Coaching Junior Varsity High School Tennis: 2nd Year Observations

This spring I completed the second season of coaching a boy’s junior varsity team for a local Catholic high school. Although I haven’t coached a high school sport before I have coached town and club soccer teams from Under 12 up to U18 teams. However, as you can imagine none of the drills and exercises I used for coaching soccer helped with coaching tennis. The only commonalities shared by both centers on my general preference for coaching. This includes finding ways to set up practices so that the players aren’t standing around in lines waiting for their turn, keeping instructions short and to the point rather than long lectures, and not having the players run laps. (No lines, lectures or laps.) Fortunately for me, the varsity coach (who started at the same time as me) has coached high school tennis for 15 years and designed most practices for both varsity and JV.

In any case, I’m glad to say that the JV record for the two seasons I’ve coached was 6 wins and 6 losses in 2017 and 7 wins and 4 losses in 2018. For what it’s worth here are some conclusions and lessons I learned from these two seasons.

1.        Relative coaching pressures between varsity and JV. While varsity plays to have a good enough record to qualify for the end of season state tournament, JV doesn’t have the same tournament. (At least that’s true here in Massachusetts. I don’t know if this is true in other states.) That doesn’t mean I don’t care about the win-loss record. I know the boys (and their parents) do keep track of how they’re doing. This gave me the freedom to experiment with different lineups without being unduly concerned about the results.

2.        Statistics. I use a spreadsheet to track the win-loss match record of each player as well as the number of sets won or lost and total number of games won or lost. I also tracked how many times each boy played an exhibition match. (Exhibition matches are those that we play after the initial three singles and two doubles matches that determine which school won that day. With 11 players on my roster and 7 playing official matches I had 4 extra players who would play exhibition matches with the extra players of the other team.) I also tracked the win-loss record of the different doubles teams so that I knew which teams were stronger.

3.        Coaching technique. You’d think the fact that we worked with the boys five days a week for ten weeks that the varsity coach and I could work on their technique. However, we usually had 2 or 3 matches a week, leaving only 2 or 3 days a week for practices. Plus it was difficult spending too much time with any one player when you have 11 or 12 at the practice. So the best we could do is make some suggestions. (I liken it to the difference in what you can learn in taking a tennis clinic versus a private lesson.) We had a couple players who asked for specific help on a specific stroke like their backhand or serve. For them we’d have the player stay after practice so we could work with them. The bottom line: we spent more time working on singles and doubles tactics.

4.        Chalk talk sessions. We started try-outs and practices in the third week of March. However, New England weather often forced us to cancel practice or run them in a basketball gym, which limits the amount of tennis-like activities you can run. When forced indoors the varsity coach and I would use foam balls or low-pressure balls to work on technique. Sometimes I would have JV meet in a conference room where I could go over some of the info I shared with them in emails and to explain handouts showing positioning in singles and doubles.

5.        Designing practices. I mentioned above that I was lucky to have an experienced varsity coach (who also instructs at a local tennis club) who designed the practices. Still, there were times when I was on my own because varsity had a match while JV didn’t. I was frustrated when looking for ideas on designing practices in the various books I have as well as coaching web sites. Most of the drills and games offered in these sources involve only 1 to 4 players. I wanted to create practices that involved everyone, if possible. One of my solutions was to use a game-based approach in which the boys played singles or doubles games but with conditions I imposed to get the boys to play in a certain way. For example, I set a condition where all of the players had to be inside the lines of the court after the serve. This encouraged them to play a bit more aggressively instead of retreating behind the baseline and playing defensively all of the time.

6.        Pre-match talks. While I tracked individual win-loss record in addition to the team’s win-loss record I never talked about winning or losing during the pre-match team talk. Why? Because I know that the players can’t control whether they win or lose. They can only control how the thought and effort they put into their play. I came up with a mantra that I repeated before each match: Give 100% effort (or take no points off), act strong and poised regardless of the score, enjoy the competition (because it shows where you can improve and what you do well), and learn from every mistake and every match.

7.        Between the points ritual. I told the boys that they spend more time getting ready to play the next point than they do actually playing the point. To help the boys focus between points I recommended a three-step process: Review, Rehearse, Relax. When the point ended I recommend that the player review what happened, especially if it was an error. Then rehearse what you wanted to happen by taking a couple shadow swings while visualizing the shot they wanted to make. Relax by taking a couple deep breaths while looking at their string dampener.

