View Single Post
Old 07-29-2015, 05:20 PM   #77
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Thanks. I think you have a group of good-but-not great players objectively, with endurance being the main limitation. I think endurance is the single most important attribute, as it allows you to train them more. YMMV but as a general rule I don't play them there until they can benefit from it(Top 150 for Slams, Top 100 for Indian Wells/Miami, Top 50-60 for other Masters). If they don't have an excellent chance of making it through qualifying, it's a waste of time in my opinion.

It might be related, but I would also suggest less tournaments and more practice overall. You appear to be doing an excellent job at keeping them out of the 'red zone' in terms of form, but until a player reaches about the Top 50 -- at which point they should be playing all Slams/Masters or at least most of them -- I think this is still overplaying. Development first again. Anybody else, as a general rule, shouldn't be playing in a tournament the following week unless it is necessary to avoid the form penalty by going under 15.0. More specificially, for challenger players:

** The last challenger is in week 48 and the first one in the new year is in week 2. In order to 'bridge the gap', by the end of week 48, you need to be up to about 25 form or just a hair under. This is exactly the situation in which Girsh finds himself in RR1 for my players, he's a bit higher ranked than your guys but not much and still very much a challenger player. Week 44 just ended, he'll need to play in week 46 to stay out of the 'red zone' and at least once more in 47-48, maybe both weeks to get up there where he needs to be. Note that for juniors/futures players this isn't necessary since they have year-round options.

** Since form declines by percentage(8% decrease each week), the higher it is, the faster it goes down. Combine that with the fact that there's always a chance you lose early in a tournament and are forced into practice events to use up your fatigue for the week, and it's best for development to play less tournaments.

** It's always good to look for opportunities where there are a lot of challengers in a week and you can 'play up' a level and still have a chance to go deep in the draw. A couple of your higher-ranked guys might be able to get away with a CH1 once in a great while but only if there are multiple CH+ events that week, etc.

** To stay above the 15-form line, all you need is to have 16.3 or more the previous week. So, if you aren't below 16.3, most of the time you shouldn't be entering another tournament the next week. Practice, practice, practice(with no apologies whatsoever to Allen Iverson)

Player-Specific Suggestions

If I were you(I'm not, have fun with the game whatever you decide), this is what I would personally do.

** All four should be playing CH3's primarily, and on surfaces they are at least decent on(appears to be hardcourts will be best in most circumstances, but again this a week-to-week thing depending on what tournaments are available). You are doing it exactly right by playing both doubles and singles, the idea is to get in as many matches as possible, take whatever points you can get, and then take as long of a break as you can for practice tournaments to build up your abilities -- lather, rinse, repeat.

** I would drop Delacave like a bad habit. Probably about 100th is the best he's going to get. I'd do the same with Bollom, although he's better, and then you have a gap between your two players in each world. Hansell I like the best. He's got almost everything you want except for strength. I'd be surprised if you can't turn him into a Top 30 player. Kazic probably Top 50(just ballpark stuff here, depending on their aging factors, etc.). None of them are Slam-champion guys but you can have a lot of fun with them while replacing the other two. That'd be my call anyway.

Not necessarily immediately, but I'd be scouring the new juniors every Monday looking for a new player. To find them, remember that endurance is far more important than talent. The difference between a below-average(Manohar, 2.0) and elite(Mooljee, 4.7) player in talent is only 11 xp points per week. That works out to less than 10k over the course of their productive career, or 2-3 extra training sessions. It's not nothing, but it's close to it. Endurance is several times more important -- a similar gap there would mean 150-200 xp points a week, roughly 15x as much. Anybody who doesn't have at least a 1.4 endurance when they come in is somebody you want to ignore. I think second-most important is athleticism(strength/speed) and mentality. Since you can't train those abilities, they either have them or they don't.

So looking at the new players, I'd do a quick calculation of their peak endurance/speed/strength, look at mentality/talent which doesn't change, and then if you have players who are close how developed their skills are will also matter. Surfaces/Home Advantage can safely be ignored. Might be useful here to illustrate a couple of RR1 examples:

** Brad Bennett(USA, 14y 29w, 67% aged). Until I decided to do this I hadn't seen him, and my jaw figuratively hit the floor. He's not 'sexy', doesn't have that uber-talent that just makes you amazed, but he has the following:

Skill: 0.6
Service: 0.3
Doubles: 0.1
Talent: 2.8*
Strength: 2.3
Speed: 1.8
Mentality: 2.3
Endurance: 2.1!!!

I don't hire anybody not from Sri Lanka, but if I did I'd be on this guy like yesterday. I want to slap 95% of the managers in RR1 right this very minute, because no way should he be available. Talent is just a bit above average there nothing exciting, mentality a bit below average so he's not particularly clutch. But if we do the math, at peak he will have:

Strength: 3.4(good)
Speed: 2.7(a hair over average)
Endurance: 4.7

That's better endurance than any of my players and I specifically emphasize it when they are created. Athleticism is almost as good as Mehul/Mooljee. Properly trained, he'll have a fairly meteoric career but probably be better at his peak than anybody I have. He'll at least be as good. Should be a Top 10 player, and he's just sitting there waiting to be snapped up . He's been around for almost six months so some of that potential is already wasted, but still ... you don't get youngsters with that kind of endurance very often.


** Greg Sanderson(AUS, 14y 26w, 64% aged)

3.8 talent, 1.8 endurance, 2.4 strength, 2.2 speed, 1.3 mentality.

Well the mentality sucks here and he's going to lose to anybody close to him in ability, but having said that endurance will end up at a very fine 4.4, 3.8 strength, 3.4 speed which is better athleticism than anyone I've gotten. Again, I'd be snapping him up in a second.

To find these guys, what I did is to simply sort the list of available 14yo by endurance. Then I just looked through to find guys who were high on there and had a decent mix of the other abilities, taking a closer look at any who catch my eye. There's no question you can do at least somewhat better than what you have, it takes some patience to train them up of course.

Any questions?

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-29-2015 at 05:39 PM.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote