Continual Improvement Journaling

A couple years ago I read a tennis book that recommended using a journal to rate yourself after each match on how much incremental improvement you made while playing. (Unfortunately I don't remember the book.) It suggested rating yourself on a scale of 1 for low to 5 for high in how much incremental improvement you made in the areas of technique, tactics, mental/emotional, and adjustments. It also asks what you did well and what you could improve. The idea behind this is that we usually don’t drastically improve our games. It’s more a process of continual improvement, often with the quality of our play declining a bit because we’re trying to change things. (This is a common occurrence when people take lessons.)

After doing this for about two years I can say that keeping this journal has been helpful. For one thing, I’ve noticed trends that help me know what to work on, such as I’m not tossing the ball forward enough when serving or I’m hitting overheads long. It’s also been helpful seeing progress as my self-ratings in the categories have increased over time. It probably sounds like bragging but I have to think more about what needs to be improved because I’m making fewer errors or clusters of mistakes in one area.

As part of this, I’ve also started to record the results from my Babolat POP sensor where it tells me what strokes have improved or declined based on today’s results versus the most recent six matches. The POP sensor, which is worn on the wrist, measures a variety of things related to tennis: maximum and average speeds of swing, number of strokes, and kind of strokes (forehand, backhand, serve, volley and overhead as well as topspin, slice and flat for the groundstrokes). The POP summarizes your performance in a match or practice by showing which two categories improved and one area where the quality has dropped. Adding this information to the self-evaluation ratings in the journal has helped me focus on the areas I need to improve the next time I play.

Overall I believe this journaling exercise has been worthwhile.