8.        Importance of team captain. The team elected the same team captain in both seasons. He turned out to be a great asset. I had him introduce the players to the opposing teams but also had him organize getting parents to volunteer providing drinks and snacks for our home matches. He also ran the warm ups before practices and matches. He also told me if he knew certain guys would not be able to attend a practice or match due to illness, school commitments, etc.

9.        Team emails. In addition to using the school email system to inform the boys of the upcoming practice and match schedule I’d also use the email to share important information on technique and tactics from a variety of sources such as web sites or email newsletters from a variety of online coaches. I’d also print out key diagrams as handouts.

10.    Parent emails. From talking with the parents who would come to watch their son play at home matches I learned that the amount of information the boys shared with their parents varied wildly. Some parents had no idea how the team was doing or what we worked on during practices. While I know I don’t need to cater to the parents I also know they’re more likely to complain to the Athletic Director if they don’t know what is going on with the team (in general terms). I’m not talking about giving parents a blow-by-blow accounting of everything we do. But I figure it helps to explain my coaching philosophy and provide some key information on tactics and techniques to make them feel a bit more comfortable. It appears I struck the right balance because all of the input received from the parents has been positive.

11.    Cheat sheet. I’m not sure why I saved this for the final point but I distilled key points for singles, doubles and general tips into one double-sided sheet. We covered this sheet during our chalk talk sessions and referred to it sometimes during the pre-match talks. It was an interesting process whittling the tons of info I have into what I think are the most important.

That’s it!

Why Try Outs Are Making Your Team Worse from A Coaching Life blog

Came across this blog while reading one of the coaching forums. Has an interesting approach.

http://acoachinglife.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/why-try-outs-are-making-your-team-worse/

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Review

I posted this review under my Flourishing blog but feel it would be of interest to coaches so I've posted it here too.

Do you believe you are born with certain innate talents that can't be changed? Or do you believe your intelligence and other traits can be developed? According to Carol Dweck, Lewis and Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success the first conclusion represents a "fixed" mindset while the second shows a "growth" mindset.

This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. … [T]hey believe that a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.

So what difference does it make if you have a growth versus a fixed mindset? A lot. People who believe growth is possible will “value of challenging themselves and the importance of effort. Our research has shown that this comes directly from the growth mindset. When we teach people the growth mindset, with its focus on development, these ideas about challenge and effort follow. … When we (temporarily) put people in a fixed mindset, with its focus on permanent traits, they quickly fear challenge and devalue effort.”

In addition Dweck claims growth minded people will also be more honest about their weaknesses and failures because this provides valuable information growers can use to improve themselves. Those with a fixed belief will not be as honest about their mistakes because everything hinges on outcome and validation. Failures thus reflect negatively on -- and possibly undercut -- your innate abilities. She cites examples from business such as Enron whose top leadership exemplified the fixed mindset versus other companies whose leaders are guided by a growth-oriented mentality.

In one world – the world of fixed traits – success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other – the world of changing qualities – it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.

So how do these conclusions apply in the real world? At work, for example, “Instead of just giving employees an award for the smartest idea or praise for a brilliant performance, they would get praise for taking imitative, for seeing a difficult task through, for struggling and learning something new, for being undaunted by a setback, or for being open to and acting on criticism.”

In relationships, fixed mindsetters believe problems have no cure because change isn’t possible for either party. The only recourse is to place blame or plot revenge. For growth mindsetters, “it was about understanding, forgiving, and moving on.” They still feel pain but not humiliation, the hallmark emotion for someone with a fixed mindset.

For parents Dweck says they can best help their children by teaching them “to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.”

Fixed mindset parents, on the other hand, send a different message to their kids. “’We love you – on our terms’ Those with the fixed mindset feel their parents won’t love and respect them unless they fulfill their parents’ aspirations for them.”

Dweck also comments on the ill-advised attempts to help raise grades, test scores and self-esteem by lowering standards. She feels this approach back fires because it ”just leads to poorly educated students who feel entitled to easy work.” Amen to that! Dweck also sites Benjamin Bloom’s study of world-class performers which revealed, “their first teachers were incredibly warm and accepting. Not that they set low standards. Not at all, but they created an atmosphere of trust, not judgment.”

Because the growth mindset accepts the idea of continual improvement coaches like basketball’s John Wooden strive to help their players to improve through constant preparation with focused effort. As Wooden explains: “You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better.”

Or, as Dweck says: “As parents, teachers, and coaches, our mission is developing people’s potential.” You can’t develop talent if you believe your players, kids or employees have a fixed, unchangeable nature.

