Bill Patton's Blog: Going to #1?

"Adversity, to a fixed mindset athlete typically means something very different, than to a growth mindset athlete. The reality is that adversities push these growth mindset individuals through their imagined "walls" and upwards towards a higher level of competitive skills. This is emotional aptitude in sports." Frank Giampaolo

How many times do players most often lose in sports? At least three times.

"Players lose on the court or field, they lose with their coach, and they lose with their parent on the way home, or at the dining room table." ~ Vic Braden (paraphrase ours)

How do coaches help players to discover the value in adversity and turn that loss into a win?

Coaches help players through times adversity by first displaying empathy. Keeping a player's or a team's goals in mind and helping to teach them the lessons that come with adversity is a major strategy in helping develop a growth mindset. Players then have an opportunity to learn to exhibit great determination for the big moments, or learn from the big moments when they hold lessons for the player or team.

Styrling's Player

The Situation
In our team's state championship match, the overall score was locked at 4-4, with one match left to decide the championship. One of our freshmen, Camryn was down 6-1, 5-0 and she then rallied back in the second set to win 7-5. The third set was very close finishing in a tiebreaker. Camryn lost the match in the third set tiebreaker. It was heartbreaking, but I felt so much pride in my heart for the way she battled. She gave her full effort to win it, and yet she came up on the short side in the final score.

Engagement and Response
I walked out on the court and through the group of players and parents of the opposing team to reach her. As a put my arm around her shoulder I told Camryn that she had shown great strength in fighting back to the very end. I was proud of her! She smiled and said, "Thanks Coach."

After a Time of Reflection
Following the trophy presentation, the rest of our team began to make their way off the court, Camryn came up to me and said, "Coach, I'll never lose a match like that again - I know what I need to do and how I need to play from now on." I asked her what did she mean? She said, "Coach, my personality is to go for it and I'm going to continue my training to do just that, go for it. I know that's who I am!"

Concrete Example of a Shift
Camryn after that season moved to South Carolina, but over the last two years has come back to visit me about once a month to continue her training with me as her main coach. Largely due to that loss in the State Championship, Camryn and I were able to discover together what she really meant that day when she realized she wants to "go for it" and how that manifest on the court in her practice and match play.

Knowing Who She Wants to Be
She determined that she is an all-court player, looking for opportunities to attack and finish the point at the net. Powerful first serves followed by a '+1 Forehand' to the opponent's weaker side. She has made great strides, rising in the rankings now to making it into the top twenty in South Carolina. Top college programs from around the country are taking notice of her as a junior in high school. I'm so proud of her discovery and she has found how to win even when the scoreboard doesn't say the same.

Bill's Player and Team

The Set Up
In 1999, we were not partying like Prince has advised us to do. The team I was coaching had a legitimate shot at a league title, but we were slight underdogs to another team, as they had a bit more experience, and depth on their team, especially in doubles. Even so, we trained hard, but we had two players who held themselves separate from the rest of the team.

The Cancers
Our team chemistry was lacking. After losing the first match up with the first place team at home, suddenly our #2 player did not show up to practice the next day. He came to one more practice then quit the team. No real reason was given for his quitting, but he seemed to give up on the team's chances of winning. After it was discovered that his cohort had plotted out what would happen if he left, assuming that the other player would take the #2 player's place in the league tournament, that cohort would also later quit the team when I did not name him to that tournament team. There were other reasons behind not naming his as such. At that point we were 9-1, and before the two of them left, we still had a chance of tying for a league championship.

Cancer Surgery
After those two left the team, I had to scramble to make changes to the line up. We faced some teams directly below us in the standings, and three 4-3 losses later, we finished 12-4 and tied for third place. The most amazing thing about that, is that almost immediately after those two where gone, the whole team became happier. Practices were more fun, and I even had more fun, even though our results were very disappointing.

Bitter Disappointment
The peak of this angst came in one particular match. One of my young doubles teams that had often given away matches, where they held leads, lost again. This time it was to a team well behind us in the standings, and they really took it hard. I can remember Noli head down on the bleachers sobbing. I had never seen this level of caring about the outcome in him, he and his partner Manuel were too of the happiest players I have ever met, win or lose. They could lose a tough match and be seen laughing and smiling minutes later. Not on this occasion.

Engagement
So I approached Noli, and said, "It looks like you are taking this pretty hard. Are you ok?" He shook his head 'no'. So we talked for a bit I sat next to him and put my hand on his back for a brief moment to reassure him. I let him know that for the first time he seemed to really care about the outcome, and thats a good thing. Also, the other guys quitting was not really such a bad thing, because they were negative anyway. He agreed.

The Response
Flash forward to the next year, my new team captain showed incredible leadership to get the former #2 player to come back, with a very strong contract in place for his behavior. The young team came in battle tested with greater depth than the previous years team, even after we had graduated our #1 and some heavy hitters. Our team had one player with a 100mph serve, and only one player over 5'8". I picked us to finish fourth. Our focus on the year was to be so quick around the court, that very few winners would ever be hit against us, and it worked. And then a strange thing happened, in all the close matches our players showed a strength and determination that was born from the disappointment of close losses the previous year. We played in six matches that were decided 4-3, and we won four of them. The first place team from the year before found a way to lose to the third place team, and the fifth place team. I believe they may have been overconfident. But this whole story revolves around one banner match.

The Magical Outcome
In one of the matches that would finish 4-3, Noli and Manuel were up to their normal trick of winning the first set, losing a tight second set, and getting their doors blown off in the third set. They were down 5-0 in the third. This would now be the pivotal match. With a note of resignation, I turned to my assistant and said, "This will be over soon." A couple minutes later there was a changeover and it was 5-2. "This will be over soon." Then there was another changeover and now it was 5-4. I called the players over for a casual chat. "Hey guys, whats going on here?" "Oh, coach, we are winning!" "OK, what are you doing?" "We are lobbing them a lot." "OK, carry on!". In a true miracle match, they came all the way back to win 7-5 with the other team looking almost completely hopeless in the final three games. I knew I better not get too involved, because Noli and Manuel had found a way to win. In what to me is also a bigger miracle, that one win protected a tie for a league championship. One of two in a 44 year span at that school. You could say that part of the championship was won on the bleachers the year prior.
So coaches, lets look for opportunities to help our players learn the value of adversity, and how that can be the prime training ground for greatness in the future.

The Wrong Time to Develop an Athlete Centered Approach

Is it advisable to free up a player in an athlete centered approach, if you don’t have a well defined coaching philosophy? In a word, no. What are the parameters? Without a well defined coaching philosophy, then you have none. Without well defined limits to exactly how athlete centered you become, then there are no limits to player behavior. It would be foolish to read onward as we take things up a level, and begin the process of placing planks of major structural pieces of coaching in place, until you have created your coaching foundation. Everything we have discussed up until this point in this blog, which will soon become a book, leads to where we are now, and it is necessary to have build foundational truths and principles, so that you can take note of when a player in building their own way of playing is violating any of them. An example of this is a former player who seemed to want hit Federer’s Forehand, Nadal’s Backhand, Andy Roddick’s serve, until he decided that he should try Federer’s serve and Nadal’s forehand, etc. He wanted to play like anyone but himself. I had expressed to this player over and over that he would be best advised to learn his own strokes, rather than imitate others. Since he was unwilling to discover his style within the parameters of the program, he found that he was not a good fit and he left. So, being athlete centered does not necessarily mean kowtowing to the whims of a player at any given moment. What it does mean is giving voice to a players dreams, goals, and maybe even their preferences. But, how will you know if a player is a good fit with your program if you don’t have a program? How will you redirect them in their stated desires if what they want exceeds the parameters of the program? Without the necessary grounding, to be able to be a rock solid influence in the work of a player in developing their own foundational work in how they want to play, there are no boundaries.

So, if you have not started with us on “Why You Don’t Need a Coaching Philosophy.” Either stop now and go there, or finish this article and go to that article next.

Big Decisions, Then Smaller Decisions

As with most things, making the big decisions first, helps guide the smaller decisions. The biggest decisions have to do with the major principles of a coaching philosophy. The next biggest decisions have to do with fitting inside the school, club, or facility culture, followed by what are the overarching long term goals of the program, then by the goals and objectives for this year that fall in line with the larger goals.

Now, in a team context, the first thing that needs to happen is for the team to decide exactly what does the team mission look like. As you saw in a previous article there are times a coach influences that, but mainly its the job of the players themselves to express how high of a goal to pursue. As a coach, it’s easy to have a challenging goal for yourself, but does the team buy into that? Styrling and I have had a range of teams that are motivated to simply improve and not be so easy to beat, to try to win one match, teams that want to rise in the standings, groups that want to win championships, and those that want to win prestigious titles. Some teams are full of players who just want to have fun. What do you do there? Well, your coaching philosophy will guide you there, but without one, then you or I would be rudderless, directionless, unable to steer those players. I have my pillars of my coaching philosophy which I won’t share here, because I don’t want to give a false sense of completeness to this article. Instead I want to twist the knife and challenge coaches without a coaching philosophy to work theirs out first.

Failure to Prepare is Preparing to Fail

I realize this could be a painful thing to read, but now after all the prep work, lets get on with athlete centered coaching. Now, that I have developed my philosophy, I have something authentic to offer my players. Authority and authenticity, come from authoring the basic principles what are uniquely you as a coach and a program. Authentic people are attracted to other authentic people, and they don’t always have to agree, but it sure helps when everyone agrees on the fundamentals of an athlete centered program.

From the beginning of my relationship with any individual player, I offer them this question: Of parents, coach, and player, who is the decision maker? Almost always the youngster answers that the parent, or coach is the decision maker. When I let them know that neither of those answers is correct, then they usually guess the other one. When, by process of elimination, they come to the discover that they, the player, are the decision maker, they get a look of wonder, and empowerment. It truly is amazing that 99% of the time players guess wrong on this. Allowing the player to be the decision maker represents a paradigm shift in coaching. In a recent discussion with Izabela Lundberg who does coaching and consulting around the world, she found that the vast majority of athletes are dissatisfied with their training conditions. I would venture that one major piece of that is the relationship and power structure of the coaching. What is the coach’s ideal role?

