Welcome to the Personal Tennis Coach Thank you for purchasing the Personal Tennis Coach. As an avid tennis player, I'm sure that you are always looking for ways to improve your game. By tapping into the power of the personal computer, it is our hope that this program will help you to strengthen your game and add to your tennis enjoyment. The Personal Tennis Coach is based on the universal rule that success in any endeavor comes only from a consistent and dedicated effort toward a goal. Improving your tennis game is no exception. The PTC provides your game with the advantages offered by your own tennis coach. It will keep a record of all your matches and practice sessions, analyze your strokes, keep a library of stroke tips and practice drills, keep you organized. With this information you will be able to more effectively plan your practices and match strategies If you commit to using the PTC it won't be long before you see improvement in your game. Years ago when I first started playing I was told to "practice, practice, practice." Well, I was young and impressionable and the advice seemed sound, so I followed it. And yes, after a few years I did indeed become a very good player. Yet looking back, I see that a key ingredient was missing. An ingredient so important that it meant the difference between becoming just a good player or reaching your full tennis playing potential. Today I would reword that advice to be "practice, analyze, focus, practice." Your game's development depends on more than just time spent on the courts. While there really is no substitute for hitting the ball, it's only half the picture. Even with all these new powerful rackets and big hitting players, tennis is still a thinking person's game. Many players are great ralliers on the practice court, yet losers on the Match court. Until you fully understand your game, you won't be able to use it most effectively. We all know players who spend a great deal of time playing and practicing tennis. And yet many of these same players have the same game that they've had year after year after year and the same old flaws and bad habits. Their games stopped growing because they stopped thinking on court. They either didn't know what their weaknesses were, or if they did they didn't focus their efforts to improve them. For example, you could take a basket of balls to the practice court and hit 500 serves and actually be hurting your game (not to mention your arm!). What if you were ingraining a bad habit? Or what if your serve was OK but it was your volley that needed work? You've now spent time and effort in an area that didn't need it, and no time and effort in an area that did need it. The bottom line after such a workout is that you haven't improved your game. The road toward improvement begins with understanding your own game's weaknesses and strengths. Only then can you focus on improvement and maximize the effectiveness of your time spent practicing. Professionals have known this for years, so they hire full time coaches to do the thinking and planning and focusing for them. These coaches study their player's game and then focus on the player's weak areas to maximize their workouts and plan the best match strategies. For those of us who can't afford that luxury there is The Personal Tennis Coach. Using this program your home computer can analyze your game and helps focus you on the areas that need improvement. With your help it records vital statistics on each playing session, such as notes on your playing strategy, your opponent's game, and very importantly, your thoughts for your next workout. These will prove to be invaluable aids to building your game from past experience and focusing on improvement. Using the analysis from the PTC and its collection of stroke tips and practice drills you can focus your attention on becoming a better tennis player. And I'm sure we all agree that playing better also increases our enjoyment on the courts. Installation The minimum system requirements for the program are a DOS PC, XT, AT or higher system with a minimum 256k memory. The program will run on most monitors, however a color VGA is highly recommended, and it may be run from either floppy disk or your hard drive. Insert your Personal Tennis Coach diskette into your floppy drive. At the DOS prompt type 'install'. This will install the program either on your hard drive or a floppy. Once installed run the program by typing "coach". For windows users we have included an icon file, "coach.ico". Use this when adding the program to the Windows desktop. Using the PTC The program contains a series of popup menus that navigate you through all its functions and utilities. Each menu consists of choices designated by a corresponding letter. Simply press the letter that represents the function you wish to use. Here is the Main Menu: Activities R Record Notes B Browse your Notes A Analyze your Game T Tips and Drills H Hardcopy printout P PhoneBook S Scheduler Q Exit Personal Coach After you choose an Activity, the ESCAPE Key usually return you to the MAIN MENU. Pressing the F1 Key will usually bring up a help screen related to the menu you are currently using. Let's start with the Utilities.. The Phone Book One key advantage offered by a coach is organization. While a world