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!

Can I? versus I Can!

Having read many self-help books over the years I’ve constantly encountered the idea of using positive self-talk and affirmation statements to help improve your chances of achieving your goals. Many of these books tell you to write positive “affirmation” statements. Examples would be:

• I have plenty of creativity for this project.
• I am successful.
• I complete tasks and projects on time.
• I expect to be successful in all of my endeavors. Success is my natural state.

A tennis example could be, "I always play my best" or "I love competition and do well."

When I read these books years ago and tried affirmations I believe they helped put me in a more positive frame of mind. However, as I wrote in my April 23, 2017 post “Moving Beyond Positive Thinking”, research has shown that if we vividly visualize our goals our mind doesn’t know the difference between the imagined outcome and the actual results! We can end up having less motivation not more. In this post I referred to work done by Gabriele Oettingen, professor of psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg and covered in her book Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation.

Daniel Pink, author of books such as Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, reports on research that says we can be more productive by asking if we can do something then answering with a “yes” rather than declaring “I can do it.” Pink describes research done on a method used by Bob the Builder, an “overall-clad, stop-motion animated construction executive – who debuted on CBBC in 1999 and whose television programme now reaches children in 240 territories and 45 languages – is a management radical. His approach to directing projects, people and himself runs counter to the prevailing wisdom about business performance.”

Most of us believe in positive self-talk. "I can achieve anything," we mouth to the mirror in the morning. "Nobody can stop me," we tell ourselves before walking into a big meeting. We believe we'll do better if we banish doubts about our ability or our strategy and instead muster an inner voice that affirms our awesomeness.

But not Bob. Instead of puffing up himself and his team, he first wonders whether they can actually achieve their goal. In asking his signature question – Can we fix it? – he introduces some doubt.

…

In a nifty set of experiments, three social scientists explored the differences between what they call "declarative" self-talk (I will fix it!) and "interrogative" self-talk (Can I fix it?). They began by presenting a group of participants with some anagrams to solve (for example, rearranging the letters in "sauce" to spell "cause".) But before the participants tackled the problem, the researchers asked one half of them to take a minute to ask themselves whether they would complete the task – and the other half to tell themselves that they would complete the task.

The results?

The self-questioning group solved significantly more anagrams than the self-affirming group.

…

By asking "Can we fix it?", Bob widens the possibilities. Only then – once he's explored the options and examined his assumptions – does he elicit a rousing "Yes, we can" from his team and everyone gets to work.

So the next time you're feeding your inner self a heady brew of confident declarations and bold affirmations, toss in a handful of interrogatives with a few sprinkles of humility and doubt.

The research that Pink reports relates somewhat to Oettingen’s WOOP process. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. You define what you wish [W] to accomplish, determine the outcome [O], identify the likely obstacles [O] then design a plan [P] to overcome those obstacles.

Am I saying not to use positive affirmations? No! I think they have a place. For an interesting perspective see Scott Adams’ How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life. Adams in hardly a raving advocate of positive mental attitude but he admits to have tried positive affirmations. I think the key take away is not to expect affirmations to have magical powers that will make things happen without work or without accounting for obstacles that could derail your efforts. We need to have a positive idea where we want to go while also asking ourselves what could go wrong and what can we do to deal with it.

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By now you’re probably wondering, “How does this apply to tennis or other sports?” Here’s how it applies for me. When I step onto the court I ask myself a version of Bob the Builder’s question: “Can I play well today? … Yes!” (I also use the acronym LIFE³ to remind why I’m playing: to Learn, Improve, have Fun and to Express myself, to Explore my capabilities and to Exercise.)

Process Improvement: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent by James Clear

Process Improvement: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent

This article by James Clear touches on what I covered in the previous post about journaling. As I mentioned I found that using a journal to record my progress in tennis technique, tactics and my mental/emotional state have helped me become a better player through incremental improvement. Clear's article shows how the British cycling team, which had never won the Tour de France, ended up winning it in 2012 as well as pulling in 70% of the gold medals in cycling in the 2012 Olympics. They did it through “aggregation of marginal gains” as described by Dave Brailsford, General Manager and Performance Director for Team Sky, Great Britain’s professional cycling team.

Keeping a journal helps me keep track of where I'm improving and where I need to spend more time and effort.

While I'm on the subject, Clear also suggests it's better for us to focus on the system we put in place to accomplish goals, rather than the goals themselves. (A point that Scott Adams also makes in his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.) Another way of saying it is to focus on the process (the system) rather than the goal (the outcome). Here are some of his examples.

• If you're a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.
• If you're a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
• If you're a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.
• If you're an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process. 

Clear goes on to explain the reasons why setting up a system works better than focusing strictly on goals. Rather than repeating them, here is the link.

Continual Improvement Journaling

A couple years ago I read a tennis book that recommended using a journal to rate yourself after each match on how much incremental improvement you made while playing. (Unfortunately I don't remember the book.) It suggested rating yourself on a scale of 1 for low to 5 for high in how much incremental improvement you made in the areas of technique, tactics, mental/emotional, and adjustments. It also asks what you did well and what you could improve. The idea behind this is that we usually don’t drastically improve our games. It’s more a process of continual improvement, often with the quality of our play declining a bit because we’re trying to change things. (This is a common occurrence when people take lessons.)

After doing this for about two years I can say that keeping this journal has been helpful. For one thing, I’ve noticed trends that help me know what to work on, such as I’m not tossing the ball forward enough when serving or I’m hitting overheads long. It’s also been helpful seeing progress as my self-ratings in the categories have increased over time. It probably sounds like bragging but I have to think more about what needs to be improved because I’m making fewer errors or clusters of mistakes in one area.