As you can tell I liked Mindset. I know reviewers are supposed to find something to criticize and I’m sure I’d find something if I looked long enough. However I believe Dweck’s distinction between growth and fixed mindsets provides a key concept that explains many things about how people act and relate to each other. It also gives us invaluable assistance to improve how we work, relate, parent, coach and grow.

The Talent Code Review

I posted this review under my Flourishing blog but feel it would be of interest to coaches so I've posted it here too.

Why do some people excel in their fields while others struggle or stagnate? Is it their genes? Their upbringing? Luck? According to Coyle it's none of the above. Three factors help propel people to achieve more than others: deliberate practice, ignition and master coaches.

The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. covers a lot of the same ground as Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else but takes a different approach that is broader by spanning the range from basic neurology to coaching techniques. Both books feature the vital role of "deliberate practice", focused effort to improve. Not just doing something repeatedly but also doing something in a targeted manner that drives improvement.

The Talent Code goes a step further to explain why. Repetition causes myelin to grow around neural paths in the brain. This layer of myelin shields the pathway to reduce signal loss and ultimately accelerates and strengthens the signal. Deliberate practice builds myelin while also forcing the practicer to the edge of their ability where mistakes are made. Fixing these mistakes results in strengthening their skill. Although the author doesn't mention it this process also fosters "flow", the state of being so absorbed in an activity that you lose sense of time and of self.

Deliberate practice requires hours and hours of commitment. What motivates people to invest thousands of hours? Ignition: the desire to become who you want to be. (This resembles the ancient Greek concept of daimonism: becoming your ideal self.) These people have a vision of who they want to become: their vision draws them forward.

Practice and fire by themselves aren't quite enough. We need someone to guide us, to push us to the point where we make mistakes then help us correct them. We need master coaches, or "talent whisperers" as Coyle calls them.

These coaches work their magic not with stirring pep talks but with sharply focused, corrective input. When their student does an act correctly they say, "Good, now do this" and pose a more challenging task. He holds college basketball coach John Wooden as an exemplar of this approach. Wooden prefers to present challenges that his players have to solve. If they don't figure out the solution Wooden helps. (I've used this approach in coaching youth and premier league soccer and believe it helps create players who can think for themselves in competition rather than depending on the coach to give them solutions during the game.)

In essence The Talent Code says:

1. To build myelin use deliberate practice (which encourages flow).

2. To maintain motivation follow your ideal self - ignition.

3. To maintain one's course rely on a master coach.

Speaking as someone in his late 50's The Talent Code also has an optimistic message for people like me. You can grow myelin, hence skill, at almost any age. It just takes longer as you get older.

Why No Plan B?

In a recent soccer coaching forum, there is a post titled Why do we give our players only one weapon - one method of play? And, what should we do about it? I’ve seen this myself, both as a coach of a girls U17 club team and as a referee. In my case the typical attacking method for teams is to put tall, fast gazelles as forwards who wait for a ball to be served over the top so they can beat the fullbacks, run onto the ball and shoot. We played a team several weeks ago who had one forward with exceptional speed but, fortunately for us, had poor shooting skill. Almost all of her shots were wide or high. I assigned my fastest back to mark her which took her out of the picture. The opponent had no Plan B. We also played in a tournament over the weekend. All three of the teams we played used the same approach. I don’t think I saw one attempt to build up an attack out of the back.

The team I work with also has at least one speedy forward who can easily beat defenses but I’ve been working with them on alternate attacking patterns in case an opponent neutralizes our forward. We’ve been working on diagonal through balls, crosses, bent and curved runs that frame the goal, etc.

This thread confirms my observations that the U.S. approach depends too much on speed and size over technical build up.

"Coaching the 'Do's'"

Below is a post from the And-Again soccer coaching forum. I like what the coach says. It’s similar to Tony DiCicco’s Catch Them Being Good: Everything You Need to Know to Successfully Coach Girls. DiCicco recommends that coaches emphasize what players do right with the idea that you reward someone for doing something right but also motivate the other players to emulate the same behavior. The traditional approach taught at least by the USSF is to stop play, correct what you saw wrong, have the player rehearse then restart play. I always had reservations about this approach because I felt it puts the player who is being corrected in a negative spotlight. If done too much the players will start playing conservatively, afraid to make a mistake. I saw this vividly a couple years ago when a coach who “helped” me with my U18 girls team stopped play almost once a minute to correct something he saw wrong. It didn’t take too long for me to see the girls dread every time he yelled “Freeze!” out of fear that they were going to be the one he singled out.