traveling professional player certainly needs such help, we could also benefit. The PTC includes a phone book that will keep track of your tennis buddies. This is very helpful, especially if you're like me and you keep phone numbers on strips of paper in racket covers and tennis bags. The program keeps track of the last time you played and a running tab of your win/loss records, an important fact when scheduling those rivalry matches! It also allows you to keep a small note about each player. You can make a note about their strengths and weakness, rate their game, say from 1 to 10, or just about anything that will help you when you are setting up some matches. Choose 'P' from the Main Menu to pull up the phone book. Pressing the SPACE BAR or clicking your mouse will scroll through the list. To add a player, choose 'A' from the phone book Menu or 'D' to delete one, or those with VGA systems, click on the Add or Delete buttons. When you are finished, 'ESC' will return you to the Main Menu. The Scheduler Another organizational aid is the Match Scheduler. This utility reminds you of your upcoming tennis dates and helps you plan new ones. Choose 'S' from the Main Menu to start the Scheduler. For those without a VGA monitor, a popup will appear listing in sequence your upcoming tennis dates. If you have a VGA monitor a full page calendar will appear. To view your schedule matches, use the mouse to click on a day or type the day you wish to view. Days with scheduled matches will show a small tennis ball. To change months click on the top arrows surrounding the Title Bar or press the '+' or '-' from the keyboard. Click on the Schedule button to add a match or press 'S'. Choose 'A' from the Scheduler Menu or for VGA systems click on the Schedule button to add matches. The program will prompt you for the player's name, date and time and location of the match and any notes you may have, such as "Bring balls," "String extra racket" or more importantly "Owes me $10 from last time!". The Exit button or 'ESC' will return you to the Main Menu. Now for the good stuff: Recording Your Play The chief job of a coach is to help you become the best possible tennis player. In order to accomplish this the coach must be able to pinpoint weak areas and correct them during practice sessions. They must also understand your game's strong points and build match strategies around them to help you win matches. With your help the PTC keeps notes and ratings about your game every time you play. Using this program after you play takes only about 5 minutes. Recording is divided into three different levels: The first level involves recording such information about your play such as whom you played, when, how long, the score, and finally match and practice notes. The second level uses a rating system to measure your progress in 24 different stroke areas of your game. This information shows which areas are improving and which need more attention and more importantly helps you think about your game and strategy in different dimensions. The third level involves actual stroke charting. This probably will not be used every time you take to the court, but if you have someone sitting on the sidelines who can chart your strokes while you play, this could be an important tool in helping you eliminate errors from your game. Choose 'R' at the Main Menu to begin recording your game. This brings up the notepad. The first entry in the notepad is the date you played (mm/dd/yy). This helps keep all your notes in chronological order. Next the PTC prompts you for the basics, was it a Match/ Practice/ Lesson (M/P/L), how long did you play (ex: 2.5 equals two and a half hours), opponent's name, score (if a match), and whether you won or lost (W/L). Once these are completed, we come to the match and practice notes. Here is where you stop and think about your game. This is one of the most important elements of the Personal Tennis Coach. Saving your thoughts about your play will prove invaluable later when you review your past performances. Use the Match notes to record the thoughts you have about the match you've just played. What strategy did you use, what strategy did your opponent use? Why did you win, or why did you lose? Answers to these questions give us the foundation for improvement. They not only give us a reference point to focus on, but they stimulate the thought process that must be active not only after the match is over, but during it when there is time to change a losing outcome. For example did you play serve/volley? Did he beat you at the net? Did you attack his backhand? Did he exploit your backhand? If you ever play this person again, the PTC will give you a printout of these notes so that you can plan a match strategy based on your past performances and results. Using them you will know which strategies worked in the past and which ones didn't. Learning from experience is still the best teacher. In the practice notes' area, list the strokes that need improvement. For example, if you just played a match and your backhand return was suspect, write it down so that the program will remind you to work on it at your next workout. The PTC will give you a printout of these notes to take to your workouts so that you can focus on these areas. With these notes we know have