As part of this, I’ve also started to record the results from my Babolat POP sensor where it tells me what strokes have improved or declined based on today’s results versus the most recent six matches. The POP sensor, which is worn on the wrist, measures a variety of things related to tennis: maximum and average speeds of swing, number of strokes, and kind of strokes (forehand, backhand, serve, volley and overhead as well as topspin, slice and flat for the groundstrokes). The POP summarizes your performance in a match or practice by showing which two categories improved and one area where the quality has dropped. Adding this information to the self-evaluation ratings in the journal has helped me focus on the areas I need to improve the next time I play.

Overall I believe this journaling exercise has been worthwhile.

Blog: Change in Scope (Again)

This blog originally started out sharing my experiences in coaching youth soccer at the recreational and club level. It morphed a bit when I gave up coaching to focus just on refereeing. However the scope of this blog will change once again. Due to issues with my knees I chose to take a year off from refereeing (and might not resume in 2018). On January 1, 2017 I also retired from my full time job of 43 years, which means I’m playing tennis more than ever. Six to seven times a week! So the scope of this blog has changed with my life changes. While earlier entries talked about coaching soccer or refereeing, going forward it will share what I’ve learned and observed about playing and coaching tennis or how the mental/psychological aspects can be applied to playing other sports.

I say “coaching tennis” in the above paragraph because in the spring of 2017 I got to coach the junior varsity boys’ tennis team for a local private high school. It was a rewarding and interesting experience! And it allowed me to share what I’ve learned both in technique and tactics from playing tennis for more than 40 years. (!) While my NTRP (National Tennis Ratings Program) rating is 4.0 based on input from coaches when I’ve taken lessons and I might never reach the 4.5 level due to my age and other limitations, I believe my understanding of tennis is more advanced than the people with whom I play. Being an analytical engineer helps!

For me studying tennis is almost a full time job. (Ask my wife!) This study consists of reading books, analyzing slow motion replays of the strokes and strategies of professional players, taking lessons every year, buying courses such as Craig O’Shannessy’s Brain Game tennis or the Bryan brothers videos on playing doubles, visiting instruction forums and subscribing to many instruction newsletters. I’ve found that no one source provides everything you need to know about this fantastic and almost infinitely deep sport. To capture this information I’ve filled notebooks with handwritten notes, scanned key pages of books and articles and keep a spreadsheet with tips. When the TV is on 90% of the time it’s set to the Tennis Channel.

I like to think that this study has paid off. Why? Because I’m playing better tennis now at the age of 67 than I have ever played. People with whom I play comment on how my game continues to improve. I think becoming a better and smarter player has helped me compensate for the affects of aging (and somewhat arthritic knees).

The real Super Bowl lesson wasn’t about revenge - The Boston Globe

The real Super Bowl lesson wasn’t about revenge - The Boston Globe

This article nicely captures my feelings about the New England Patriots' incredible come-from-behind win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. As a Pats fan it was sweet to have them win despite Brady's suspension for the first four games of the season due to allegations that the Pats lowered the pressure in their footballs.

But the satisfaction of getting this win (with properly inflated balls) pales to the spectacle of watching the Patriots methodically, relentlessly and calmly chipping away at the Falcons' lead. Meanwhile the Atlanta team could have easily added a field goal to put the game even further out of reach but succumbed to some head-scratching decisions. There easily were half a dozen or more plays that would have thwarted the Pats' comeback if any one of them had not worked in the Pats favor. 

It seems that everything is politicized these days. We know that Robert Kraft (the team owner), Bill Belichick (head coach) and Tom Brady (quarterback) are Trump supporters. We know that some of the players have said they will not attend the team meeting at the White House for political reasons. Yet it's great to see that both sides could set aside these differences (at least publicly) to work toward a common goal.

It was as if everything our parents, our teachers, our coaches had tried to teach us transpired in the last 18 minutes of this magnificent spectacle, this Super Bowl. In the end, it wasn’t about revenge. It was about not giving up, about perseverance, about not panicking, about having a backup plan if the original plan isn’t working, about believing in yourself and your ability and in one another.

... 

The roots of the comeback were embedded in another of our parents’ mantras: that you lay the groundwork for success in ways you often can’t see, simply by persevering. Even after they had fallen behind by so much, the Patriots were controlling possession and running the Falcons defense ragged. In the fourth quarter, and especially during the winning drive in overtime, the Atlanta defenders were gassed, exhausted. 

...

So many of us had assumed that Tom Brady wanted to win this game so he could rub it in Goodell’s face. But it turns out he really wanted to win the game to put a smile on his mother’s face. There’s something much stronger, sweeter, and more satisfying than revenge. It’s called love.

Resilence and Choking: Federer vs. Cilic Wimbledon Match

Yesterday Roger Federer narrowly avoided being eliminated from Wimbledon at the hands of Marin Cilic. He was down two sets to none and even had a couple match points against him. Yet he prevailed. We think that Roger has nerves of steel and therefore never chokes but he did shank several balls, revealing that, yes, even Roger is human. In fact, I read a book on Federer recently that reveals he was very temperamental as a junior player. He had temper tantrums that made John McEnroe look mild. If he lost a match he would cry and pout for a while afterwards. Roger made a conscious decision to change his ways and become more Stoic.

This post by Allen Fox talks about how Roger handled choking by not panicking.

I should add that if there was anything to learn from this match it was that you can choke and still win as long as you don’t get rattled about it. And the topic of “courage” comes up when people think about choking. In my opinion, it doesn’t show courage to not be nervous and make the big shot on the big point. It takes courage to choke on the big point, not get upset about it; fight your way to another big point; and finally come through, either by making a good shot or your opponent missing.

Fox's point can apply to other situations beyond sports. That it's OK to tighten up under pressure as long as you recognize it and keep trying to do your best.