The next question I ask the player is: Who is the expert consultant? The player almost immediately says, “You!”, and I smile a knowing smile and say, “That was quick!”.

The amusing part now comes, when I ask the player “Who gives the final approval?”. Many times say “Me”, then “You”, then they give a look of dread, reluctant acceptance, being caught, or the small shame of not knowing that their parents really give final approval. I say, “If they don’t approve of what is happening here, then its over! So, whatever we do here better be worthwhile.” But what happen’s next is what determines if we even have a chance to develop a balanced relationship.

After this first lesson, we go to the parents and I tell them what we talked about, that the player is the decision maker. Then I study the face of the parent. The reactions range from total affirmation, surprise, reluctant acceptance, to disapproval. When I share that the player decided that I am the expert consultant, the same range of emotions can be seen in the parent. When I share with them that they, the parents, give final approval, the same range of emotions are present, but for some there is relief that they still have a measure of control.

What I find shocking is that for some player’s parents this conversation is not acceptable. Some parents want to play two or all three of those roles, and they either don’t want their child to be empowered to be a decision maker. They also don’t want the coach to be empowered as the expert consultant. So with those families, I usually never see them again. Good riddance, or maybe ‘good luck finding a better fit’ as trying to get anything done with them would be a waste of time. Which, of course, does not bode well for the time when these players will join a team, because they are not team players, as taught by their parents.

Building the Bigger Picture: Creating Cohesion with Proper Motivation

The above background can be quite helpful to a coach who can start to see more about the ongoing battle of having their players participate in a cohesive group. Truly winning the battle of hearts and minds is a big part of that.

To make this more applicable to high school coaching, its good also to find an entry point to develop a trusting relationship with players. Early in a season, I may discuss with my players the general stages in the motivational development of a teenager and a fully mature adult. Ultimately, I want my players to be motivated to play and compete for their own enjoyment. In fact, just today a player said, “I just want to have fun.”, to which I responded, “Yes, I hear you and my job is to help you improve so much that you have even more fun playing the game, and I am never going to give up on that.” In contrast, many teenagers are still in a space of being extrinsically motivated. They find motivation in the approval of others, and in gaining tangible rewards for a job well done. To these players, I make a blanket statement, while not specifically calling anyone to attention. I say to the group, “If you want play to please me, you can, but know this: As long as you give 100% effort, I am always pleased. The rest you can learn.” Players will test this, they will try to find if they can disappoint me, and lose my approval. When I prove to them that they can’t, then they normally stop trying to do that, moving in a more positive direction. When my players get to the place of playing for their own enjoyment and success, that’s when they have achieved the height of the athlete centered approach. Of course, all of this occurs within the principles and foundation set by my coaching philosophy, because without that, there is nothing solid to build upon.

Coaching with a Growth Mindset for Future Equality

A large part of my coaching philosophy is that I treat my players as near equals, I treat them in the way I want them to be. A major part of treating my players with this respect is that I trust them to learn the lessons that come with being a smart tennis player. I can see that they appreciate that, many of them, while, of course, there are a few who don’t reach that level quickly, or don’t appreciate it. Even so, winning the hearts of minds of the majority of my players so that they can play their own match is very satisfying. One of the rewards is when the players get to a place where they play so well, that you can simply watch them play. As John Wooden said, “If I have to coach them during the game, then I haven’t done my job.” That statement is one of the pinnacles of a high level coaching, which I have experienced only a few times in my career. One of those was in a match against a close and bitter rival team, where theoretically that team had a chance to beat my group. On that day, my players were so empowered to play their game, and they played so well, I barely felt it necessary to talk with them as they dismantled the second place team 7-0. Again, that would not have been possible without first having a well developed coaching philosophy, teaching it to my players, then freeing them up to play as they wish within those parameters. It’s my greatest joy in coaching, I hope you experience it.

We are going to address how you as a coach can handle pushback from players and parents, but we also want to open up the discussion so that you can tell us where you face pushback in your coaching. We define pushback as any time players or parents seemingly have a divergent view of mission, objectives, goals or activities of the team or coach. We say seemingly, because with listening and understanding, many times things that are misunderstood, twisted, undiscovered or otherwise unknown, can be discussed in a collaborative setting and become powerful bonding moments that bring greater cohesion to the program. We need those who have our blind spot!
This morning Styrling and I were having what is normally our Monday morning meeting, and in it we both expressed gratitude that we each have each other's blind spot. Our nickname for us is "Fire and Ice", because Styrling comes across a bit more passionate, and I come across more cold and calculating. Ah, but there is some overlap in the fire and ice as you will see. We together want to help cover what might be a possible blind spot in some reporting, and we trust that all tennis stakeholders will be happy to develop a greater understanding about the problems and opportunities in team coaching, especially in high school tennis.
Recently an article came out that concerns us at USATennisCoach. When we heard the data that showed only 20% of high school matches are 'competitive', we know from experience, that people sometimes look at parents and players have misgivings about playing matches that they don't see as valuable. We love data, and we are also inspired by it. We take data as a challenge to move the needle. Many times data can be misinterpreted, spun, or just plan not understood. Higher numbers are sometimes valued more than lower numbers, and what can be lost is an opportunity to thrive.
We think it a grave error if a player, parent, or private coach would seize on '80% of high school matches are not competitive' and make decisions on that basis. We would like to know how a competitive match is defined. Also, we would like to propose that a small portion of non-competitive matches should not be played by elite players, but many others provide an opportunity for a player to gain valuable experience, and also give back to the game they love.

From Styrling:

This past week my high school team which is made up of state ranked junior players, played a team that was weaker at every position. I talked with my players, letting them know that they had a great opportunity to push themselves and experiment, to try different ways of winning, than they typically would be able to use with confidence. I challenged my #1 through #6 singles players to attack after the serve and the return. Some of them I challenged to come to the net more, finishing the point there.
I had a particularly interesting conversation with the parent of one of my top four players. She was just coming off a shoulder injury, so I decided to play her at #6 singles position to get her back in the groove. Her father came up to me before she took the court and asked if I was going to give her an opportunity to play more "competitive" matches? (He knew this team was a weaker team in our schedule, so his concern for his daughter playing a much weaker player was understandable), I calmly explained to him that I had spoken to her before the match about the strategy I'd like to see her use against her opponent. I encouraged her to play as if she was competing against a high level competitor. I wanted her to look for and attack every short ball, on the rise, to her opponent's backhand side, with unrelenting force. I asked her to knock the cover off the ball and then approach and finish with a volley or smash. I told her I wanted her to end the point quickly and take every opportunity to do so within her confidence level, and even if she missed, go at the next ball with even more confidence. She finished the match in only twenty four minutes with a decisive win. Most importantly, she was excited about the way she played and had executed tactically and forcefully. So while parents may pushback, or give suggestions, really the coach should give the most weight to the player's experience.
The father came up to me and was extremely pleased obviously at the way his daughter played so confident and finished the point decisively. I believe that I was able to open up his mindset to the other side of the coin, which is, a player can make something incredible out of any opportunity (even if that opportunity seems less than optimal at the time). Over the years I've realized that a coach can affect his players and parents in a positive way by first listening, then offer a perspective that reveals more of what is really there at first sight. It's similar to a great painting that is covered partially by a sheet and you can only see just 1/2 of the picture and then someone comes over and pulls away the sheet to reveal the best part that was hidden, they removed the blind spot that revealed the complete masterpiece.
Five out of our six singles players finished that day in less than an hour, they actually showed mercy to the other team by playing all out and competing at their best, and finishing the match quickly, so that everyone could go home and do homework. My team learned a valuable less about competition, always give it your best and respect your opponent in this way.

Bill's Advice:

Another instance of pushback involves the training for a high school team. I maximize my pre-competitive training, and it does continue through pre-season matches. In the shorter term, the teams results can be affected, easy matches might become more difficult as players who are sore and tired are competing. Its possible for the team to take a loss in the early going, instead of win if we had been fresh. Players and parents have complained to me questioning, "Why are we working out like this when we have a match tomorrow? If we lose tomorrow that will affect our seeding in playoffs." To which I respond with, "What is more important, being seeded higher, or being more prepared for success at the end? Would you rather have a higher seed and feel the pressure and be undertrained, or be a lower seed primed to upset the higher rated team?" My teams seem to regularly pull major upsets. Most recently Amy Vu as a #3 seed beat the #2 and #1 seed in the same day to win the first ever tennis championship in the 60 year history of the school. She thanked me for the conditioning. In 18 months three consecutive playoff seasons, boys and girls, my #9 seeds beat #8 and #1, my #10 seeds beat #7 and #2, and my #3 seeds beat #2 and #1 in 97 degree heat to win a section title. I think it had something to do with being ready, and not early season results.
We believe that the results will prove the principles. Sometimes the result is not the score on the scorecard, but instead the feeling of accomplishment the player has inside them. Winning is easy to see on the outside, but if you look for it, its not hard to find on the inside also.

