Personalized Player Development With Measurable Goals & An Innovative Technology Platform!

Recently, I started working with an adult tennis player who wants to get back into the game and play at a higher level. I had not seen him play before and so I needed to put together a plan of action quickly to set the stage for the series of lessons that we had decided to pursue.

During the 1st lesson, I saw him play and he mentioned a need to improve his backhand. I noticed that his backhands were falling short and therefore, we spent a good amount of time working on extension of the racquet through the strike zone and developing a longer follow-through to get more drive and depth on his backhand. This got us off to a good start and we could see how I could help him improve in this aspect of his game.

In the next lesson, as a follow-up on our prior work, I decided to include some data on his shot execution. I created a simple exercise where I had him hit backhands both cross-court and down-the-line in 3 different situations: off my feeds, off my volleys (i.e. him at the baseline and me at the net), and in a baseline-to-baseline rally. In each situation, I counted how many shots out of 50 he missed or hit short. Below is the data that I shared with him on Tenicity’s platform:

I found that having this data gave me as a coach more clarity on his shot execution capabilities. For example, in a rally situation, his combined backhand misses (6 shots) and shots falling short (11 shots) were 17 out of a total of 50 shots or 34%. So 34% of his backhands in rallies are currently being missed or are falling short. This is good data for me as a coach for a couple of reasons:

1. I have established a baseline for his current execution capabilities and can propose a tangible improvement target.
2. I feel I have a clearer focus and improvement plan for my player.
3. I can assess in a measurable way whether I have truly helped him improve his execution on his backhands.

The data was well received by him as well and has several benefits from his perspective as a player:

1. He has a clearer understanding of the problem (i.e. roughly 35% of backhands are being missed or are falling short).
2. He is motivated by achieving a clear and tangible target.
3. At the end of the lessons, he has one more way to assess his progress and the work he has put in.

I should add that the inclusion of the data is one part of the training structure that I create for my players’ development. This particular player also has a ‘Player Dashboard’ on Tenicity where I have shared with him his game assessment, strengths, opportunities, and goals. I do include quantifiable and measurable goals, which I believe, provide a clear target and action steps for my players and myself.

In conclusion, I feel that there is much benefit for players of all ages and skill levels and also for coaches to implement a development plan that includes data and measurable targets. In this regard, Tenicity has become an invaluable resource for me in bringing a data-driven and purposeful approach to my lessons. I highly encourage all coaches and players to check out the platform and begin to reap the benefits that it provides in enhancing player development and performance. I invite you to join us at www.tenicity.com and look forward to supporting your progress!

Please feel free to reach out to me to further this discussion at harsh@tenicity.com

Best,

Harsh Mankad

Brief Bio: Harsh Mankad is the Founder and President of Tenicity, an innovative player development platform that aims to unleash the tremendous untapped potential of millions of athletes around the world! Harsh is a former #1 ranked NCAA singles player who represented India in over 12 Davis Cup ties and competed on the ATP Professional Tour for 9 years. He runs a tennis program in Minneapolis and holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.