I’m very excited because it won’t be long until the PingSkills Vault is released to everyone. Today I want to talk about how to record match results.

When designing this part of the application, we wanted to keep it simple. We didn’t want too many details to be recorded because it can become too hard and people would not bother recording all of their matches. However we did want to encourage people to think about their matches so that they become more tactically aware. So we decided to record the following information:

• The match date
• The match result
• The score
• Some commentary

The Score

To keep things simple, the score is a free text field. We thought about having a drop down box for the score but it was going to be too complicated because you could play any number of sets. And what if you were playing some kind of special tournament where you don’t play up to 11? By keeping it as a free text field you can record the score any way you want. You could record it like 11-3, 11-8, 11-9 or you could record it as 3 sets to 0.

Match Commentary

The match commentary is where we want you to really think about your game. This will give you practice at analysing your matches and working out what worked well and what areas you need to improve upon. As with your opponents, we have provided a template to use for each new match you record.

If I was recording a match against Alois, the template would be:

My sleep last night was good/bad/not enough/other
Before the match I felt calm/excited/nervous/tense/other
I did/did not follow my PingSkills Vault tactics - Provide specific examples
I won a lot of points by …
I lost a lot of points when …
How did I play when the game was close?
How did Alois play when the game was close?
In future matches when the game is close I should …
Which of my serves worked well? What serves did Alois cause me trouble with?
Which of my returns worked well? What returns did Alois do that caused me trouble?

After filling in your match comments you should review your recorded tactics against that opponent and see if they need to be updated based on your latest experience.