a level pe coursework tennis

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Sports Analysis (Tennis)

Will Hawkins

Sports Analysis Assignment 2

To ensure the completion of this task, I am going to be analysing a professional athlete on how well they perform in the various skills and components of a tennis player. Once I have the results for the tests I am going to analyse the results and performance to gain a further indication on what needs and improving and also how. To achieve the best possible results for maximum benefits out of the assignment, I am going to be analysing myself and comparing them to Andy Murray who is the player I have mostly modelled myself on. Also I am going to try to improve my results over time to hopefully improve my overall standard of play.

Player Profiles

The different aspects of performance I am going to be testing, analysing and feeding back on are stamina as a physiological aspect that is important for a tennis player. For a biomechanical aspect of a tennis player I am going to be analysing serving technique and the acceleration of the racket during the serve. I am also going to be using decision making as a psychological and tactical aspect that a tennis player needs to perform well.

I am going to test and analyse the different aspects in a lots of different ways depending on what I believe to be the most accurate method with the facilities available. To test stamina the best test to use would be a treadmill test with a Douglas bag to assess the concentration of the expired air. However this equipment is expensive and not easily available, so instead I am going to be using a multistage fitness test, more commonly known as the bleep test. I am going to conduct it 5 times to make sure that the results are consistent and reliable and make sure there are no outliers, when this is done I am going to calculate the average score and also the range of the scores.

Biomechanically I am going to be looking at a factor that is vital. I will be looking at the serving technique and how this affects the success rate of your serve. To test these I am going to be measuring serving percentage during repeated tests and calculate an average and a range. I am going to be using video analysis to compare my serving technique to that of Andy Murray and analyse areas that need improvement. I will be conducting a serving exercise that will need me to do 10 serves from each side, 5 times. This will allow me to create a mean, and therefore give a more accurate result when I come to making it into data.

To test and analyse decision making I am going to be using a psychological questionnaire covering the key areas of psychology and do tests for the key areas, focusing on the more tennis specific ones, concentration, handling of pressure and stress, anxiety and patience and also aggression. I am going to measure winners and unforced errors from matches and calculate a percentage.

Serving Stats

I am now going to show my results from the tests. This is to show where the strengths and weaknesses are in my serving game.

Exercise Charts are taken in shorthand so it is quick and very reliable and so that the recorder doesn’t miss anything.

These statistics show that my first serve in terms of tennis serving consistency; was of a good standard as normally an average game would consist of around about a 60%. I do need to work on my effectiveness of my second serve as my points won were is quite low so I may consider in adding top spin to my second serve.

As a professional sportsman Andy Murray’s result on the bleep test averages out between stages 17 and 19 every time. His career record so far is 516 wins to 164 lost which is very high. He has also won 177 Tiebreak’s compared to 65 lost which is an exceptionally good ratio. Especially as Tiebreak’s are normally the most nerve-racking and are at the end of the set where the players are more physically drained. This number again proves that Murray’s Fitness levels are high even for his standard of play. I haven’t been able to find any statistics on the length of Murray’s matches but going by the majority of the wins I have seen his fitness gives him the edge and he tends to win the longer matches and set, however this is also down to other factors such as his phenomenal serve.

Compared to Andy Murray; my fitness levels are quite low, but for my standard of play it is reasonably good. I win the majority of my matches but I favour shorter matches. The longest set in the match is the one I lost which is because of my fitness not quite being as good as it could be. If I could improve my fitness to a higher level my performance would stay consistent for longer and I would be able to outlast opponents as well in the longer more drawn out matches.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Compared to Murray’s 177 won tiebreak’s; mine is considerably lower at 43 won and 27 lost again because my stamina is not brilliant when it reaches a tiebreak I have around a 50% chance of winning and normally have to rely on trying to hit winners early in points.

For overall matches won I have no official statistics but it is around 65% won to 35% lost and this could be a lot higher if my fitness levels were better. Normally I start to struggle in matches that last longer than an hour and a half because I have a very explosive style of play that expends a lot of energy. Because of this I really need to improve my performance to reach my maximum potential. Again I tend to win the shorter sets because of my explosive play but when the sets get closer and longer towards the end I generally struggle because of my fitness as well as my mentality. For example in the two charted matches I won all the sets under 45 minutes and lost the longer sets.

When my stamina increases I will be able to perform better in the longer more drawn out matches as well as improving my chances of winning the closer sets as well as having a better chance of winning tiebreak’s which are often the most important times in matches.

The average Bleep Test result for a 17 year old male is said to be reaching level 10. However I would class reaching between level 12 and 14 as an acceptable level to reach and I expect to reach at least this mark, hopefully getting towards or even surpassing the upper band. So I get the maximum result that I can achieve I will get some to measure what level I get to.

I took the bleep test three times to make sure that my results were consistent and reliable and the outcomes were. On the first and second attempts I reached level 12.9 and on the last attempt I reached level 13.1. On average this is reaching level 13 which is within the band of results that I was aiming for but there is still definite area for improvement and with training I would like to reach level 14 at least and hopefully getting closer to 15. This will improve my game and definitely help me to win more long matches and help out in the shorter matches as well as I will feel greatly reduced strain on my muscles and cardiovascular system.

Top professional players such as Andy Murray have an incredible temperament and psychological game. This is a really important aspect of tennis as a better temperament will help you beat the majority of opponents who have a weaker psychological game. Possibly the most important aspect of a tennis players psychological game is decision making as making the wrong decisions at the wrong times can result in matches being lost that could have been won with better decisions. To accurately measure decision making in a match situation I am going to look at winners to unforced errors count. A player with good decision making should have a higher winners count. I am also going to be looking at successful approaches to the net. A successful approach to the net is one where the point has been one with a volley or smash. Again a player with good decision making should have a high percentage of successful approaches. To further test psychology I am going to be looking at a variety of psychological tests for various aspects that link into decision making. To do these I am going to be taking psychological tests and questionnaires for concentration, stress levels, pressure handling and aggression.

Obviously a professional player of Murray’s level will be scoring within the top band of results for every psychological test. Whereas players of my level often have weaker temperaments. I would say that my psychological game is probably the weakest aspect of my game and I can go up a good few levels if I approve my psychological game to a good standard. Especially my handling of pressure and controlling and channelling aggression.

I have taken a concentration test at the following link to test my levels of concentration  

The result I got on my concentration test is 64 out of 100 which is reasonable but could definitely do with some improvement. The response that the website gives is that my results indicate that I use many strategies to help me concentrate. I may have a little difficulty getting started on and completing tasks on the rare occasion, but for the most, I know what to do to help me stay focused. Although this does require a certain act of will, there are ways to keep my mind on track and lessen the tendency to daydream. It is likely that I do use many of these tactics, but may need to add to my repertoire. Keep in mind that they can not only help increase your concentration span, but also make it less likely that you'll get bored, frustrated or distracted. I definitely agree with these results as even though it is quite rare I do occasionally find myself getting distracted by neighbouring tennis matches when I am playing which sometimes results in me making a snap decision and often results in unforced errors which can definitely be cut out of my game and that would show a definite improvement. I am going to retake the test in a few months to see if my concentration levels have changed and my aim is to get up at least 80 and I am sure that this will show an improvement in my tennis game as well.

I have also taken an online questionnaire to analyse my stress and anxiety levels to see if that is an area that I need to improve to again take my performance to another level. The website that I got the test from is  

The result that I got was 47 this is in the worst band of results. The band gives anything higher than 20 as extremely severe for anxiety and anything higher than 34 as extremely severe for stress. Going by the results I am really disappointed and aim to improve my results as much as possible in order to improve my game. I want to be in the normal band of results which is between 0 and 7 for anxiety and up to 14 for stress. However my realistic target for the next time I take the test in a few months is to be in the moderate band of results which is between 10 and 14 on anxiety and 19-25 for stress. I feel that when I get my stress and anxiety levels into this band of results I will feel a great improvement in my psychological game and therefore manage to maintain my stress and anxiety levels at the same band for longer as well because of the improved temperament.

