the middle of the court as much as you possibly can. Looking ahead you have all these decades of information you've been studying patterns of play what do you think the next big tactic or strategy will be in the next 10 to 15 years.
So tennis goes in waves like life you know there's there's waves of dominance and and that's certainly dictated a little bit by the court surface and the court speed and the balls that are used. I think what you know the work that I'm doing to clearly show that going to the net is an amazing strategy even in today's game you know people say Craig you know the athlete is faster they're going to get to more balls than you're hit more passing shots.
The rackets are more powerful they're going to get the ball quicker past the net player the streams you put more spin on it easier to park all those things are correct.
But consistently you're still winning 65% at net that that's what it's going to be here at the Australian open it's for the man it's going to be 65% because it's at every slam it's basically 65% so the ball is going to be 65% points one the baseline for the men is going to be 46 the baseline for the women's going to be 47 because it always is.
So the more that I can have the discussion about the net and serve in Bali coming starting from an analytical standpoint the more people I think will buy into that and say going to the net is a good thing because for whatever reason it just seems way more to lose a point at the net that it does at the baseline.
But if we if we just have the analytics to kind of counter that I think that's going to be very important so I think the next wave is just showing how important it is to come to the net you know and these players like mevidev that are standing so far back. So far back it's just an obvious play an obvious play to come forward against them when they're returning from you know the third row of the stands.
I enjoy it. I love it but before you go I want to be respectful of your time but you have a few minutes to answer some Instagram questions please yes. Okay so these are the top questions that some of my followers on Instagram had for you. Number one what is the tactic that you see on the pro tour that makes you cringe the most makes me cringe the most things are made like when I'm sitting on the side of the court it makes me cringe when when a short ball comes.
And the player doesn't go to the net behind it they elect you know I call like a 50 50 ball yes you could come that yes you could stay back it's short and and players don't take it out advantage they're too scared this fear. And and this fear going to the net because there's somewhat ignorant about the percentages. And I said if you knew the percentages and you knew the pattern you would go to the net that makes me cringe. What also makes me cringe is players not attacking second serves.
Second yeah second so with the return just basically you know standing way back and just pushing it back in the plan what are you doing you know I roughly yesterday stepped in in practice and crushed a second so return. And I said he's a better player because he does this you know it makes me cringe when rapper gets a second serve he's still standing way back to return and just trying to try to go even you must attack on that.
So those those are the two things the inability or the having the lack of awareness to come forward when you absolutely should come forward and that you are absolutely going to die on a higher win percentage that those those two things may be cringe. So the single most important statistic that you would communicate to someone who's just starting to play the game of tennis.
Don't miss the first two times you touch the ball. You can miss the third touch the fifth touch the 13th touch but the best piece of advice I give to a younger player is most of their errors you know tennis is about 70% errors for younger players or you know adults that are in the three five four four five round. It's higher it's probably 75% errors in the zero to four rally length it's 80% errors.
So they're missing the first two touches whether that's a double fault from the serve or it's a it's a surplus one error or it's a return or return plus one error. Those four errors serve error return error with surplus one return plus one are going to take up 80% of your errors. So if you have a thirst and a hunger to put those balls in play more than anything else and once you get past that I'm like OK.
I'm making error from now on we don't care that much because that data said all that size of the prize just so small. So that's what I would tell them practice not making errors in the first two shots putting that ball in that doesn't mean pushing because what you're also trying to do is force the error or extract the error from the other side of the court in the first four shots.
Make your first four shot errors dry up and you may create the opportunity to force those errors as much as possible in the other side of the court. As a coach where do you want your player to make their errors on offensive or defensive shots offensive but by far foreign errors foreign offensive errors fine.
Go deep miss it or miss it or rackety miss it or record length cross absolutely fine you know you have an offensive weapon that the winners in the fourth is going to be high correspondingly and also because you're hitting it so much the errors are going to be high work OK with that.
Being on defense on a back end and going down the line of missing it sacrilegious you've got to go the number one thing defense goes cross court and you and on a back end the number and roll the back end is to put the ball in play is to not miss. So do not miss your your your your your defense on a back end play defense and block it and make it cross court that's that's key.
That's gold and last question obviously because you worked with them and people are interested in one of the greatest players ever what makes joke of it's so amazing as a tennis player. There's a lot of different layers there you know physically he's a freak you know the the athleticism he's ability to move around the court he stands is so wide the balls that he can get is better than anyone.
Technically his movement is better than anyone technically is better than anyone but you know from working with him for three years you put such a premium on the opponent and understanding the opponent having a game plan and putting the opponent first he's better than anyone there he's he's studying opponents you know there's almost never is no back walking on the court.
And the opponent knows more about their game than know that knows about their game know that knows everything about his game knows everything about your game so he's mentally he's he's a step ahead there as well so when you got an opponent that. That has a superior game plan knows you better moves better and as simple technique.
How are you going to win how are you going to win you better you better you better find a way you better you better improve or you better be willing to red line something from long time in order to upset him or or do something weird like Dan Evans did. Money color with a lot of backhand slice do something.
Yeah I just read that article from you about how he actually hit more slice than top spin in that match is that right yeah yeah make no like make no that can't a ton of back hands and just do something you know make the rally slow and make the rally low what lots of backs been there so that's.
So just or you just so volley constantly against him right all the Cates that way you know getting mad getting upset and like you know another human is going to be a few days a year where he goes out and he's just you know you rolled out of bed the wrong side if you can catch him on those days he becomes human you can beat him.
Craig like I said this has been a treat for me I mean the only person that I might have been more excited to speak to on a podcast would be the left handed Spanish player that you watch yesterday cracking returns. Outside of him I swear like you you are a coaching icon for me I've learned so much from you and I appreciate. I can I cannot thank you enough for for this hour and have fun down under and we're looking forward to seeing your stuff online.
Well it's my pleasure and let's let's visit again in a couple of months and will update the Aussie open and and and and have some more questions about other topics as well. Alright that'd be great talk to you soon goodnight. All right I want to thank Craig for joining us today I got through about 20% of the questions I had for him so I'm looking forward to having him back on in the future.
There was a lot of information in that hour with Craig but two things really resonated with me first and foremost continuing to focus on the first four shots in the rally and have a greater awareness for how that point is starting. Your strategy should be different depending on whether you start the point with a first serve a first serve return a second serve or a second serve return. Clear goals and expectations will lead to a more efficient strategy.
My second takeaway was his analogy of the leaking cup and how you need to continuously fill it with positive thoughts and strategy throughout a match. I see players run their cups to empty every single day and there's no strategy out there that's good enough to overcome an emotionally exhausted player. I want to thank you all for listening I know there are a lot of podcasts out there and I'm grateful you chose to join me today.
I'm motivated to evolve and improve so please subscribe if you enjoyed the episode and leave a comment or review so we keep getting better every week. For more check out my Instagram at Stokey Tennis for clips from these podcasts as well as general drills and tips to help you're tennis team. Thanks for listening I hope you just improved your tennis without even hitting a bomb.