a much clearer understanding of where our game stands today and what we will want to focus on at our next practice session to help us reach our goal and improve our game. Or if you take lessons from a pro, these notes will help him to help your game. One quick note: The program tracks how you divide your time on the courts between matches, practicing, and lessons. If you divide workouts between drilling and some sets, record separate notes and ratings for each. Stroke Ratings The biggest challenge of a tennis rating system is giving number values to your game to measure improvement. One solution is to have someone at court side charting your play. While this is a great tool and one that is offered by the PTC, it however is not easy finding someone who will want to do that every time. Instead, to find our solution we turned to that noted tennis player, Albert Einstein. Using his theory of tennis relativity, we come to a solution. Simply put, our goal is to play better tennis tomorrow than we did yesterday. So whatever rating system we use, all we need is for it to reflect how we play compared with how we played yesterday. We need a way to recognize improvement, not so much a way to measure exactly how much improvement there was. First the program divides your game into six basic strokes : Forehands Backhands Serve Service Returns Approach Shots Volleys Each stroke in turn is divided into 4 levels : Consistency Placement Spin Power Each stroke is rated by its performance in each of these 4 levels. The rating scale we chose is one based on 1-10 scores with 10 being the highest. Using this easy system you rate your strokes according to their performance that day compared to how they were rated your previous time out. Start by rating your game as it stands today as a 4 or 5 or 6. Our goal is to bring every area up to a 10, so the lower the rating you start with, the more work you will have to put into that area. When you can consistently rate as a 9 or 10, you have reached your current goal. It is then time to set a new goal. Again, start over by rating each part of your game at a 4 or 5 or 6. Keep repeating this cycle and before you know it your game will have improved in many different dimensions. As another example, if you've just started playing tennis, your first goal for your backhand may be the ability to hit a consistent slice. At this point in your development achieving this would deserve a 10 rating. Now your goal becomes a little more advanced. Again, once this level is reached you reset your goals and start all over. After a few successful cycles you will be able to hit both slice and topspin. This method of consistently setting small goals and achieving them will keep you motivated, improve your game, keep your frustration to a minimum and raise your level of enjoyment. By evaluating your game in these 24 different areas after you play will soon lead to evaluating them while you're on the court. And once you start thinking about different areas, you'll soon start playing better. You'll be varying spin on your shots, mixing up your placement, changing the pace and tempo of rallies - in short, you'll be controlling your matches! Stroke Charting In addition our method of self evaluation and rating, the PTC includes a stroke charting utility to be used when you have the services of someone courtside to record your every stroke. To print a form for charting choose the Hardcopy function from the Main Menu, then from the Hardcopy Menu choose 'F'. This form includes sections for recording both serving and returning percentages, and individual stroke winners and unforced errors. The main focus of our Charting function is to focus on your number of winners and unforced errors during a match. Remember that every unforced error gives your opponent an easy and undeserved point. With only four points needed to win a game and six games to win a set, this is usually the weakest link in the average players game. But it is also one of the easiest to correct! The PTC will calculate and graph your winners and losers to illustrate their importance. If you find that you are giving away two points for every winner, simply slow down! Patience can also be a deadly a weapon, just ask Bjorn Borg or Michael Chang. This advice is just as crucial to your serving game. Generally speaking, you can't win if you can't hold serve. And you can't hold serve if you don't get your first serve into play. The PTC calculates and graphs your first serve percentage. When your first serve percentage is low, take off some speed! This takes the pressure off your second serve and puts it on your opponent's return where it belongs. The same holds true for your service return. By putting as many balls into play as you can, you take pressure off your game and give it back to your opponent. Let your opponent deal with the pressure of holding serve. Analyzing Your Game After recording a few playing sessions you'll be ready to have the PTC analyze your game. Choose Analyze from the main menu. The PTC will first give you a spreadsheet-like breakdown of your game using the self evaluation ratings. Each column of numbers details the ratings from each tennis session, arranged chronologically broken down into the six strokes and the four levels. At the far right is a column