How does your charting tell you this? How does that work?
I do charting for specific things at times, but for example, one of the things is
watching for rally balls that land within 5-6 of the svc line & also for shots that
land in the back 3-4 feet near the BL. Once you spot one of these shots, I look
to see what preceded it and what followed it. 1st thing I noticed was how few
really deep balls you see and how MANY avg or worse type depth shots
are hit and also go unpunished. Took awhile, but then noticed that the deep
shots didn't really seem to have a big effect against better players. Yes, big
with low 4.0s and down in some cases, but the better the player, the less impact.
Main thing I like to chart most is point ending sequences. Looking back from the last shot
of the exchange to see what led up to it. Did one player hit a hard, deep
ball and have it force an error due to it's depth and pace? Did the player hit a
pretty routine ball and the next guy just commit a UE? Did the player hit a weak,
ball and it get crushed for a winner? Was a winner on the deeper side, or shorter?
I would like to say I went into this charting with an open mind, but I really
expected to see depth as a major factor as I've always heard. The more matches
I charted, the more I realized that was not the case and that it almost seemed
more random, with lots of strong rtns from deep balls and plenty of avg shots
coming off shorter balls.
It became clear to me that "depth was overrated" so I studied to see what was the key
or a better key.