Tennis Analysis and Mini-Studies

This section includes various tennis industry research reports. The topics range from the state of the tennis industry to point probability.

Optimizing Meaningful Contacts in Tennis Practice   (2017)
Teaching professionals and coaches should strive to maximize the number of meaningful contacts in a practices by maintaining a balance of random, blocked, and other activity (water breaks, picking up balls, etc.).

Meeting the Needs of High School Tennis Players – Observations and Analysis of Colorado High School Tennis (2016)
What can the stakeholders in high school tennis do to improve the experience for high school tennis players in Colorado and other states? High school tennis is the largest junior tennis program in Colorado. More than 7,000 high school Colorado athletes play boys and girls high school tennis – that’s the good news. Unfortunately, at a time when industry leaders have published data showing that tennis is growing at the national level, data from the NFHS (http://www.nfhs.org/) shows that participation in Colorado high school tennis has declined in recent years. Why is that happening and what can be done to reverse that trend? This document raises questions about some of the challenges facing Colorado high school tennis. For example, do programs cost too much? What is the purpose of high school tennis? How can stakeholders work more closely together for the good of the sport?

Tennis Movement and Stroke Production for Competitive Players (2015).
This chartbook shows the technique of competitive collegiate players for the purpose of illustrating their technique. The athlete are very smooth in their movement and stroke production. At the same time they are contortionists. These pictures illustrate the importance of training that helps athletes withstand the bumps and bruises associated with playing tennis and to properly provide support to players who are in physical therapy for injuries.
Where is the Tennis Industry Really Headed? (2013)
This analysis of the tennis industry was prepared at the time the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) released its annual report about the industry for 2012. As expected, industry leaders spun the positive aspects of the report and rightfully so. Spin is important, but businesses in the industry operate in a world of reality –  spin and reality are often quite different.

Jennifer Brady, UCLA
Jennifer Brady, UCLA

Gender of Coaches and Residence of Players (2013)
Do universities recruit too many foreign and out-of-state players for their teams? Are their more men or women coaching in PAC-12 college programs?

33 Hits in 45 Minutes (2011)
Recreation programs have a reputation of offering programs that have too many students and rookie instructors. The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate the importance of having a proper environment for entry-level programs. With quality instructors, the 16-kids-at-the-net-volley-drill will go by the wayside. These slides were shared with recreation program leaders with suggestions about how to improve their program. Two years after that discussion they met with a local USPTA professional and adopted QuickStart Tennis as a tool for improving their tennis programs.

What’s the Point of it All? (1996)
This brief article is based on a working paper and a presentation made at the USPTA World Conference in the early 1990s.  The topic is point probabilities in a tennis match. Players who have an understanding of point probabilities can effectively manage their points won and points lost typically have better success on the courts.

An understanding of point probability can help a player win the close matches.

Increasing the Capacity of Tennis in Boulder (2011)
Most sports aficionados visualize skiing, mountain biking, hiking or climbing when they think of Boulder, Colorado. Very few realize that  Colorado is a hot spot for tennis, yet Colorado is an exceptionally strong tennis state in terms of USTA participation.  The brief presentation presents some of the demographics that illustrate the merits of having more indoor tennis courts in Boulder.