The Law of High Performance

Abstract

The overriding principle governing general sports performance is the attempt of an individual, or a group of individuals, to perform a given task “in the best possible way.” In this chapter we will focus on biomechanical and physiological principles of the performance optimization in the future tennis game. For the tennis performance criteria one can use the 10 points of the standard tennis game statistics (in brackets are the current ranks of Roger Federer, the greatest tennis champion, on October 22nd 2007, as given by ATPtennis.com):

• Service game: (i) number of aces (4), (ii) 1st serve percentage (29), (iii) 1st serve points won (6), (iv) 2nd serve points won (1), (v) service games won (3), and (vi) break points saved (8).

• Return of service: (vii) points won returning 1st serve (4), (viii) points won returning 2nd serve (17), (ix) break points converted (36), and (x) return games won (10).