QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS What is SSV? What's SSV compared with? Why use SSV? Why SSV? How does it work? How is the ball put into play? What about bad ball tosses? Why score control? Why score power? Why the second bounce? Doesn't a topspin lob have a deep second bounce? Why don't you measure other skills...? Why don't you score the lob, drop shot or return of serve? How long does SSV take? How do you know SSV works? How do you stop players from sandbagging? How does SSV help the teaching pro? What is the SSV Tennis Website (www.ssvtennis.com)? What is SSV? Its a basic skills drill. Its a game It's an evaluation Its a rating. Its an objective method of measuring tennis ability. What's SSV compared with? A national junior competition like: Football's Punt, Pass & Kick Baseball's Pitch, Hit & Run Golf's Drive, Chip & Putt Why use SSV? To find out how good you are. To measure your improvement. To place you in the right game. To introduce you to the game. Why SSV? Golfer's know how good they are. Bowler's know how good they are. The score in tennis doesn't tell you. Only a winner and a loser. SSV allows you to play against the game itself. A score in SSV tells you how good you are. Like golf and bowling, its an objective format. back to top How does it work? Players hit balls to target areas with different strokes. Points are scored for control and power. Control is the first bounce. Power is the second bounce. The combined total points for control and power is the SSV score. back to top How is the ball put into play? A ball is fed with an underarm ball toss. It is the best way for different people to deliver the same ball. It does not intimidate a beginner. It requires good stroke production to generate power. back to top What about bad ball tosses? The player can reject any ball. back to top Why score control? Better players have better control. back to top Why score power? In many sports like tennis, better players have both more control and power. In golf, control is direction and power is distance. In SSV, control is hitting a target area and power is the depth of the second bounce. The credibility of SSV is due to scoring both control and power. back to top Why Score the second bounce? Speed could indicate power. Impact could indicate power. These are too complicated to measure effectively. A ball hit hard has a deeper second bounce than a soft ball. back to top Doesn't a topspin lob have a deep second bounce? Yes, and it scores high in SSV. A topspin lob is an effective shot. It takes a good player to consistently hit topspin lobs. Better players score even higher when they use topspin lobs. Deep second bounce is an accurate description of the power score. Power sounds better than deep second bounce. back to top Why don't you measure other skills, like mobility, reflex, endurance, strategy, etc.? Those are important skills. However, they don't become a factor in tennis unless both players' basic skills of control and power are equal. For example, an out of shape experienced player with good control and power can easily beat a track star, karate expert or marathon swimmer if those athletics can't keep the ball in play. back to top Why don't you score the lob, drop shot or return of serve? Those are also important strokes. However, time is limited and those strokes are not a factor unless the basic skills are close. The objective is a simple fast method to measure skill. back to top How long does SSV take? Player hit 40 balls. It takes about 10 minutes per player. back to top How do you know SSV works? Thousands of players have used SSV with excellent response from the players and teaching pros. Tournaments have been run using the SSV score to seed the draw. Over 80% of the matches were won by the player with the highest SSV. back to top How do you stop players from sandbagging? Good question. You can't, but you can remove the incentive to sandbag. Have round robin or league formats where everyone plays the same amount of tennis. Allow high SSV players to play down. Don't allow low SSV players to play up. Lesser players like playing stronger players as long as they don't get eliminated from the event like in traditional tournaments. The stronger players will want to play at their own level. With SSV as a minimum requirement for a level, the stronger players will make sure they score well on SSV. back to top How does SSV help the teaching pro? SSV is objective. The pro does not get negative feed back from a player or parent when they asked 'How good am I doing?'. With the SSV score as the answer, the pro has a positive role in helping the player improve his or her skills. Players will see their improvement in higher SSV scores. Players will have more fun because they will be in the right game. The pro will see an increase in lessons. The pro will see an increase in program participation. back to top What is the SSV Tennis Website (www.ssvtennis.com)? It's a place to get information about SSV. It's a national database. Pros can register their players. Players can see their own national SSV rankings by age division. Pros and players can see national averages by age division. SSV events and results will be posted. back to top