Post match analysis is a priority to make sure that player learns, improves and maintains high level of motivation to work.

Marcin Bieniek

Preparation is crucial. What we do before the match has a big impact on our performance during tournaments. Players who always give own best during training sessions improve day by day and increase own chances for winning matches and lift trophies. Does it mean that only time before the tournament is important in player’s development? Not really. What we do after the match is a big opportunity to get better and reach higher level.

Improvement can happen before, during and after the match. Professional tennis coaches focus on preparation, set goals for competition as also analyze performance of the tennis player after the match/tournament is done. This approach guarantees that player’s development is constant and every minute with the coach is spent with high quality.

Many players approach matches with different perspective than coaches. Players look at the matches and the only thing they see is the score. When they win they are happy – when they lose they are sad. That’s the situation that happens many times when player leaves the court. Coach approaches competitive battles from completely different perspective. Coaches look at player’s performance and try to see similarities between training play and match play. They want to see improvement in areas that were addressed during previous weeks. When it happens coaches know that player moves forward and good performance is responsible for wins. On the other hand when the coach sees that player underperforms when the pressure is on it is a red light and important notice that some changes have to be made during the next preparatory stage.

Post match analysis is a priority to make sure that player learns, improves and maintains high level of motivation to work. There are few aspects that have to be included to perform effective post-match analysis:

1. Proper time

It is not the race. When player finishes the match it is time to cool down, eat proper meal and recover after intense activity. Post match analysis should happen later. It is recommended to wait few hours or even do this task the next day to make sure that both coach and player can think over the match without emotions.

2. Goals

When players play they should set personal goals. Goals should be related both to tactical aspects as well to overall development. During post match analysis coach and players should discuss why or why not player achieved the goals and what player could learn from this process.

3. Positives and negatives

Every match has own positive and negative experiences. Player who makes less unforced mistakes than during previous weeks can be happy because of this improvement. On the other hand player who doesn’t capitalize on short balls and doesn’t use them to put pressure on opponent should understand that this area needs correction. Focusing on finding positives and negatives during post-match analysis is an important step to make player more aware of what is going on during the match and teaches player what he should continue or correct to play the next match even better.

4. Conclusions

Post match analysis is effective only when at the end of the meeting player knows what was working well, what didn’t work as expected and what coach and players should focus on to make sure that the next practice/match leads to improvement. That is why it is crucial to take conclusions of the analysis and make sure that player knows what he has to do. If there are no conclusions there is a big chance that player won’t learn anything and will repeat the same performance over and over again.

5. Motivation

After completing analysis of the last performance coach has to motivate player to work hard and strive for being a better athlete. There are different methods to do so. Coach can show to player video of his favorite pro or share interesting story with player to make sure that player can’t wait for the next activity on the court.

As you can see post match analysis is not just another talking between coach and player. It is a process that has to be planned and should lead to reaching specific goals. If you want to make sure that your player learns from the last match you have to consider these two areas during your post-match time with player. Make it effectively and progress will be visible much sooner.

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