The Four Components of Match Play

Would you confuse a swinging volley with a service return? Imagine if what one player called a drop shot, another player called a lob. Or if you hit a swinging volley and someone tried to tell you that you hit actually a return of serve. That may sound ridiculous, but this is exactly the kind of confusion that follows when coaches and players start to talk about the components of match play. I know this because my work takes me to see hundreds of coaches all over the world at dozens of academies and coaching conferences. Of course there are differences in terminology everywhere. For example what the British call "trading" other coaches call "rallying". But most of these differences don't create fundamental misunderstandings. However these misunderstandings do emerge when we start to use terms like "strategy" or "game style" or "tactics." This is because different coaches use the same term to mean different things. Or they use different terms interchangeably at different times. This makes it difficult to differentiate meanings. In this new series for Tennisplayer, I want to try to create some clarity regarding these terminology issues, by identifying and defining four components in match play. These four...