To analyse another important element of my psyche in tennis I took an aggression test at the following website  

The scores are split up into 4 separate categories, physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility, I will mainly be focusing on physical aggression and anger as those are both more directly influential on my tennis game but I will take into account my scores on the others as well and aim to improve them to a satisfactory level.

The physical aggression scale ranges from 9 up to 45 and the average for men is 24.3 which is what my aim for my next test is. My current score is 41 out of 45 which I do agree with as I often get aggressive in performance which has a negative effect on the rest of my game. After the months I take to change my temperament I aim to be around the average mark for men and ideally a bit lower than the average to maximise my potential in the sport.

Verbal aggression results range from 5 to 25 and my score was 25 which again I would agree with as I often find my self shouting aggressively during matches at myself which again  has a negative effect on my performance. My aim is to get my score to a little lower than the average score for men which is 15.2.

For improving my stress, anxiety and aggression levels I will use controlled breathing techniques to keep myself under control when I feel my stress or aggression levels rising, also I will take time after points and games to regain my composure so that my performance doesn’t deteriorate. Overall this should improve my performance and if I continually use these techniques I hope that I will see improved results next time I take the tests as well.

For improving my concentration during matches I will empty my mind of all distractions and then focus 100% on my goal in that point and not get distracted by potential match outcomes. I feel that these again will increase my performance and prove very valuable to my tennis progression.

In a match situation Murray’s decision making is also top class for example various winners to unforced error counts that I have are 38 winners to only 18 unforced errors against Nadal. Against Blake he hit 64 winners compared to only 24 unforced errors again some incredible statistics. Although my winners to unforced errors count is also very good it is at a lot lower level and could be a lot better with some examples at 23 winners and only 2 unforced errors but the match this was from was very one sided in my favour. Another statistic from a match was 39 winners to 10 unforced errors again a good statistic. Even though I consistently have a very high amount of winners because of my style of play I quite often have a lot more unforced errors than these and have had matches with as many unforced errors as 30 or even 40 and this is largely down to the aspects of psychology I have mentioned and I feel that by improving these I can greatly increase my number of winners and decrease the amount of unforced errors I make.

Another important match stat for decision making that depends on the same psychological criteria is successful approaches to the net and points won at the net are also greatly important in tennis as they can have a real boost to your confidence and motivation whereas losing the point can really dent your confidence as generally the player at the net is in control of the point. Statistics for this from Roddick against Murray show that Roddick won 48 points out of 75 when he approached the net this equates to 64% of approaches being successful. Generally my successful approach count is very high as I very rarely approach the net and will only approach if I am certain I am in control of the point and will win it. Statistics from my match against Dan I approached the net a total of 7 times and won 6 of them this is 86%. Against Theo I had 11 successful approaches out of 16 with the 5 Theo won being brilliant passing shots that I had no chance of getting. However there have also been matches where I have not made a single successful approach shot. I believe that by improving the mentioned psychological aspects of my game I will also greatly increase my percentage of successful approaches to the net.

Biomechanical

In biomechanics I am looking at three different important aspects of serving and they will be under separate sections as they are very different but all link to the same outcome. These sections are firstly Serving Technique. Secondly Serving Percentage and amount of points won on serve and lastly the acceleration of racket in serve which I will measure in two ways. Firstly by measuring how long it takes between the motion is started and up until the contact of the ball. I will also compare this to the speed of the serve.

Serving Technique

Serving Percentage

Roddicks serving percentage is quite high; it averages around the 65% mark for most games. His second serve percentage averages in the 90% band of results and overall averages around 85%. Overall Roddick wins 91.3% of games on his serve and a total of 72.1% of service points making him incredibly hard to break against. The high percentage of points won on serve is largely due to the speed of his serve which straight away puts his opponent on the back foot.

My stats for the games recorded in this coursework give my service games won at 18 out of 19 which is a percentage of 94.7% which is very high, however overall in a season I think that it averages more around the 80% mark which I would like to get up to around the 90% mark like the games recorded here.

In the two recorded matches my points won on serve are 84.6% which is very high and even higher than Roddicks but over a season it normally averages out around the 65% mark which can definitely be boosted to around the 75% mark, mainly be getting more first serves in which I need to work on.

For the charted matches my first serve percentage is 69.75% which is quite high but I feel that over a season it will be as low as 50% as in some matches I average around 40% sometimes even lower.

My second serve averaged out at 84.5% success rate in the charted matches which is average but definitely should be improved to cut down the amount of points I throw away. Also in matches it is as low as 60% which near enough hands the opponent the match.

Overall my total serving percentage in the two charted matches is 77.25% which is average again but could definitely be improved on and that would result in a bit increase in amount of service points won.

Acceleration Of Racket In Serve

Andy Roddick has phenomenal serving speed and holds the world record for fastest serve. Officially Roddick has recorded a 155mph serve and in training he has unofficial timings of 156mph.

He averages around 128mph on first serves in matches. During Roddick’s serving at the point of contact his racket is travelling at 92mph.

I have recorded some serving speeds and although consistent and average speed they could potentially record faster serve in better conditions. The conditions were cold and wet which reduces the pressure in the ball and therefore the speed. They were also not new which makes them furrier and increases friction with the air and again therefore slows it down. In Perfect conditions such as an in door court I could potentially add an extra 10-15% onto the speed of the serves.

First Serve: The fastest speed I recorded on the first serve was 96mph and the slowest was 90mph, this is a range of 6mph which isn’t much and therefore the speed is consistent. They average out at 94mph.

Second Serve:  The fastest recorded second serve I hit was 83mph and the slowest was 70mph. this is a bit of a larger range but is still reasonably consistent. The average speed of my second serve was 76mph.

Ways To Improve

Stamina: To improve my levels of stamina I am going to be training more often both in tennis and in general fitness. I am going to do a half hour run 3 times a week as well as resistance training and tennis training 3 times a week which will help boost my levels of stamina hopefully up to the levels I want.

Decision Making: I have already started taking steps to improve my decision making after I saw the results of the various tests. To improve my concentration I have started to focus my mind more on the performance and think ahead as to where my shots are going to be placed and the likely position the opponent will return to so that I can get the upper hand. To reduce my anger, stress and anxiety levels I have used breathing techniques to calm down and focus again. Also if I get to stressed I will take a minute or so out and focus on calming and refocusing on my performance.

Acceleration Of Racket In Serve: After my analysis of my serving particularly the video and picture analysis I have completely changed my serving style. Before as the pictures show I had a very snatchy motion with the majority of the force coming from my shoulder and arm acceleration rather than from my legs and using technique. I have already altered the technique and the first thing I changed was my grip into the chopper grip. Also I changed my put up so that I was contacting the ball at the highest point rather than when it was still rising. As well as giving this better momentum because of the height it also makes it a lot more consistent. Lastly I adapted my technique into using movement from my whole body to generate more force.

In conclusion after analysing my game I have noticed big areas of potential improvement and already started to work on these and can definitely notice an improvement. I have began to work on increasing my stamina but have mainly been focusing on my decision making and my serving technique. After I have been working on my decision making for just a month I have noticed changes and have retaken all of the tests I originally analysed it with. In the concentration test my aim after the original taking was to reach 80 out of 100 and when I retook it after a month I was very close to this target and scored 79/100. I am very happy with the improvement  I have shown so far with my concentration and am noticing the improvements on my tennis as well. In the anxiety and stress test I also showed some improvement getting my result down to 31 which puts the stress in to the severe band which is an improvement but not as much as I would like. However even with this small improvement I am noticing an improvement in my temperament during matches. The aggression test is the one I am most happy with, I managed to get my results down to 24 which is just below the average male result which was my target. I am extremely pleased with this and am noticing an improvement in my game because of the reduced aggression. My serve with the new revamped technique has definitely showed improvement as well and I hope to improve even more as I adapt more to the new technique.

Document Details

• Word Count 4164
• Page Count 10
• Level AS and A Level
• Subject Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

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