About Performance

Playing tennis in the zone is about performance; it's about the human operating system performing in a parallel mode. However, the mode in which your operating system performs has nothing to do with the technique of your strokes and everything to do with the quality of your performance.

That distinction is a difficult one to get across to players who believe that improving their performance requires improving their stroking technique. And while an improved stroking technique might indeed improve your performance, the real key to performance improvement lies in the underlying operating system that is doing the performing.

It is your visual/cognitive/motor operating system that performs your stroking techniques, and the quality of the contact you create with your stroking techniques is dependent upon the quality of the interface between your operating system and the action on the court. So the quality of your performance is more about the quality of your operating system’s interface than with the quality of your operating system’s stroking techniques.

Watch players take a practice swing and you’ll see that their practice swing looks pretty good. Their practice swing has what you could call a high-quality stoking technique. And yet when the ball is in play and the same player has a chance to hit the same stroke as their high-quality practice stroke, why don’t they perform that high-quality stroking technique every time? Why does their high quality stroking technique fall apart? Why do they create negative contact? If their stroking technique is so good, then why doesn’t it work every single time?

Obviously, there is more to the creation of positive contact than simply good technique. You also need good timing, and timing is a function of your operating system’s interface with the action on the court, in particular, the action of the ball. The quality of your overall countermovement is directly related to the quality of your visual/cognitive/motor operating system's ability to accurately and efficiently interface with the movement of the ball.

One system of movement (the ball) versus one system of countermovement (you). More exactly, you as a VCM operating system, and the quality of the interface between your VCM operating system and the movement of the ball is what determines the quality of the contact event, NOT your technique.

Good technique helps, but it is not the determining factor in the creation of a quality contact event between the movement of the ball and you as a VCM system of countermovement.

When players get into the zone, they immediately play at a much higher level and it is not because of any changes made to their stroking techniques. The higher level of performance is due to their VCM operating system interfacing more efficiently and accurately than when they are in their normal performance state. The increased efficiency and accuracy of their VCM interface also causes their stroking techniques to be more efficient and accurate. Thus, they create more positive contact. End result: a higher level of performance is immediately experienced no matter what your technical level of expertise.

3.5 level players suddenly experience a higher level of performance when they get into the zone. Likewise, ATP and WTA professionals also experience a higher level of performance when they get in the zone.

Improved “performance” can occur at any technical level. And once you realize it’s not about the quality of your technique, but rather about the quality of your interface, you are in for a big surprise.