“No problem was ever solved at the same level of thinking that created it.” Albert Einstein

The way people react to a situation or circumstance reveals a lot about their mindset. When something out of the ordinary happens, someone acts out of their perceived character, or there is adversity, the approach people take to understanding it, reveals something about how they think. Sometimes people see a problem where there is none, prescribe treatment and act on it quickly more from habit, than from actual mindful decision making. It’s generally true that people tend to be negative and judgmental of things they don’t understand. In fact, at many times and in many ways coaches habitually do that which is obvious to them. For example, if a player is not paying attention to their instruction to them, then the obvious solution would be to “repeat” the instruction. After that, if there is still zero response – the next obvious response that most would default to would be to try and repeat the instruction in a different way maybe using different words. Some coaches may raise or lower the volume of their voice, ask a question like, “Did you hear me?” or “Do you understand my instruction?” There are definitely obvious responses to any and all situations and there are definite reactions to how a person handled such a response. Many times the above solutions work perfectly. When these obvious solutions are not getting the proper response, and the team or individuals are traveling down the wrong path, and a radical change needs to take place, then it’s time to do that which is not obvious.
Have you ever read or heard something that someone did in response to a situation and have an immediate reaction of judgement, “Wow, that was not good – they should have responded better to that situation.” Or “There was a much better way to handle that.” Exactly! This is what I describe as an obvious conclusion. Later, when you found out much more about the background of what exactly happened, then it can change your mind about how that person dealt with that issue.
There is a story about a man on a train, and when he entered the train he saw three boys who were very poorly behaved. The immediate response of the first man was that something needed to be done. He looked for the parents, and seeing the father, he said, “Aren’t you going to do something about the behavior of your children.” The father just shrugged and responded, “I’m sorry, their mother just died and they don’t know how to act.” Suddenly a moment of judgement becomes one of empathy when we gain more information about what has transpired, our perspective changes, we change.
We do these things as coaches, we have behaviors that we accept and don’t accept based on how, where, and when we grew up as a person, the influences around us will certainly affect the way we make these obvious conclusions. What if we were to take a breathe, step back, and attempt to understand the situation and the response/solution to the situation in a transcendent way. This is what I mean, to see or discern beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience. We are all limited by our experiences how and why we respond to what happens around us or what we read or hear. That is my dilemma, I’m limited by my experience. If I have a wide array of experiences, my response to any situation is more broad in perspective. I may tend to see the bigger picture of who the person is, what motivates them in the matter, their intentions as a person towards others, and their attitudes towards life in general. I will link the context of what happened to the context of the persona of the individual. I can understand in a better way the “why” because I understand the “who” in a deeper way and trust that person to always look to do the right thing at the right moment. Judgement is withheld for a time to investigate the deeper purpose of the action(s) in lieu of having a knee-jerk reaction that condemns instead of understands. This is transcending the obvious, the idea of seeing a higher level, a clearer perspective of all the variables that may have played a vital role in the decision-making process of reaction.

There is an old wise saying, “I couldn’t see the forest because of the trees.” Sometimes we become to up-close and personal with our responses to situations because our own character is in jeopardy to being reveal truthfully. We can change this by stepping back, or stepping up and getting a new perspective of how to respond to any situation or story or conflict we face before reacting ourselves. I like the acronym W.A.I.T. ‘Why Am I Talking?’ I ask myself, do I need to W.A.I.T. Do I need to take a moment before I react?
So now let us look into some situations that at first flush may seem problematic, but when taken in perspective, more can be known about the person and what motivates them.
This week was amazing. No sooner did we publish an article on discipline, then immediately the next day I had a major discipline issue with my team. At the moment, I rationally chose to be angry to the point where I took an old racquet and in 10 seconds I smashed it twice on the ground, kicked it toward the fence, picked it up whacked it against fence post, and yelled at the girls “I AM TRYING TO BUILD A TEAM HERE, WE ARE TRYING TO BUILD A PROGRAM HERE.” If we stop there, it would be easy to make a rush to judgement.
I then shared a picture of the shattered frame and told the story on Facebook. That touched off a bit of controversy, which ranged from concerned friends wondering about my mental health, polite questions, expressions of disagreement with my method, quite a bit of positive support including Mr. Tennis Parent’s Bible, Frank Giampaolo, and one person who held my action up to judgement and ridicule. So, hmmm, which whack job insane person would then stop and write about it? That’s the ultimate, right? Or, is there something to be learned from this situation?
I woke up this morning with the idea to give the short history of times I went berserk on a tennis court with my players. Whenever you talk to top coaches they will all agree that the capacity for doing the work lies inside the player, if they want it, they will do it. Anything else is secondary. When you learn about parenting, you find out that whether or not you use corporal punishment, which I did as a parent, that it’s imperative to discuss the meaning of it afterward. Kids need to know that what you did comes from love, caring, and setting boundaries. So, now I will go year by year into the times I can remember having a good blow up. I doubt that I will miss any, but if you remember one that I don’t, please remind me.
1995: Marek was a talented player and had been #1 on the team for two years. It was my first year coaching the team and we had a hot shot freshman who took over the #1 spot. Marek sulked. His effort in practice diminished. The #3 player saw and opportunity, challenged and won the #2 spot. Marek was #3. His behavior worsened. I tried to be nice, encourage him, repeatedly. One day he was hitting balls over the fence where we cannot easily retrieve them. He and his friend, who also seemed to choke in a lot of matches were laughing. I stopped them. I yelled at Marek for a couple minutes maybe about one foot away from his face. I let him know that he is talented, could play college tennis if he chose, but that this behavior was not going to continue. When tears came to his eyes, I stopped. Then I quietly said, “The reason I did this is that I care, a lot. I care about you, I care about your tennis, and I care about this team, etc.” There were other minor episodes with Marek, and he struggled for a short while, but later he not only regained his #2 spot, and finished his high school career winning 21 of his last 22 matches. The next year he was the only player to go undefeated when we won our first championship in 26 years. He went on to play college tennis, and became a much sought after teammate as a 5.0 level USTA player.

1996: Twenty seven of thirty six players showed up to the first day of practice without having their physical done. We had previously had two meetings, and many reminders via email to get this done. As I got more and more frustrated at NOT checking the box on my paperwork that said ‘yes’, I decided to stop, throw the pen down hard enough to bounce and crack. I then let the boy’s know that practice is cancelled today, ‘but your team captain may run an optional practice for you, which I recommend that you attend. It’s not mandatory, but I highly recommend that you attend.’ I went into my storage area, threw a few items around, and peeked outside. The captain was working those players very hard. That year we won our first title in 26 years, and snapped another local school’s 19 year streak of winning league. People practically handed that school the title every year. Even after that, there was something lethargic about my team, I called in a friend and mentor who was a 7 time national champion, and twice went to Olympics to talk about what it meant to be a champion.
1998: My #1 player and captain on a girls team were slackers, they would miss practice with lame excuses and not give 100% effort. I talked to both of them about setting an example for the rest of the team, and maybe they did not see it, but I saw a team that was demoralized when the players they look up to, are not good role models. Nothing changed. Eventually we had a very heated meeting where I outlined exactly what I expected, I wish I had done it earlier. Still nothing changed and yet, I did not become angry again, but I did notice that if someone did something that was against team rules the kids would look at me as though to say “are you going to get angry again”. They were baiting me and I was not taking the bait. After some discussions with some of the juniors and underclassmen, we all decided that the following year we would be more committed. While there are not any outstanding results to report, our team maxed out what they could do the next year and it was a very satisfying year of improvement.

2006: I wasn’t ‘angry’, I was disappointed. In one of my most manipulative ploys that I have ever pulled, the culture of a school dramatically changed for the better in tennis. What I didn’t know when I started the season is that the team had not won a league match in six years. The losing streak was in the sixties. Twenty-four girls came out for tennis, because they were excited about a coach. After the first two days of practice only fifteen girls were left, by the end of he second week we had eleven players. They didn’t want to run, or get sweaty. Occasionally a girl would skip practice with an academic reason, and when she returned I would explain that practice is mandatory, and that there are 22.5 other hours in the day to get the school work done.
One day more than half the team was missing. “Captain, where is my team?” “Chem lab, coach”. I headed over to the Chem Lab. I got there just as the girls were leaving, and presumably NOT headed to practice. “Ladies, what does this do to our relationship? We have a player/coach relationship that I care about, and when you don’t even talk to me, then it really suffers. I am trying to run a practice for you, and I don’t even know where you are.” I said all of this in the best sensitive man voice I could muster. When they were all near tears, I stopped and from then on, no one missed practice the rest of the year, and we broke the 71 match losing streak, and were featured on local high school sports news as ‘featured team of the week’, for the entire greater San Francisco Bay Area, including Oakland and San Jose metropolitan areas. I tell this story, because I probably could have yelled at them, but I am capable of using a full range of emotion.

2008: I took on a new team that was underachieving. Every year they won the league, simply because they had a strong pipeline of talent, and almost every year they would lose in the first round of the playoffs.
We had an early season match against the last place team. Our school had a transportation problem, and while all the schools were not more than 20 minutes apart, the players where responsible to get themselves to matches. Some of my players came well after the time when a good warm up would be possible. Most all of them failed to put in a good warm up to prepare to win easily.
What ensued was ridiculous. I had warned them that I wanted to see our best effort in every match regardless of opponent, but since we were just getting to know each other, they did not know how serious I was. Two players came so late, that it necessitated a lineup change in doubles. My team played poorly, they spent way too long in winning the match. It could have been mercifully over in 45 minutes or less and then everyone could go home and do homework. The match lasted well over two hours. At the end, I had the players sit with the setting sun behind me, so they had to squint to see me. I didn’t yell, but I did express the extreme disappointment I felt, and that performing like that at any time is not the recipe for winning sectional playoff matches. We then proceeded to do 5 spider run drills with the other team watching.
Later that year we entered sectional playoffs as a #9 seed. We easily beat a favored #8 seeded team on the road, for the right to play the #1 seed at a prestigious club in Marin County, CA. Some of our players played out of their minds and we narrowly beat them 4-3, because three of their players were so good we had absolutely no chance against them. It was our full team effort that made that happen.

2009: Same team as 2008. Late in the season, we were doing quite well and our closest league rivals were nowhere near able to beat us, we had won some great early season matches and were looking primed for a high seed. Even so, it seemed like we were just cruising, and I was concerned. One day I got caught in heavy traffic behind an accident on the road. I called my team captain to tell him I might be a few minutes late. ALL THE PLAYERS KNEW THE ROUTINE OF HOW PRACTICE STARTS. When I walked in a few minutes late, no one was doing what they should. It was appalling how quickly they could go back to their normal state with 5 less minutes of supervision than normal.
I walked in, kicked over a ball basket hard enough that it bloodied my toe through my shoe and sent 100 tennis balls in every direction. I called every everyone to talk to me. I said “I am not here ____ing around”, and I never cuss in front of my team and so they were stunned. Then I lit my captain up for not having the leadership to get the team to perform, and I went off on him for a full minute. Then we went and had a very taut practice from then on. For the rest of practice I alternated between deriding my team for not following captains orders, and my captain for not making it happen. After practice I called my captain to say, “Hey man, you can do better, and most of that was an act, so the team can have empathy for you, they now will do what you say, because they don’t want to see me rip you like that again.” He said, “I thought that was what you were doing.” That year mainly because of the great work of that captain and the other two who also stepped up to do more, as a #3 seed, we beat #2, and #1 in the same day in 97 degree heat. It would be so easy to quit when its 97, and you are down 3 matches to 1 on the #1 seed. It would be so easy to quit when you need to win the final 4 sets on court. But they did, and they won the section title, best amongst 145 schools. Later we finished 3rd in the NorCal regionals, which represents about 600 schools.

