By Frank Giampaolo
fgsa@earthlink.net

1.  Charting matches will allow you to systematically evaluate their performance. The focus will be on their performance goals and not their outcome goals.
2.  Charting tournament matches is a terrific way to get details about the actual performance of your player. It is also a great stress buster for you!
3.  Charting produces important information to your child and their coaches! It provides facts versus opinions. There are dozens of types of charts. You can get as detailed or as basic as you like depending on the players age and ability level. 
4.  Charting will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your child. (Special note: It is often meaningful to chart the opponent as well!)
5.  Charting will also spot what we call “Reoccurring Nightmares’. These are issues that tend to show up week after week.  Be aware that charts will be slightly different depending on the style of opponent your child is facing.
6.  You’ll make a positive impact on your child’s game by providing the coaches with the results of your findings.

Basic Charts to Use with Younger Champion:

1. Unforced Error versus Winner Chart
Young U.S. national champions generate about 10 unforced errors to 8 winners a set!

2. Serving Percentage Charts
First serve %, serving location (FH/BH)

3. Type of Error Chart
 Offensive, neutral, defensive shot selection errors

4. Cause of Error Charts
Stroke mechanics, shot selection, movement, and focus

5. Court Positioning Chart
Points won/lost behind the court vs inside the court

6. Mega Point Chart
The critical game points won/lost

7. Length of Point Chart
Points your child hits 3-or less, 4-or more strokes

8. Depth of Groundstroke Chart
Inside the service boxes versus back court

9.Between Point Ritual Chart
Percentage of points played beginning with versus without rituals.

10.Service Holds and Service Breaks
Service games W/L, Return games W/L

Challenge your player to let go of worrying about winning and to focus on improving their charts in the upcoming week!

____________________________________________________________________

Nicole here!

I’ve been scouring the Internet looking for charts for you to use.  This is one I would like to try from ProTracker however I’m a Blackberry girl and this app is only available for iPod Touch and iPhone. Maybe I’ll borrow Lauren’s and try it out.  This one from ChartmatePro is available for the Palm OS.  Performance Tennis Solutions has these paper-based forms to try out.

When my husband was in the Tennis Tech program in Tyler, Texas, he was certified for something called compuserve which had these incredible match charts to fill out. He still uses the paper version (I guess the data is supposed to be loaded in a computer program to determine tendencies, but we don’t have that) but it’s a bit too complex for me. I can handle an 80-lap race lap chart, but I’m still new enough to the sport that I have difficulty seeing things as he, or many other parents who play tennis, do.

If you have a match chart you’d be willing to share with the rest of us, please send me a PDF and I’ll be happy to post it.