I’m not saying we have to coddle players or never correct mistakes. I think there are times to correct a player but to do it one-on-one or wait until you see a pattern of similar mistakes by several players then use this opportunity to show the entire team what to do better. But overall I like the approach of focusing more on the positives than on negatives.

Here is the link to the discussion followed by the text of the post from the coach.

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/andagain/vpost?id=2586055

I am currently reading a book called "The Mind Gym". I think this is a must read for any coach...especially those of older teams that rely more on the mental part of the game to compete. One thing I took from the book is to concentrate on what you can do and not what you can't. For instance, before our game last night...which was against the top team in the league...undefeated throughout the winter and this would be our last game against them....I asked my team how they feel during a game if they are not playing well and we are losing. They said things like;

Ø Afraid of making mistakes

Ø Afraid of being subbed out / don't want to go back in

Ø Get mad at themselves

Ø Say negative things to their teammates

Ø Get tense and feel like they can't breath / feel tired

Then I asked them how they feel if they are playing great and no matter what they do everything goes perfectly and it feels like they can do no wrong. They said things like;

Ø Not afraid to try anything

Ø Feel like they can play forever....do not feel tired

Ø Everything is positive to all their teammates and themselves

Ø Don't mind being subbed out but are ready to go back in right away

Ø Feels effortless to play at maximum level

Ø Every thought is focused and clear and flows easily

So then I asked them what all those things listed above are. And they finally got it.....feelings. These are all feelings that every athlete / person carries within themselves. Their feelings can be controlled / channeled in a positive manner no matter what happens on the pitch. I ask them that when they made a mistake to just "flush it" and to pick each other up.

I had to correct my terminology and actions as well. Many times I will tell my defenders "not to lunge". Instead I said "get on proper technique and delay until they give up the ball". This is called coaching the "do's" instead of coaching the "don'ts" because the do's set a positive tone and re-inforces what they should be doing while coaching the dont's re-inforces a negative tone and sets in their mind what they should not be doing so the player might be saying to himself don't lunge, don't lunge, don't lunge so much that it sets that bad behavior into his mind. It's like when I play golf and I say don't slice the ball to myself. I always end up slicing it. Instead say to yourself what you should do and then practice it. Another example was when we'd miss the goal on a shot. This time instead of making a correction I applauded the effort and told them what a great job they did to create the opportunity and good try in taking the strike at goal

Throughout the game I had to bite my tongue. Breaking old habits is tough.

At half time we had a 1-0 lead. The feelings were positive and we did not talk about tactics. The kids were all smiling and positive. Some were already celebrating which I warned them about. I told them we had a long way to go and no matter what happened to keep being positive to each other. We had one bad lapse where our center mid did not mark up their center mid and he buried a beautiful 22 yard shot into the upper corner on a rope. About 4 minutes later a few kids were scrapping for the ball just inside our goal box and a quick toe poke found the back of our net and all of a sudden we were down 2-1 with 15 minutes left. I said nothing after either goal. The boys on our team were all shouting "2 minutes" to each other. It's a signal we use to ourselves to dig in and play harder for the next 2 minutes after a goal to get momentum back on our side. I was happy to hear them all say this. With 8 minutes left we tied the game after some beautiful footwork and intensity from our left midfielder to create some space for himself and his cross was perfectly to the head of our attacking mid who buried it. All I did was clap. The kids emotions were overflowing with positive energy. With 1 minute left we transitioned quickly out of our half and found our left striker 1v1 about 25 yards out from goal. He made a nice turn to the inside but the defender was on him and he cut it back outside and when the defender stepped he cut it back inside and had a step on the defender. From about 18 yards out he unleashed a shot toward the far post that hit the bottom of the crossbar and slid in to the goal. Clock showed 50 seconds left and the kids were all hugging and pumped. And again they said 2 minutes to each other. We won 3-2. Very big win for us psychologically and a very important lesson I learned. I coached in the "do's" and it made a huge difference. After the game one of my players who is ultra competitive and can get down on himself and his teammates at times said " that felt really good". And I have to agree that it did. Things don't always go like this...I fully realize that....but I feel it took my team to a new plateau and definitely taught me something about myself.

And by the way our keeper made some fantastic saves throughout the game and the kids mobbed him after the game.

So, how do you conduct yourself on the sideline? Are your words negative? Is your body language negative or uptight?

This is not going to be easy for my ultracompetitive personality but I am going to conscientously make an effort to hold myself to this standard. I have already had a few of my players email me this morning that they are still excited about the game last night. I think I may have set off something within them that will help them reach a new plateau in their development.