How to review a tennis match video with a player in ten minutes

Most coaches who start using video stop within a month. A review takes an hour they do not have, and the player remembers none of it by Tuesday. Both problems have the same cause and the same fix.

Why ten minutes?

Because a player leaves a review with about three things they will actually try in the next session. You can talk about a match for forty minutes. Everything past the third item is not teaching; it is you finishing your own thought. Ten minutes protects the player, and fitting between two lessons is a side effect.

The routine below is the same every time. That matters more than the length. A review a player can predict is a review they arrive ready for.

Where the ten minutes go

1. 01Find the three momentsOn your own, before the player arrives2 min, before
2. 02One that workedA point they won well3 min
3. 03One patternThe same mistake at least three times3 min
4. 04One decisionThe shot was fine and the choice was wrong3 min

What to do before the player sits down

Do the finding on your own, before they get there. It takes about two minutes.

Watch nothing end to end. Open the match, look at the shots of one type, and pick your three moments. Every backhand, or every second serve. Note the times. That is the whole preparation.

This is the part software is good at. Tencoline turns a match into one mark per shot, so you can filter to a shot type and jump straight to it instead of scrubbing. What it cannot do is tell you which three moments matter. That is coaching, and no tool here will take it from you. Without software, a notebook and the clock on the camera do the same job.

Which three moments do you choose?

One that worked, one pattern, one decision. In that order.

• One that worked. A real point the player won well. Not encouragement but evidence. It sets the standard you measure the other two against, in their own tennis rather than in a professional's.
• One pattern. The same mistake at least three times. Once is an accident. Three times is a habit, and a habit is trainable.
• One decision. A moment where the shot was fine and the choice was wrong. This is the one players almost never see on their own.

Resist a fourth. The fourth is always the one that pushes the first three out.

What do you say about each one?

Ask before you tell. One question for each clip, then stop talking.

Play the clip. Ask "what did you see?" Wait. The waiting is uncomfortable and it is worth sitting through, because a player who names the fault themselves has already half-corrected it. If they name something different from what you saw, that tells you how they read the point, which is usually worth more than your original observation.

Only then say what you saw. One sentence. Then play it once more.

Three clips, three questions, roughly three minutes each. That is the ten minutes.

One clip, from the inside

1. 01Play it silentTalking over the video makes them watch you
2. 02Ask what they sawOne question, and then stop
3. 03WaitThe silence is the part that does the work
4. 04Say what you sawOne sentence
5. 05Play it once more

What do you leave out?

Leave out the score. It moves the conversation to the result, and the result is not what you are training.

Leave out any shot you cannot demonstrate a fix for. A fault named with no next step is a worry the player takes home and cannot act on.

Leave out your own commentary during the clip. Talking over the video makes the player watch you instead of the point. Play it silent, then talk.

What does the player take away?

One sentence they wrote themselves, and the link to the clip.

At the end, ask them to say the one thing they will do differently, in their words rather than yours. If they cannot, the review did not land, and repeating it will not help. The problem was the choice of moments, not the delivery.

Then send them the moment rather than the match. A ninety-minute file does not get opened twice.

What to do next

• Before the next lesson, spend two minutes picking three moments from one match.
• Run the three clips in order: one that worked, one pattern, one decision.
• Ask what they saw before you say what you saw, and wait for the answer.
• Send one clip afterwards, with the one sentence they gave you.