2015: Working at an inner city school on cracked courts with a team that had experienced very permissive coaching, late in the season after three players were deemed ineligible, players began to quit on the inside. The effort level to get up, get to the huddle, move to a drill, execute the drill was way below 100% effort. The kids were bummed, depressed, hopeless. That lasted about 10 or 15 minutes before I blasted them. “No, we are not going to quit, every moment on this earth matters…” I think I might have cussed again, but I can’t remember what I said. This all happened with less than two weeks left in the season. We had some talent, but the players had been very undisciplined for a long time.
The next day I showed them the TED Talk by Carol Dweck on “The Power of Yet”. Suddenly the kids were energized, players began to improve a lot! We were in last place and lost a heartbreaking match playing poorly against our rival, the second to last place team. But now, we had something. Players competed hard, learned to make one more shot, gave their best on everything. In our final match of the season against the first place team, we were about 5 points from pulling the upset, mostly because the other coach made some lineup changes that were a tad overconfident, and she did not know how much we had improved in two weeks. Ultimately we lost 5-2, but one match was a 6-4 loss in the third with many deuce points, and the other was a tiebreaker after a full third set. In the league tournament our players went 4-0 in first round matches, with my number two player going to the semi-finals and giving the #1 seed all he could handle. And we also gained two wins over that first place teams players.

2016: My team captain informed me that a player on the team was going to skip our match, because “It’s the first day of school and she doesn’t want to miss her 6th period class on day one.” I thought about it for a few seconds. “Captain, what do you think? Is that ok? Also, you, number one player is that ok?” Both nodded tacitly. Captain nodded because she didn’t yet have the courage to say no. Number One player nodded because everyone has the right to self determination. I thought for another few seconds. “Do I want to destroy this 5 year old feeding racquet in my hand in front of the girls? Yes, I do, and I must be careful not to hurt anyone, and we will stop practice at this point to talk about this issue.” So I smashed it down hard twice, kicked it to the fence, picked it up and whacked it against the fence post.
Master Blaster
Then I yelled at the girls. “I am trying to build a team here, WE are trying to build a team here. It’s NOT ok to miss…” I went on for another minute or two. I had our team captain run the rest of the warm up, so I could think, and presumably cool down in their eyes, even though I was completely in control of myself. One player was arriving late to practice and saw this all happen, and she still came, so that said something about her bravery, and maybe that she trusts me. On a team that needs 10 players to be official, had only 6 unconfirmed on a roster, with three or four attending on a daily basis, it was a serious concern for one player not to come. I told Captain Karla, “It’s time for you to step up as a leader, and if you become a great leader on this team, I will write you an incredible recommendation letter to go to the college of your dreams.” Within 48 hours Karla had recruited six more players to join the team, we played a match with 9 players, next week we may have 12 or more players on the team. That’s worth raising a racquet.

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. King Solomon

It's a great fantasy to think of ruling with an iron fist. Far better is it for we as coaches to rule our own spirit, and conduct ourselves in a way that create the strongest possible message of discipline for our players.
Life can be a very complicated tangled ball of string. Those that are less mature may trying pulling hard on a piece or two and actually tighten some of the knots. Others may consider cutting some strings, but the damage to the full length of string may be too high a cost to pay. Over time, we learn to find the end of the string and patiently learn to pull it through a loop there, and unwind it from a knot there. You can't really hit it with a hammer, that won't really accomplish anything. When frustration builds we can put down the ball of string, coming back at another time to take a few more actions, then before you know it the whole thing is undone.
As is fairly common with those who have a background in psychology, I like to straighten out paperclips. They never really come out completely straight, but very quickly you can get them into a crooked line. The artistry comes in the form of gently smoothing the remaining curves. And so it is with working with our players.
Our teams need discipline and our players need discipline, some of which is very private and some of which is very public. We owe it to our players to provide them with the life lessons that come from sports. Teenagers are in a vulnerable station in life where at times they can be very mature and adult like, but are still prone to childish behavior and thinking. They can also engage in adult behaviors that can get them in a tremendous amount of trouble and change the course of their lives forever. My highest goal is to help mold the maturity, at least in the sporting arena, of a player so that by the end of their senior year, they are an adult.
We as the coaches need to have very clear expectations that do not waver, and we need to hold very closely to them, for every single player. When we allow some players to have different rules, it affects the morale of the entire team. Or as a policeman taught me in a workshop, you are asking people to comply with the law, and when you pull them over you ask for voluntary compliance, but you can't do that with the rule of law behind you. So make sure that your rules are exactly that, enforceable laws.
Molding the maturity of players is not an easy task and we as coaches need a full toolbox. From my time as a classroom teacher, I learned how to use 'progressive discipline' until I had created the best possible learning environment. One factor in students or players behavior that we don't often take into account is that they want attention. Some players will do almost anything for attention, and sadly they have learned to get negative attention from their peers and from adults.
Progressive discipline might look like this on a team: A player is doing something distracting or off task, and I call their name, or get their attention in another way. They look at me. I make a motion which means stop that behavior. They stop. I say "Thank you". So, the player got positive attention for stopping a behavior, and the other players heard them being thanked.
If that behavior were repeated and/or another one were to pop up, then I would take that player aside and quietly talk with them. "For practice to go well, we need you to stop these behaviors. I trust that you will." If I make this public, then they get attention to a greater degree for bad behavior. The quiet talk with me however is something they don't usually want." I find that this solves at least 80% of all off track behavior.
If there were another episode with that player, I would then pull them out of the activity they are doing and make them sit out. A time out becomes a very strong deterrent, because the other players can see the childish consequence for the childish behavior. Very rarely do any further behaviors happen after a time out, but if they do, it signals a fairly significant behavioral issue in the player. I would then hold them after practice for a full discussion of: What are your goals? What do you hope to accomplish? Do these behaviors fit with that? Can you save these behaviors for an appropriate time? Should I call your parents to gain insight, or do I trust you to do your best here on the team? A handful of times I have called parents for valuable insight into what makes the player tick.
Now if we zoom out and look at the changing of a team's culture, that might take a bit longer. Sometimes working with one player to change their behavior can change the whole team. In one case, I took over a team that had a reputation for being entitled, underperforming in playoff action, and for making bad calls in competition. It would have been easy to trumpet my intentions to fix all of that. In fact, a rival coach mocked me for taking the job and wondered out loud "How are you going to handle that team?". I told him "I feel a little uncomfortable with you rooting for me like that, since we are rivals." To which he responded, "O.K. then, bring it on, we are going to beat you." It was on like Donkey Kong.
So I set about working with my new group. The first thing that happened was that players would arrive late to practice. The former coach would wait until the players arrived to start, so of course the players got used to coming later and later. I started the very second my clock said it was time. When players showed up late, I did not punish them. I simply asked them, "Do you know when practice starts?" They would respond "Yes", and then I would ask rhetorically, "Then why did you come after that?". Fewer players came late. After a few days, I would have the group that came on time run laps and anyone who came late ran extra laps, and had to start the opening game on the lowest court. I would then praise them for spending time with the players lower on the ladder. Within a few more days no one came late, and many players would come running to be on site at least a minute early. After another week, a player came late and I made a really loud big deal about it, "DO YOU STILL NOT KNOW WHEN PRACTICE STARTS?" It was fun for everyone but him. After a while, the discipline was good, and players might still come late, but they would come with a reasonable excuse, and know that they will start on the end court that day.
As for the cheating, I said on the day before our first match. "I have seen some tight calls from this team, and I want you to know I take playing fairly very seriously, because teams that cheat feel guilty and then don't win big matches." End of speech. During our first match my number one player made a very suspect call. On the changeover, matter of fact and nonchalantly I said, "Oh, by the way you blew that call at 15-30, so be sure to play two in balls until the opponent wins two points at your expense. And be sure to build your points crosscourt… blah blah blah." He was stunned! No coach had ever told him that before. I can't remember whether he actually played an out ball, but this scenario repeated itself with various players over the course of the season. It all ended with me being very confident that my players would not embarrass me with bad calls. Every once in a while I would see a bad call, and immediately approach my player, and that was enough for them to play fair. I could have been very heavy handed and punitive, but simply I took each player and gently corrected them. They also began to feel better about themselves, because as we started, I felt like each player was making at least one bad call per match.
As for underachieving in the playoffs, we made sure everyone conditioned themselves properly and that we would build up our energy stores to peak at the best time. At the beginning of our conditioning there seemed to be players who would take one repetition off, on vacation, and not give their best. I would call my attention first to everyone giving 100% and leave their name off the list, then look at them. If after a few days of that there were still players taking a repetition off, then I would call them out and let them know 'I have eyes in the back of my head'. Along with the use of wonderful motivational phrases like 'Legs feed the wolf.' In time nearly 100% of our repetitions were performed at 100% effort. After were were fully conditioned, we simply didn't lose long matches. When we went to play our rival at their courts with bad cracks and crazy wind, they brought 100 people out to watch and heckle my team. That team came out on fire and won four of the first seven sets out of the seven matches, which put them on track to beat us. Our guys won two matches in three sets, and we won going away 5-2 from what might have been a 4-3 loss. In the next matchup we beat our rival 7-0 and never looked back. I did not breath a word to the rival coach, as the results speak for themselves. I needed to model the kind of discipline I wanted to see in my team.
We also then garnered commitments to play the playoff matches instead of taking SAT or AP tests, that can be scheduled for other times. Players previously would miss the playoffs with an academic test? Crazy, right?
Sometimes our best efforts to discipline players or teams are not 100% successful. We need buy in from our players in regard to the need for some discipline. When I am getting a little desperate to get things under control, I sometimes ask my players, "What is better, self discipline, or the discipline that comes from outside you?" Perhaps most crucial to a team is the discipline shown by captains and the #1 player on the team. The examples they give to other players serves as a model. My most difficult and frustrating years of coaching have been when captains or #1 players don't give their best efforts, or make excuses for not being fully committed to the team. Maybe three or four times in 28 seasons, I have even given up on my Seniors, and had quiet conversations with Juniors about how it will be next year.
When one of these key players is not performing as a great example, its best to start with a quiet talk off to the side. It can be a grave error to call out one of these players without understanding what is going on in their world. Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. 20 years ago I had a very talented number one player who often gave less than 100% effort early on, and the other players began to give less effort in following her example. After more than one private conversation about this with little permanent change, it was time to talk with the other players to not look to her as a leader, and then I called her out and the others for not giving their best efforts, while praising those who did. Some players began to look to the strong efforts given by some girls on the team, but overall there were not enough girls on the team who really wanted to do extremely well. There were other interesting issues that showed a fairly deep lack of interest in doing their best for the current year and in future years, so at seasons end, I let that team go, to only coach the boy's team.
With another girls team, all the same issues were in play, but the main difference being that we had very strong captains, even though they played lower in the ladder, they had the full respect of their teammates. I asked the captains if they would hold a team only meeting, which they did. They discussed with the team their desire to do very well in playoff action for once, and how many of the girls wanted to win, but a few of the undisciplined players were holding the team back. I am told that there was crying, bonding, and promises made to one another. What had been unsuccessful attempts at discipline by me, created an opportunity for captains to show great leadership, and the players to develop self-discipline, which carried us to two upset wins in playoffs that year, then that team won the section title the following year, having been perennial first round losers in years past.
It must also be said that over the years I have taken a moment to really explode in anger over the behavior of my team. In my book The Art of Coaching High School Tennis, I have a chapter about, "Do you really want to be angry?" A word of caution, it should be pre-mediated, the coach should know exactly what they want to say and their motives should be to provide a wake up call. Coaches who yell at their players more than one time run a serious risk of losing their team. It is far better if you can use all the above tactics to full effect rather than yelling. In fact, going silent, completely silent and just looking at your team might be more scary for them. Each time I had an outburst, it was followed up with explaining how much I care. I DID NOT YELL AT MY TEAM A SECOND TIME!
In conclusion, we certainly need some iron clad standards, but we ought not to try to rule with an iron fist. Most of the work of discipline should be easy and done quietly one player at a time. Gentle corrections and making a game of it makes it easier on the players to comply. Sometimes drastic measures need to happen, and its best to ramp those up quickly at the beginning of a season so that they can be solved with much more than half the season to go. You then can enjoy the benefit of disciplined squad. Every once in a while a captain needs to be stripped of their captaincy, or a player needs to be removed from the team. If you go through a progressive discipline approach, you will know when that is. In my twenty eight years, somewhere around four of five players have left the team or were removed by me over the rules. The rest of the team will be blessed when that happens.
Enjoy!

