OK, let’s see if we can run a few numbers here for the Isner – Mahut 5th set where they played to 70-68.
We all know the guys were serving lights out, and we all know that their returns of serve when there wasn’t an ace wasn’t Agassi like.
So, I think we can assume that over the course of those 138 games, I’d be willing to bet that the average point didn’t last much longer than a serve and a return – 2 shots on average per point.
(I’m sure there’s some tennis freak out there who has actually watched the replay of that 5th set, logged each and every point, and probably knows how many shots were actually played and the number of points actually played. If that’s you, let us know, and seriously, if that’s you, we gotta get you out of the house a little more often…)
How long in terms of time does it take to hit a serve and then play back a return?
3 seconds?
So, if the guys get 25 seconds between points, and points on average are 3 seconds long, then I figure that the bopys are playing tennis about 12% of the time out there.
88% of the time is spent between points not playing points.
That’s right. How long was that 5th set? 7 hours?
So 12% of 7 hours is approximately 50 minutes.
The guys were between points over 6 hours out there.
Now look, I’m not saying that this wasn’t a feat of physical duration because just standing anywhere for 7 hours is a killer, but what I am saying is that the time spent between points during their 5th set was obviously a test of mind management. 
I talked to world class writer Joel Drucker this morning and asked him what the difference is between what the pros have to go through between points and what we have to go through between points.
Joel mentioned something that I hadn’t really thought about but was very obvious once we started discussing it.
The following is a 15 minute interview with Joel on this specific subject.
So, there you have it…
Make sure you spend some of your practice time working on how to NOT go through any self talk between points about how the strokes work. Be aware of whatever strategies you’re focused on, are they working, do they need adjusting, etc., but let’s stay away from thoughts of how to manufacture the strokes between points.
That’s really what practice is for. Take that time once or twice a week to carve out time to really work on specific stroke mechanics, and once you get into a match, absolutely trust that your practice will eventually work its way into your game without you having to be conscious of making it happen.
In the meantime, click here to pick up your copy of my lesson titled “The Mental Skills Required For Competitive Tennis Players”.
As with all of my lessons, the mental skills lesson comes with a 100% tennis player satisfaction guarantee. If I can’t help you, I won’t keep your $$s.
Brent
P.S. – Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on this post. Go to the Comments box below and let me/us know. Thanks…
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Haven’t read “Jimmy Connors Saved My Life” by Joel Drucker?
I highly recommend it. – Brent
Get your copy over at amazon.com – Click the picture below.
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How To Win More Points, Games, Sets, & Matches
Well, I didn’t chart the 5th set but….
Back about ’94 or ’95 my GF and I were watching Martina Navratolova play during a WTT match. Becky, who was just taking up tennis at the time, commented on how well Martina struck the ball. I said something like, ‘well sure, she’s probably hit millions of tennis balls’ and it got me thinking—how many tennis balls does someone hit in a month, a season, a lifetime.
Having no life, it set me on a task to try to answer that question. I don’t claim it’s ‘scientifically sound’ but here’s what I did and what I came up with:
For a full year I charted matches at all levels; singles, doubles, mixed doubles. I charted matches from 3.5 NTR through the pros. I counted balls hit in practices and warmups. I counted any ball that was hit as though it was a match play stroke (for example, a practice serve counted while a ball fed to someone out of your hand was not counted until it was hit back to you and you struck it). A serve that was a fault was counted just as an ace was. I only counted balls struck in matches that used no-ad scoring since so few of us play out sets to win by two games. Pro-set scoring was a little different so I’ll touch on that later. I developed a wierd counter in my head whereby I instictively count the number of balls I hit in a practice or warm-up. It’s stuck with me and I still do it to this day. At the end of a practice/warmup I can tell you the number of balls I hit ~ 5-10 balls. The number of strokes hit in a match per set were very similar at every level as long as the levels of the players were not seperated by more than one-half NTR point. Granted, I’m sure I made some mistakes here and there but through it I came up with these numbers:
Average number of games played/set: 9.4
Average number of balls struck by a player in a singles set: 135
Average number of balls struck by a player in a doubles match: 72
Average number of balls struck by a player during a one hour workout: 350
Average number of balls struck by a player during a pro-set: 6 per game
Since I did this ‘study’ I’ve kept a notebook for every time I’ve played. Before that time I tried to estimate how many balls I had hit. I’m your average club player who’s been playing tennis about 32 years. During my most active years after I came up with these numbers I was usually hitting 50,000-60,000 tennis balls a year. My best estimate for a lifetime currently has me at about 890,000 balls so I’ve got a couple of years work to do to get to 1 million!
I’ve told tennis friends about this from time to time and a lot of them think that it’s ‘interesting’ but wierd. I think they are right—LOL. A few of them have tested it and come up with pretty similar numbers but no one has tried it for long so…. (shrug) Has anyone else done something like this?
Now, lets see if I can find the tape of Isner/Mahut…
Terry
Uh Terry…
The bad news is that the time you took to develop your data is interesting but weird, and the good news is exactly the same, it’s interestingly weird…
One more number from you I’d like to see: How much time are we spending between points in our league and tournament matches?
Brent – Mental Skills Lesson