The gap is not their forehand. It's the decision half a second before it — the part no lesson has time for. 538 real match situations, with the reasoning written out on every one.
Your player has had hundreds of hours of coaching on how to hit the ball. Grip, swing path, footwork, repeat. All of it necessary.
Nobody has taught them where to hit it. Or when. Or why.
So they practice well and compete badly, and everybody calls it nerves.
They are not losing to better shots. They are losing to better decisions.
And you watch it happen from behind the fence, seeing it coming, not allowed to say a word.
Deep, heavy, into the backhand corner. Nothing spectacular. Your player is now two steps behind the baseline and moving backwards.
Not in the swing — in the half second before it. Height and depth back to the middle buys the court back. It is the least exciting shot available, and it is the right one.
Flat, hard, down the line, from a defensive position. It feels brave. It loses the point about four times in five, and nobody ever explains why.
This is a card. There are 537 more.
You lead 40–0. Where do you aim the first serve?
Losing this point costs you nothing — you would still lead 40–15. So it is the cheapest point in the game to gamble with. Most juniors have it backwards: careful at 40–0, then swinging enormous at 30–40, where the point actually decides the game.
Remember this. Take your risks on the spare points. Play your most reliable pattern on the ones that count.
Not for your player. For the person on the other side of the fence.
The car ride home, and what to say when it goes wrong. What to do during a match when you cannot say anything at all. How to tell they are improving while they are still losing. How to choose a coach who will do the hard part.
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What each shot is actually for — the split step, what a slice serve does to you, where to recover to, which points really decide a match. Written so a 12-year-old can read them alone.
These are the pages a player looks things up in.
Read the free guides →Ten real match situations with the full reasoning written out on every one. Nothing held back. If the thinking is not obviously good, do not buy the rest.
The same cards as the books, just ten of them.
Send me the ten cards →Buy one phase, or the whole thing. One payment — no subscription, nothing expires.
These started as notes for one player. He practiced beautifully and lost to people he was better than, and nobody could tell us why.
So I wrote the situations down. The score, where the ball went, what he chose, and what he should have chosen.
That became 538 cards, and two rules I have not broken. The decision has to be right at the level your player is actually playing. The diagram has to match the words.
If your player is coachable, works hard, and keeps losing to people who look worse in practice — this was written for you.
U12–U14 tournament players. The tactics hold well into U16 — the situations do not change, only the speed.
No. The answer key does the coaching. Your job is to ask “why that one?”
No, and it is not trying to. It teaches nobody to hit a ball. It covers the decisions a lesson rarely has time for, and gives a coach something to work from.
You read it here on the site. No password to invent, no app to install, nothing that expires.
Thirty days, no questions.