with calculated average ratings for each of your strokes and each level. These averages give a good feel of how each area rated over the time period, targeting the stroke and level which rated highest and which need the most attention. Each column is also totaled to give overall points for each playing period, a good way a measuring your Total Game. While this is a broad measurement, it clearly shows the trend your progress is taking. (Note: The spreadsheet only gives information on 12 different sessions, always starting with the first and ending with the last time played. For example, if you have 24 sessions recorded, the analysis will show every other session, though the averages will be calculated from all. This helps to consolidate your whole history onto one screen.) To get a printout of this screen, use the Print Screen key on your keyboard. When you're finished reviewing the numbers press the SPACE BAR to continue. A time played breakdown now appears showing you the time spent on court during the current goal period, your Year To Date hours, and the total hours played since using the PTC. The bottom line analysis here is that it takes time on the court to improve your game. Press the SPACE BAR to move on. The PTC will now take you through a series of graphs to help illustrate various parts of your game. First is a bar graph of your Total Game ratings. This shows the direction your complete game has been taking. Hopefully you'll see a steady rise. Press the SPACE BAR for the next graph. This graph shows the progress of the individual strokes. Using this you can easily see which stroke has shown the most improvement and which still need some work. Next is your total game ratings. This is a good visual to show if your game is on course for improvement. Third is a pie graph representing how much of your goal has been reached. The primary goal of course is to bring each area up to a 10 rating. Next the program displays a summary of your playing time. This screen is composed of two graphs. At the far right is a bar graph representing the average number of hours played each week. To the left is a pie graph showing the percentage of time devoted to playing matches, practicing, and lessons. Finally the PTC graphs your progress using the Stroke Charting data. The upper half of the screen shows your Serve/Returning percentages. The serve percentage is for your first serve. If this is low, particularly if it is under 50%, take some speed off your serve. The same is true with your Return percentage. This number shows how many returns you successfully put into play. Remember, you can't win if you can't get the ball over the net! After using the Personal Tennis Coach for a few weeks, you'll clearly see what strokes need attention. You'll also find yourself thinking more on the court and planning a strategy based upon your new understanding of your game. At this point the analyzer takes you to the Tips and Drills database. Here it offers a tip on the stroke that seems to need the most attention according to your stroke ratings. Tips and Drills This is the area of the program that will really make the PTC your own personal coach. Every one of us has our own favorite tips that work to improve our strokes or favorite drills to keep our game well oiled. We've included some standard tips with the program, but adding your own will make the PTC much better suited for you, especially if you take lessons from a local pro. Tennis lessons are not cheap. What good is a tip if you forget it in a few weeks. With the PTC you can easily add the tips that help your game that you've picked up from lessons. Later, if that stroke begins to give you trouble, the program will remind you of that valuable tip. Looking for a tip is easy. Pick Tips and Drills from the Main Menu, then from the Tip menu pick "Lookup." The rest is self explanatory. Simply choose the stroke and level that you would like to see a tip for. Adding tips is just as easy. After choosing "Tips and Drills" from the Main Menu and "Add" from the Tip Menu, pick the stroke that the tip is for and the level. Then simply type in the tip. This can be up to 200 characters long. Each tip is given a frequency number, which you may have noticed if you've already looked one up. This is a number between 1 and 10 to tell the program how often you'd like to see that tip. Some tips are so good that you want to see them every time. Give those a rating of 9 or 10. Others help you occasionally so give them a 2 or 3. If you never want to see that tip again, give it a 0. The higher the number the more often it will appear. After a while you'll get a feel for what number is right for each tip. Using the Personal Tennis Coach will help you get the most from this great game. It isn't magic and won't take the place of hard work and sweat, but then again nothing will. But it will help you organize and focus your game to PLAY BETTER TENNIS! Well, that about covers everything. We hope this helps you enjoy the Game more and play better tennis (and win more matches!). We'd love to hear any comments or suggestions. Most of all, Have fun on the courts! The Personal Tennis Coach Copyright 1992 MSR Software Development P.O. Box 471918, San Francisco, CA 94147 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED