How to determine our skill level

My son and I have been playing for the past 3 months and our skills have definitely improved.  However, since we only play each other, we have no way to really monitor our skill level.  I understand that playing other people is the best approach but we live out in the woods of a rural area and that is not really possible on a regular basis. 

What I would like to know is, can we estimate our skill level by measuring some features of our game play.  For example, will measuring the number of hits per volley and elapsed time for the volley (to estimate ball speed) measure our physical capabilities and, if so, how can our strategic capabilities be measured?

Has anyone done something like this?  Any suggestions would be helpful.

Hi Mark,

That is an interesting question.

I think the first thing you can look at is just consistency of stroke.  How many hits can you do in a rally for each stroke.

Then you can also look at accuracy.  Set out an area that the stroke is allowed to go into and see how many you can get in a row.

As a guide aim to be able to hit 100 strokes in a row for each of your strokes.  You can use our Consistency Chart to help you to keep a track of this.

You could then take a video of yourself and watch it and compare it to the correct technique that we show you in our series of lessons.

You can do something with your serves.  Firstly aim for accuracy.  Put a target on the table on see how many times you can hit it.  Then you can work on spin.  See how much curve or turn you can get with the ball.

This is something that we will work on to develop.  It is something that we have been thinking about previously so stay tuned.