Q: I have heard you speak on the limiting factors of human performance. In the sport of tennis, I find this concept intriguing. Could you please explain the factors and how we, as tennis professionals, can use them?

A: As I have studied the game over the years, I have always been interested in how tennis skills are taught. All of us have our own particular and unique style of instruction and how we help a student advance through the various stages of becoming a tennis competitor. As a sport scientist, however, I am always looking for better ways of doing things. Instead of only relying on our vast experiences, why not structure a method of evaluation and then apply our experience to the training?

One question I keep going back to is, "What is preventing this player from going to the next level?" In other words, what are the limiting factors of performance for this particular tennis player? Wouldn’t it be great if we, as teachers, could experience a player’s profile of performance, and based on that profile, design a training regimen to improve specific skills? Then, each day when players show up for a lesson or to practice, they know exactly what to work on and what is expected from them.

I have identified five very general areas of tennis performance. Each must be broken down into its various parts, but once completed, it makes it extremely easy to develop a plan for that specific player. The five limiting factors of tennis are strokes, movement, general fitness, mental toughness and tactics.

As far as strokes are concerned, don’t just analyze mechanics, but evaluate all the strokes based on performance. Take the forehand, for example. Is this player’s forehand hit with control? How about the forehand’s consistency? What about this stroke’s depth into the court? Finally, can it be hit with power? And, if it can be hit with power, does this player sacrifice control, consistency or depth when the ball is hit with power?

Regarding movement, how quick is the player’s first step? Does this particular player explode to the ball or seem to hesitate? Speed is not dictated by how quickly the athlete can run 100 meters. Does the player go from a balanced state to one of imbalance readily? These are a few of the questions you can ask yourself relative to evaluating movement.

In the arena of general fitness, you need to investigate these fundamental areas: aerobic capacity, general muscle strength and endurance, and flexibility. For aerobic capacity, a simple question might be, "Does my player have great stamina at 4-all in the third set or is the player fatigued?" For general muscle strength and endurance, does the player seem to complain of little aches and pains all the time? Does the athlete have the strength to play the type of game she wants to play? And for flexibility, does the player have the joint range of motion to compete at a higher level?

Relative to mental toughness, you must ask questions such as, "How well does the player handle pressure situations? How well does the athlete manage mistakes? Does he play well regardless of being behind or ahead in the score? How well does this player compete against individuals who are not as skilled as he?" (We all know it’s usually easy to play well against people who are better than we are.)

Finally, regarding tactics, how well does this player set up a point? Does she use the geometry of the court well? Does the athlete know how to finish a point smartly? How many unnecessary tactical errors does the player make in a match? Does she play smartly on critical points?

These are but a few of the questions you can ask yourself when examining a student’s game. I have found that if you have structure in the evaluative process, it makes applying your vast background of experience in teaching and playing the game much more effective.