Scoring with tactics: Find out your PHT – your personal top speed
Do you possibly play faster than you can? Then it's high time you found out your PHT! An excerpt from the new tennis book Scoring with Tactics: The Art of Thinking About Tennis .
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Sep 20, 2022, 09:55 am
It is a frequently observed phenomenon. You sit on the club grounds and watch a match between the home number 1 and the foreign number 1 with half interest. Home player H. seems to be doing well: you can see one or two strong rallies (H. only just loses it), one or the other hara-kiri action (H. shoots a backhand into the fence from a defensive position), one or the other Rally that H. passes faster than usual (H. makes an unnecessary mistake).
From time to time, but extremely rarely, the spectacular point win comes: H. hits two forehands in a row and actually shoots a backhand into the empty field afterwards (instead of just putting it in). Applause breaks out, followed by shouts like: »Great, keep it up, you can still do it!«
H. plays faster than he can
However, it is clear to any reasonably realistic tennis observer: No, H. cannot do that. And not just because he's already 6-1, 4-0 behind. H. has no chance, not even if he makes one or two spectacular points. Because he loses most of the other unspectacular ones. And in tennis it's ultimately about the unspectacular points.
H.'s problem: He plays faster than he can. The second problem: he doesn't want to see exactly that. After all, H. has brought his technique up to date with the new coach for a lot of money (H.'s serve is technically a feast for the eyes!), and in the club he is valued for exactly this. To top it off, H. has bought two new rackets, along with a brand new and extremely stylish racket bag. For these reasons alone, he can no longer present his old game of putting the ball in the field to be safe.
Exactly that would be correct. Because H. has a problem: He plays a higher tempo than he can. Faster than his PHT – his personal fastest pace. And far too little is talked about the PHT.
What is the PHT?
Take the test in training and find out your PHT. Play with a good partner and try to return ten decent-length balls without making a mistake. Works?
Yes: Good! Increase the tempo a bit and try the same.
No: Then you have exceeded your PHT. Please slow down. If in doubt, think of a little more topspin. As soon as you manage your ten balls consistently, you have determined your PHT.
Play your PHT - or less
Congratulations at this point: You now know how high your PHT is and are therefore ahead of 99 percent of all club players. The good news is that if you meet an opponent who plays a lower PHT, that's great. You don't even have to play your PHT, you can probably go down a notch and reduce the bug count even further. Only switch to your highest level in an emergency, in other cases it is sufficient to let the opponent make the mistakes (by playing a tempo that is too fast for him).
Beware of the temptation to play a higher tempo than your PHT: you'll lose a match you don't need to lose! Because the old rule applies here too: You don't have to play better than everyone else, you just have to play better than today's opponent. (And you can increase your PHT over the years.)
Opponents with higher PHT
But what if the opponent has a higher PHT? The important thing here is not to try to call the opponent's PHT! Aside from some nice point wins, you'd go down the entire match. Like our poor H.
Opponents with higher PHT you have to approach differently. Varies! Play ugly! Observe the opponent: maybe he wants to put on a show and play an even faster pace than he can (which he doesn't even need against you)? See if your opponent is just playing a higher tempo on the forehand (and trying to do it on the backhand even though they can't). The advantage for you: Against an opponent with a higher PHT you are the underdog, so you can only win. And maybe actually do if you play smart!
Insidious tip
Many opponents are easily impressed. This can be exploited: Did you draw an opponent who plays a similar PHT as you? Then, when playing in, you can use your parry shot a little more steam every now and then - it's quite possible that your opponent thinks he has to turn it up straight away in the match. Of course you are welcome to take the mistakes with you!
#IMG2#
Scoring with tactics: The art of thinking about tennis was recently published. You can order it from Amazon , Thalia , Hugendubel or Copress-Verlag , among others. And of course at your trusted bookstore!
Here you can browse something.