"The Most Dangerous Food to Eat is Wedding Cake." Anonymous

If we are going to achieve a major mental and emotional objective with our players, we first much achieve a level of engagement with them that gives us the mental and emotional capital to win their hearts and minds. We also need to know that we are on target with creating the most important objective. Let's starting with creating a better conduit for communication.
Engagement, how do we develop maximum engagement? I picked the above quote, not because it fit the article, but because I searched on 'Worst Engagement Quotes', and that one came up. In contrast to the quote, we are not married to our players, but sometimes it feels like it, when they come out for four or more years to our program. So, it's a different kind of engagement we want as coaches with players. When do people engage? Is there a formula for engagement? Will everyone engage equally? How do we create and capitalize on on engagement?
Did those questions engage you? If so, then part of the equation is your curiosity. Asking open ended questions then listening On Purpose for Purpose, is a large part of the engagement solution. Another piece is what you already know, but we don't have time for that now, so let's turn it toward our players. Go back in your mind to the days of being a teenager and the feelings of being thrown into that prison 'high school', where teachers, using a drill, a funnel and a large amount of mostly useless information poured it into your head, then test you on your ability to remember and interpret it. Overall, it's a pretty dull experience for the vast majority of our high school kids. Although, around 20% or maybe more of high school teachers, really know how to engage students and draw out the students learning.
As coaches, our teams will do much better if we become masterful educators. The word 'education' comes from the root word educos which means to 'draw from within'. But what do we draw out?
In this article we will start with a universal success trait, focus on one more suited to coaches of female teams, then male teams, before going back to a very practical set of skills to help players manage their point play.
Engaging players mainly starts with drawing out their prior knowledge. For example, if I am starting a new year of coaching a team, I may ask all my doubles player candidates, "What do you know about doubles positions and/or strategy?" The players then share their ideas, which accomplishes a few different objectives: 1. Players who have good knowledge get to share and contribute. 2. Players are sometimes more interested in learning from their peers. 3. Those peers gain esteem amongst each other. 4. The 'zone of proximal development' means that sometimes peers explain in terms that their age group understands more easily. 5. The coach saves energy. 6. Players get to teach what they already know, instead of being taught what they already know. 7. The coach can praise, affirm, redirect, clarify, and debunk the notions taught. 8. When they player's knowledge runs out, the coach can ask more questions about the missing essential information. When players don't know the answers, then you have achieved… curiosity.
Unless a coach is really in love with the sound of their own voice, they really should love to have players in a curious state of mind after their prior knowledge has played out. When players give what they know, a best practice is for the coach to praise players who give exceptionally clear and concise answers. Players readily accept a little redirection if they missed the mark by a bit, and will accept being told their wrong if the coach says, "I'm not sure I agree, but we can discuss it." There is bound to be something that needs clarification. When a coach proves to be a skillful listener, and not an overbearing corrector, players really blossom in their ability to give great answers.
Another way to engage players is to give them a short lecture on a topic, then challenge them with an activity that uses a skill in that range. While performing a challenge, take a break to ask a question that requires critical thinking. Today, I taught my girls for about three minutes on the concept of Stretch, Cage, Run, which is what we want the other players to do. I asked them what do those things mean on a tennis court. After we discussed for another couple minutes I asked them which one they wanted to work on first? Most girls agreed on 'Caging' the other player, which essentially means restrict their freedom on court so that they can't move. While working on hitting a deep drive up the middle of the court, I stopped the drill. "If you are playing someone and you are running them, and they are running you, and you are losing, what are you going to do?" No one had the answer. This is quite common. But I let them NOT know, I let them struggle. The context was confusing because we weren't performing a 'Run' challenge. There was silence as they thought. Don't be afraid of a little silence. I asked them to think harder. Then I asked the question again and a little more slowly. More silence. I asked, "Do you need a hint?" They said yes. But before I could give a hint, one player said, "Cage them?" I said yes, cage them, because if you are losing to someone who is moving better than you or moves you better, take the movement away. They got it! I ask these questions, when the answer is using the skill we are currently practicing, then their value of the drill goes up, because they see it as a potential solution to a major problem in a match. I also sometimes like to teach the girls to give an answer that is NOT in the form of question, so they can learn to give confident answers. I am now fairly certain that If I ask them tomorrow what to do when they are losing a match with lots of running what they should do, and they will know the answer.
For teaching players about what they need mentally and emotionally, its best to ask them what they think they need, affirm them as much as possible then ask them about issues that they might not be aware of. A somewhat dated, but really great book is "Mental Toughness Training for Sports." By Jim Loehr. There are two editions, but I like the first one better, because I like the test better, and I am referencing the first edition. In it he has a test for different capacities of the mental and emotional game. For a number of years I gave my players these tests and I got some interesting results. Boy's tested high in "Intensity, and Ability to Visualize Success", but they tested low in "Negative Energy Management, and Attentional Control". Girl's tested high in "Positive Energy Management, and Attentional Control", but tested poorly in "Intensity, and Ability to Visualize Success." So really we need to coach boy's and girls differently. It's very important to realize that each team had outliers in the various capacities, and that we can't ignore them, or try to force them into a stereotypical gender box. Nonetheless, coaching boy's on having positive energy and concentration will help most players. Coaching girls on visualization and maintaining high intensity will also help most players. I try to make some spare moments for players who are outliers to discuss with them their individual areas for improvement.
I was talking to a coach recently whose players are already two weeks into their season, and were facing a dip in intensity. So he really lit into them, to get them fired up. We discussed the different approaches to boy's and girl's. Boy's generally have an expectation that training is going to be tough, and more readily sign up for the 'torture' of high intensity fitness, and almost take it as a badge of honor. The girls have a tendency to avoid high intensity exercise in general, but the most competitive ones will embrace it. What can be done? I like to call it, 'cooking frogs'. I hear that if you put a frog into boiling water it will jump right out. But, if you put a frog into lukewarm water, it will be quite content, and if you slowly increase the temperature, since they (frogs) are cold blooded creatures, they will stay until fully cooked. So when teaching our players who struggle with intensity, we have to start at the level where they are, and gently apply a bit more heat and increase slowly the intensity, until they are at a level that will lead to their best possible success. All along the way, you can begin to ask them questions about what they need in their physical performance to have a better chance of winning. The #1 capacity is giving full effort, 100% effort. Not 110% effort, because that does not exist. Explain to me how someone can give more than what they have! OK, you can't. But when you begin to give much more of your 100% effort your body and mind makes adaptations to the new challenges. The same girls who really dreaded the spider run, and wonder why I can be so cruel, then sing its praises a few weeks later when they are winning matches they used to lose.
For those who suffer from negative energy problems, its good to start with questions. Why do we do that? Does it help? Are their players who can play very angry and play well? Do they play well match after match and for long periods of time? One short burst of anger can be helpful in a match, but only if well directed, and then followed up with positive energy, 'can do' energy. Helping negative energy challenged players to discover the moment when they reacted with unproductive anger, disappointment, confusion, self blame, self pity or their negative emotion of choice, can help them to discover the turning point in an otherwise winnable match. My experience is that when they can identify the first time they go down that wrong emotional road, then in future matches they will have greater awareness and make a better choice, staying on track. Both of the scenarios above can be solved using Loehr's '16 second cure'. It's a great template that you can tailor to any player and what their personal objectives are during the moments between points.
During the 16 seconds, which is a misnomer, because it's not a finite amount of time, there are four stages, and you might not need to go through all four stages between each point. With my most competitive players, I urge them to use each of the four stages in any key sequence in a match or if they are going through a tough or nervous stretch in a match. First, is the Decisive Stage, where for a moment, (2 seconds?) a player physically and mentally puts closure on the point before, they can pump their fist if it was a great shot, but they should turn their back on the point. Why? It's over, that point is complete and can't bother me. That point is decided, and nothing can be done about it now. Second is the Relaxation Stage could be 5 or more seconds, where a player checks to see if they have tension, might take a deep breath, shake out their arms, do the limp legged 'Federer Walk', and simply let go physically for a moment. The eyes can also 'rest' on the racquet a moment. Next is the Preparation Stage, which sometimes can be the longest stage in terms of time, where a player might quickly recap what happened in the previous point, and give themselves a quick 'do that again', or 'change that', and move on to planning the next point. As a server, the kind of point you want to play, the corresponding serve type, and +1 contingency can be planned, thus increasing the chance of a performing well on the +1 ball (which will be explained in depth in a future post). As a returner, reflecting on the serving tendencies of the opponent, along with the strategy for mitigating their strength, in addition to what kind of +1 ball you want to make, if you get a chance, also increases the chance of a better performance. For intermediate players it can be as simple as 'serve wide and keep the ball cross court', for more advanced and specialized style players it gets much more complicated. After the planning is done, its time for the final stage, The Ritual Stage, which should only take a few seconds, where you do your ball bounces, and/or your special rocking motion that prepares you to return. There is a wild set of idiosyncrasies that accompany the rituals, so keep it simple and enjoy them, we can't discuss them here. The rituals are an important part of coping for players, as it gives them some 'sameness', familiarity with something in a match that is so unpredictable.
One of the key pieces in helping develop champion players is helping them to become mentally and emotionally stronger and more flexible. Many times we leave out the emotional part of sports. For some reason, in the realm of what passes for mental training, the most common approach is to try to mitigate emotion in the player. It seems to be clean and nice to try work with our players to be only rational, logical players, but when we do that we lose out on a powerful force for inspired play. Some of the most inspiring performances I have seen in my players were fraught with emotion. Desire, Passion, Anger, Fear, Vengeance, Grieving, and Humorous behavior and much more has been evident in some of the greatest wins, and fantastic moments on my teams, but only when managed well by the player. Each new team, each player has it's own personality, its up to you as a coach to find the group's strengths and relative weaknesses, then devise a way to bolster them, helping players find strategies that work. The 16 second cure is one way for a player to check in with their responses and give themselves a pep talk during the preparation stage about managing their weakness, and/or capitalizing on their strength as a player.

Maybe you have heard the phrase "Major in the Majors, and Minor in the Minors". It really is great advice. If you are like us, and want to achieve the maximum amount you can with your players, consider carefully what your major objective is with your team. For me, in my first year with a team, I have noticed the importance of teaching directional play, so that players are building their points with crosscourt shots, setting up the kind of point they want to play. Strangely, players learn tennis, go to camps, and attend academies, but they don't learn this well enough at those places. Still, with other lower level teams, my objectives may simply be to help players develop fundamentally sound technique so that they can't be easily beaten. Any talk of complex strategy is a waste of time, when players can't put two shots together very often. With my doubles teams, many times in the first year, I find myself stressing strong fundamental positional play, and situational reaction movement. In the second year of working with a team, then my creativity comes more to the fore because the foundation of their strategic house has been built. I have also had teams where our major objective was learning to control and maintain positive energy, because the leaders on that team struggled with that.
In today's entry we will give a few examples of how best to plan to achieve a major objective or two, some issues to look out for and how to make the plan to be successful. We will talk a little bit about the stumbling blocks along the way. When you finish this piece it should be very clear while working hard on very few major objectives is very important. How the work is planned to be accomplished a season is also an important factor for the success of your team in achieving your major objective(s). Plan the work and work the plan! Finding the best balance between teaching (boring), coaching (annoying), and free play (fun) can be the largest factor in the player's tennis experience.
One major objective that many coaches would like to achieve with their teams is helping all of their players to become more effective at the net. When I want to help my team globally on this, first I need to identify the levels of my players. If you want to get somewhere, first you have to know where you are, then where you want to go, before you can plot a course. First, I like to sort out my players between those who can move comfortably forward to make a decent approach shot, and a decent volley, and those who can't. On Day One, I will run the challenge of having players simply come forward to approach on a short ball, and make one volley. I then can see the number, and make a realistic goal of increasing the number of players who can do that. I then know who does not need to be taught the very basics of that move. We lose a lot of morale with our teams when we presume that they don't know how to do something, and begin to teach them what they already know, and we waste time. From there I can do some instruction to the group of players that are not as comfortable moving forward to the net. I can have another activity ready for the players who are fairly confident, one they can with independently or with the help of an assistant coach. After working with the group that needed some basic instruction, I would identify an aspect of the performance of the top group that was a common issue and have those players work on that.
After a short period of instruction, less than 5 minutes if possible, I would have the players play some type of point play situation where one player must come to the net. The points can be tallied or not. It's more important to look for players who are getting closer to achieving the objective than it is to criticize those that don't. Players will gravitate toward that which gets them praise. If you take a look at my video course, you will see some good examples of what happens when you pay attention to the right stuff. Depending on the dynamic of your group, you may even want to hold one player up as an example for the others to follow on any particular objective. From point play situations that you place players in, it's vital to observe carefully what seems to be more effective for certain players and what are the top one or two items that cause them to lose the points. When you bring the players together, ask them what they thought was effective and ineffective, see how their answers differ from you answers. Consider those differences.
From last week's blog when we considered listening on purpose for purpose, now we get more practical. What is more important to your players? Is it more important that they understand your experience of their play, or is it more important that they understand their own experience of their play? After they have shared their experiences, you may or may not need to share what you thought. How magical is it when the players have all the best answers, and they don't require the opinion of the coach? Then you can praise them for being smart players. It's awesome when the coach says "I agree with you", or "I agree with you up to a point, but I want to clarify something…". The player centered coach builds much more empowered, mindful players whose tennis is a self expression, rather than an imposition by an outside force. Ultimately, the players will either own the objective or they won't and their level of ownership of it has a large bearing in how well they do under pressure.
I had a girls team that was quite talented, but before I arrived at the school they were underachieving. They seemed very content to win their league and lose in the first round of the playoffs every year. With my doubles teams, our one objective was to control the center of the court, and it was not an easy thing to accomplish with those girls. The level of buy in was not 100%, but when they were winning more and easier, then the percentage rose. Even so, in a tense playoff upset win, I had to urge my players to continue to be aggressive in their movement at net. After winning that 10/7 matchup, the same thing happened when we took on the #2 seeds. The girls wanted to shrink back from being aggressive. We won two of the three doubles matches and the decisive match was at #2 doubles, where on every change over I reminded the players what we had worked on all season. They won that match in a third set tiebreaker and the team went crazy. Had I not been extremely determined as a coach to teach, coach, encourage, remind and urge my team onward, then that victory would not have been theirs.
Two amusing anecdotes in working with one of the best players I have ever coached is very telling about this process, and how egos can get involved, and if not held in check can make a mess of things. I saw this player getting better at the net, and also experimenting with a one handed backhand groundstroke. I suggested that he consider switching to a one handed backhand because it would help him be even better at the net. He resisted, we talked about it a few times, and he did not switch. A couple weeks later he was hitting nothing but one handed backhands. I teased him, "I see you took my advice." Nonplussed he snapped back, "I don't know what you are talking about." Kabam! That was a bit a slap to my ego, but I let it go.
After his net game became appreciably better, I suggested to him that he consider serving and volleying some. He tried it a few times, failed and seemed to blame me for some lost points in practice matches. A few weeks later after winning our league tournament, he stately boldly. "Coach, I have decided to become a full time serve and volley player." I was pleased and said, "Wow, that's great we talked about that a few weeks ago, I'm glad you are ready." He looked at me like I had lost my mind. He did not remember our conversation. I smiled inside, because it didn't matter if I got any credit as a coach, what mattered was that whether or not he acknowledged it, he had made the change. The awesome part of the story is that he far exceeded expectations, made the semi-finals and would play a future #1 USTA Sectional Player for third place, losing a thrilling three hour, three set match 7-5 in the third, coming to the net 114 times and winning 71 points, if he had won 74 points he would have won the match.
Many of my players become the garden variety net players who patiently wait for the right ball, make a good approach shot, and make one volley to win the point. If they have to make two volleys to win, it's going to be a little dicey. Even so, to develop enough confidence for players to feel confident in a completely new tactic, or one where they have a track record of failure you will need to devote a significant amount of practice time to your chosen major objective(s). It might not be wise to choose more than two, as they may conflict with each other. One of my highest priorities is almost always to find a team wide weakness that I want to bolster. In some cases I look for a strength that has not been developed enough to truly give an advantage on match day. In order to build that advantage, players will need time, and a wide variety of experiences in which they have succeeded.
When planning to achieve an objective, there is a short window before formal play starts against other teams. It's imperative to make full use of that window. For those that have only ten to twelve week seasons, its the very early part that allows you to introduce something new. This year our team has two weeks and three days before our first match. If I were going to develop net play in them, I would want to devote the 'developmental' part of at least seven of the thirteen practices to that which I want to build into my players. Of course, practices need to be planned in cohesion one to another so that if for three days in a row I am working on net game, then the fourth day I would work their groundstrokes, then begin alternation a well rounded program. See in a previous blog some sample practices. It's imperative that when you have a major objective you are working on with your singles players and doubles teams, that they not only go through a progression of simple tasks, to more complex tasks to then using skills in point play with controls, point play without controls, practice sets with special rules that reward use of the objective, practice sets with no special rules, and finally a live match against another team with an expectation that players will use their new skill in that match. When players get to a point where the challenge level is fairly high, then its best to dwell at that level until they gain a certain level of mastery, but don't wait for perfection.
Once everyone in he group has 70% to 90% mastery of a certain skill, I move on to the next level. Once a player or two reaches 100% mastery, they almost immediately can become bored with the process. Sometimes its wise to work with top players at a 100% mastery level, and also their self discipline to continue to hone and perfect their performance. For 99% of high school players, this will be seen as rote work and very boring. You can lose their interest. Be sure to keep moving players up the challenge levels. If there is a 20 minute period where players simply fail to do what is asked, its best to consider regressing back to the level where they can perform well, before returning to the higher level.
It's almost guaranteed that when you put players in their first competitive situation of the year against another team, using a new skill, the combination of nerves and newness will make performing quite difficult. I can't think of a time when players really shined in that first match playing competitively, while using a new skill or strategy. Depending on what happens in that first match, there are decisions to be made. More than likely, you or I would need to let the players know that we salute their efforts trying to make the strategy work, but now that they used it in live competition, there are some things to work on. Again, ask the players, don't tell them. Ask them where they did well, and what the breakdowns were. If you agree, discuss that, if you don't agree try to understand why the players think that was where the breakdown came. "I kept missing my approach shots." Sometimes means that they missed the first approach and the third approach, and after that it was fine, but that's what they remember from the match. Many times, I saw. "I know you feel that way, and you remember X, but I really saw Y. What do you think of that?" If your program is organized enough you can have players chart matches specifically to see the objective you are training.
After they have played, you might decide that they don't need much more training, because you were very pleased with their progress, I would still schedule in one or two refreshers into the practice schedule. If they struggle, take the players who struggled, building them up with two or three more practice sessions targeted that their specific issues. If you don't intervene, you run the risk of a significant group of players not achieving your major objective. Generally, by the second match you should see a big improvement, but players may still not feel fully confident, most likely they will need more encouragement and some fine tuning of smaller issues that reduce their effectiveness. So while most of the work gets done early on, the job of coaching it up in players continues all season.
All of this can be done in 20 minute sessions, if you plan them well. 5 minutes of a warm up activity where players make a basic move, followed by 5-10 minutes of coached activity, then 5-10 minutes of higher intensity and/or point play situations can make all the difference in the world. Many times coaching players in the midst of point play situations with multiple players on one court can speed the learning curve. When a player does something exceptionally well, players can follow the visual example. If a player does poorly, showing the error, and the proper move to everyone again teaches everyone on the court.
All along the way, be a great listener to how your players are feeling and what they are thinking about the objective. Do they understand why its important? Observe closely, not only their technique, but their body language. Do they look confidence or at least competent when they perform? Or do they look scared, shaky, or under trained? Ask them about it, don't always trust your eyes, because sometimes players may feel very confident, but it doesn't always show on the outside. As the season progresses, you can remind players of things previously learned, encourage them as they gain greater confidence, console them and encourage them if they have a bad performance. It's how you finish the season that matters most, and I find that if the work of teaching and coaching is done in the early going, then the free play will be the laboratory where the player finds their own way.
As for the team I mentioned at the beginning whose leadership struggled with 'negative energy', they learned that lesson over a full season, and when presented with a very strong negative circumstance, they were able to maintain positivity and it lead to a very fulfilling finish to the season.
Speaking of showing, after over a month of preparation, I created my first ever online tennis course "Getting Your Players to the Net". If you are reading this blog you see the link that will get you 20% off on that course. It's made of 11 videos, that are mostly three to six minutes long, so you can watch it bit by bit. When you join USATennisCoach today, you will receive a link to take that course for FREE.
Those taking the course will gain and understanding of:
* A strong template for building any skill into your teams.
* System of progression / regression to build confidence.
* The points where players 'break down'.
* Key moments where coaches need determination.
* Learning theory for guiding players to success.
* How to make it fun for players.
* Measured amounts of increasing challenge.
* When is it going to be unavoidably ugly.
* Tips, Tricks, Skills and Drills for Success!
* At least 10 drill variations to mix it up.

If you are reading this blog, you might be missing out on our weekly email, so please get on our email list by sending 'join' to usatenniscoach@gmail.com


When you join, Bill will also give you a 20 minute consultation on any topic pertinent to a team tennis coach.
FREE "Getting Your Players to the Net"

“All behavior is purposeful.” Dr. William Glasser

Coach E had a purpose. Her purpose was two-fold. She wanted to do what was best for the team, and she wanted to do what was best for her son. How can we measure the ratio between the two? We can’t. Coach E was an assistant coach for a team that she had been an assistant during which time her son was on the team. She is also an assertive communicator without a huge ego. She also came along and to be assistant on the girl’s team for which she had been head coach, but stepped into a lesser role to make room for the coach which she played a role in recruiting to the school. That coach was me, Bill Patton. Given the depth of involvement from Coach E in years past, far be it from me to deny her the opportunity to stay involved, even though I really prefer to coach on my own.

The previous year, my first at the school Coach E’s son,K, had struggled with injury, and his attempts to challenge for a singles spot on the ladder were cut short. As a part of my coaching philosophy, I want players to know their role on the team fairly early in the season. I also manage the challenge ladder, so that if a player has improved, they can have an opportunity to challenge, but only at a time that works within the overall plan of the season. Over time, coach, parent and player came to an understanding that they best way to manage K’s injury was for him to play almost exclusively doubles, until he was fully healthy. He played through injury the entire season, and yet with the help of a dynamic partner was on the winning end and almost an automatic win in the line up.

Flash forward to the moment early in the following season, when Coach E made the assertion that K should be granted a full opportunity in the new year to challenge for a singles spot. It was the beginning of practice, but I had already done my homework. I had asked K more than once if he wanted to challenge for singles spot, he went back and forth before deciding he was happy playing doubles. Oddly enough, when I did not acquiesce to Coach E’s assertion, she became upset and spent most of the rest of practice as far from me as possible. In my denial of the assertion, I mentioned that K himself had said he wanted to play doubles. It didn’t take long for everything to return to normal and there were not a lot of hurt feelings, but I can imagine that things may have been quite different if I had not been assertive myself. If I had been passive, then I would have had to take her assertion into close consideration, and most likely be obliged to offer a challenge match.

This first story serves to introduce the topic of communication styles, taking into account different states of people’s ego boundaries to understand the complexity of how to best listen.

In truly listening, we need to take into account our purposes, and the purposes of those we are talking with at any given time. Coach E, I could count on her to be sincere, and I don’t know to what level she was self aware of her strong advocacy for her son, or to what level she trusted me to do what was right not only for the team, but for her son. Had I not really heard her out and allowed her to speak her mind, things would have been much more difficult. If I had not proactively addressed her son about the situation prior to this talk, I would not have been fore-armed to deal properly with the situation. Two weeks ago, in our blog, we talked a lot about how the first answer should almost always be NO. Even so, the amount of listening and the value of the message and messenger should remain very high.

The amount of damage that is done when coaches seem to rule with an iron fist and do not consider the feedback, suggestions, crazy ideas, and complete trash that comes our way on a weekly basis is quite significant. Real listening means listening carefully to the words, and working to discern the motives and understand the people. As it turned out, Coach E who quite often had suggestions for lineup changes that were shot down by me 98% of the time, made the suggestion ahead of tournament play that was a stroke of genius. In part her contribution lead to fairly miraculous sectional championship by our #3 seeded team that would need to beat #2 and #1 in the same day in 97 degree heat. Coach E, by virtue of her constant commitment to leave nothing on the table, and my commitment to listen to her, and finally when everything lined up, this collaboration lead to an experience for young people that they will never forget. The previous year, her advocacy for a certain player saw him gain varsity status, and that player was pivotal in another upset of a #1 seeded team. It would have been a grave error on my part to completely shut her down. Additionally, influenced by her willingness to shuffle lineups, I was able to recognize an opportunity with our girls team to have two different lineups that would create great match ups with different opponents. Completely legal, it lead to a bit of element of surprise that also helped us to gain an advantage, and as a #10 seed to beat a #2 seed, and for that team to win section title the following year.

When dealing with players, it’s almost universal that a teenager is not going to be very happy if their idea is not accepted. Adults might be slightly better at accepting this. No matter who we are listening to, whether or not we accept and put their idea into play immediately, it’s almost always a great idea to follow up with a conversation later that says, “I did hear you and I am considering what you said.” That kind of listening is so incredibly rare, that you and I can gain a considerable amount of relationship capital with our players when we do this.

Styrling and I were discussing this today, and we sometimes encounter players or parents who want to do us ‘favors’, but then its quite clear that there is some kind of catch. Be careful to clear up any potential expectations. I often like to joke, ‘This is really wonderful what you are doing, but I think your daughter is still going to have to compete for her spot on the ladder. Haha, just so we are clear.’ ‘Wow, these things you do for the program are awesome, It would be tempting to show some kind of favoritism, but that would be wrong.’ ‘I owe you are really big thank you at the end of the season, because I think thats the only way I would ever be able to repay you.’

It’s also great to listen and acknowledge those who offer suggestions, feedback, and information expecting nothing in return. These are the kind of people that we really want to reward, those are the ones for whom the work is all worthwhile. I once met a parent who came to visit one of our matches, and he was asking me hypothetical questions about what it would be like for a player to play in our program. The next year his son transferred from a private school that played in another league, into our program which was completely legal and not at all solicited by me. Did I recruit him? No! Now I had to be quite clear with that parent that where he and his son decide to go to school has no bearing on how this program is run. Setting that expectation turned out to be quite helpful. The parent in question who was friends with the superintendent of the school district brought him by to see the deplorable and unsafe conditions of our courts, and shortly the district put up the money for our courts to be resurfaced. At the conclusion of pulling major strings for the good of the program, that parent stayed quietly in the background never looking for any kind of payback. His son was a bit of a thorn in my side, but even though he was rambunctious, he brought a certain bravado that was the missing ingredient that helped boost the team to its first championship in 26 years.

Players may make commitments to do certain things, but then their actions may tell a completely different story. This brings us back to ‘all behavior is purposeful’. “What you are doing talks so loud, I can’t hear what you are saying”. I had a team that was not only a last place team, but in the years prior to my taking over the program they had not won a league match in 6 years. We would talk about commitment, and being present every day, working hard to improve, but their always seemed to be a player or two who had an excuse for missing practice. We would talk about it, players would commit, and the same thing would happen. One day over half the team was missing. I asked my captain, “Where is my team?” “The chemistry teacher said there was a special lab to help with the upcoming test, they are all there.” So I was making my way to the chemistry lab. After the lab, the girls saw me coming toward them and they were scared and caught, before they could go home. I asked them, “What does this do to our relationship? Do you know how it feels when I am here to help you and you don’t even show the courtesy of letting me know where you are?” As they were near tears, I asked them if they would commit to being at practice. I knew that I was manipulating them, but at that moment, I had to do something to meet them where they were. Their actions were speaking so loudly, I had to listen to what they were telling me, so that I could address it. In a few weeks time, that team won their first match, breaking a 71 match losing streak, and our team captains and myself were interviewed on local TV. It was quite a thrill.

There are factors in people’s personalities, and the way they choose to communicate that can help guide you as a coach on how to deal with them. People can be aggressive, assertive, passive-aggressive, passive or a mix of different styles in the way they communicate. Sometimes this has to do with their ego-boundaries. People with normal healthy ego boundaries are generally assertive, and sometimes passive in their communication. They wont stand to be abused by aggressive communicators forever, and they will call someone on their passive aggressive communication. With a healthy ego, sometimes being passive makes sense at the moment, because a short period of putting up with a bit of bad behavior is better than starting a full blown conflict. At other times the conflict must be taken head on. People with stronger outsized ego boundaries tend not to understand where they stop and other people begin. These people can be aggressive, but they also can be passive-aggressive. The aggressive communicator many times is giving orders, sharing opinions, and placing expectations on then people around them. People with weak ego boundaries tend to be passive-aggressive communicators and can express some hostility, resistance, or rebellion in their actions, but in their speech they feign passivity. Interestingly enough aggressive people people overly large egos, tend to be found with passive people with very little ego strength, as the one serves to have enough ego for the two of them. Weak ego boundary people are many times attracted to much stronger egos, so as to be absorbed. Passive aggressive people drive me nuts, because its so difficult to really talk about what is happening, as many times they will deny having any negative experiences or feeling any conflict.

Whichever style you are dealing with, consider again, ‘All behavior is purposeful’. Why are they acting in this manner? What do they hope to achieve? Can we help them to really ask for what they want, and otherwise express that in a clear concise and respectful way? What I have found to be most empowering and to ease the communication with any group, is to praise those who make attempts at proactive, assertive communication, and sometimes make it a lesson for the other players on how this is done. It could be a major mistake to attempt to turn an interaction with a parent into a lesson.

When we listen to our players, parents, and coaches, its wise to consider these factors in how they communicate and what it says about their style. There can be ways to manage people according to their style, but Styrling and I strongly encourage teaching the players to have an appropriate amount of ego strength, and to be assertive communicators at the right time.

If you are only reading this on wordpress, you are missing out, come and join our email list to get special offers!

Usatenniscoach@gmail.com say ‘join’

Bill’ Video Course is Online Now: It’s only $17 and it’s a coaching session on How to Get Your Players to the Net: Strategies for Increase Players Comfort Level. Members of USATennisCoach get 20% off the course.

USATennisCoach membership drive continues through next Tuesday. $57 gets you one year of USATennisCoach, plus your first certification. But if you sign up by next Tuesday, it’s only $40. Send a paypal payment using usatenniscoach@gmail.com.

Again for members only there will be a FREE Webinar with Bill, Styrling and maybe Scott, to cover whatever you want to talk about. Send us an email with topics that are pertinent to your team, we will pick the top three to discuss in the webinar, but EVERY QUESTION will be answered by the team, even if its not in the webinar. August 15th at 6pm PST.

“The art of leadership is saying no, not yes.  It is very easy to say yes.” — Tony Blair

Having definite goals is an important part of leadership and team building. Defining a goal means not only saying what something is, but also what it is not. When we pursue a goal, during that time we are excluding all competing goals. Therefore, when we have a defined plan for the day, then our first instinct should be to say no to anything that diverts away from the plan. Saying no ends the initial threat to the plan for the day. Keep in mind the goal, that saying no to the wrong or ill timed things help us to say yes to the right things and the right time.

Let's remember who we are dealing with in our coaching. For the most part, we are coaching players whose brains have not fully developed yet. Teenagers have a fully developed threat detection system in their brains, but not a fully developed regulatory system to moderate the responses. As he adults, we help them form more synaptic connections so that they can use their cerebral cortex better to make good decisions. Another major theoretical underpinning comes from social psychology where studies show that well defined limits help create greater security. Where there are not limits, players will sometimes create their own. When the limits are changeable, players find it difficult to cope and the team becomes a more stressful situation.
In saying no, we create well defined limits. However, we can always say yes later, after a period of thought and planning. Which things and people should we say no to? How should we say no? When and how loud should we say it? How often will we need to repeat it?
Saying no to undisciplined behavior is an important part of keeping players on task. Even the very best teenagers that we encounter on our high school teams can open the door to some chaos. At the most innocent, a player that we respect and admire, may make a request that would change the plan for the day. It may seem like such a nice thing to do. They may express their enjoyment for a certain challenge (drill), or game, and ask, "Can we do _____ Today?" It seems so easy and natural to trust and listen to your best citizen, but really what often happens is that it sets a precedent for being open to changing the plan. The inner conflict we may feel runs counter to the 'people pleasing' part of our inner self when we say 'no' to such a kind hearted request. However, it opens the door to another player, who is less disciplined, who has not such a good idea to have theirs accepted as well. If not, then they have a claim in their own mind as to 'favoritism'. I tell my players, "You know the answer is going to be NO for today, but go ahead and ask your question, then I will take it under advisement for another day." Very, very rarely I may change they day's plan, but only if what the player offers is true genius and far exceeds what I had on the agenda. The number of times that has happened in 28 years has to be less than 5. A very important part of saying no, is to first listen. Players want to know that their voice will be heard, but there is little or no leeway for today's plan to be changed.
Its best also to say no to the behaviors that and ruin a plan. Lazy movement between activities, a lack of following directions, and distracting or off task behavior can ruin the practice environment. Saying 'no' to undisciplined practice, is actually saying 'yes' to a more fun practice, because once the days objectives are achieved, then each practice ends with a large group game. Sometimes saying no can be a game. At one school, I had 26 players on 6 courts, with two banks of three courts. I mainly operated from the three courts where varsity players were practicing, and the JV players where on the other three which had a pretty tough egress over to the three courts I was on. Early on when I wanted to bring everyone together it would take a few minutes. I said no to that by counting down from 45 seconds expecting everyone to be on court before I got to zero. If they didnt make it there were some light consequences. We might do some 'fast feet', because 'we need to be more quick'. So simply by setting a standard, on the one side is yes, and the other side is no. Examples of other behaviors that need to end are: arriving late to practice, not giving best efforts, creating distractions or getting distracted by outside circumstances like school friends walking by and starting a conversation. Countless times I have had conversations with players to say, "No, that's not O.K." Like missing make-able shots, not giving full effort, because the player is not excited by the challenge presented. Hitting inappropriate shots, or acting in an inappropriate way with team-mates.
A handful of times in my coaching career I have had a certain player in mind in developing a special practice to meet that player's need, mostly because other players also share the need to work on that item, but also because there are times when building one skill into a one or a few players on the team can have a major impact on the team's outcomes. It seems like almost every season that I create one of these special practices the player in my spotlight are not present that day. Had I known that they would miss, I may have created a completely different plan to work on another skill in another pivotal player. Which brings up another point, it's not ok not to communicate. Things come up, players get sick, family emergencies, that annoying dental appointment that can't be any other time, etc.
Developing the commitment and discipline to coming to practice every day is a much more difficult thing in individual sports, because tennis players don't see themselves as being vital to the way a practice continues, like a center on a football team, point guard in basketball, or catcher in baseball whose presence comparatively is vital to the team. What we need to teach is how our practice structures depend on certain numbers of players paired in certain ways. One missing player can be a major disruption to our plan, and create a need to completely rework it on the fly. Teaching the kids that it's not ok to miss, and that they should say no to other activities so they can say yes to full commitment to the team will serve them well in their future lives as leaders.
How we say no is also important. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. They probably also don't admire your discipline very much if you don't show caring. It's not a good idea to be the coach who automatically says no without listening or thinking. When we can explain exactly why we are saying no, players can accept that much easier. We want to encourage our players to have voice and choice in how they are to train.
Even choosing fun things to do can be source of conflict. I find it amazing that the sequence and enjoyment of certain games of drills changes every year. Every team, every group, and every group minus one player can have a completely different list of preference for games. Some of my teams love 'cupcake' to the point of addiction, some take a while to warm up to it, before beginning to enjoy it. Other teams love 'attack', and would play it until the cows come home, others think it's silly, and still other teams love 'stations' the best. When we have a menu of a wide variety of games from which the players can choose, they have the freedom to say no. Now and then I may open it up and ask "Did anyone learn a game since last season that you want to teach us?" At that time I am saying no to my own desire to be completely in control.
There also comes a time, when something serious happens. Sometimes players can treat each other very poorly in a way that is completely unacceptable to a team, or really any group of civil people. A major safety issue that could lead to injury, and liability can arise, it must stop immediately. When a coach can be called negligent, grossly negligent for not addressing major issues, they can lose they job, come under legal scrutiny, or even be arrested. Thats when a really big loud 'NO!' Is very important, along with a meeting that goes like this, "No,No,No,No!". There was a coach in my area whose team created vile nicknames that were overtly sexual and perverse. It was quite disturbing and very embarrassing for that team to share the nicknames in the introductions prior to a sectional playoff match. My athletic director was present, and I asked him to follow up with that school's athletic director. That coach was fired by the school, and later they no longer fielded a team. Recently, a friend of mine has begun coaching at the school and has reinstituted the team in a more sporting manner. Every team at all times should keep in mind their ambassadorship for their school.
I had a team captain, who was among the worst team captains I have ever dealt with, who threatened a player loudly as a match progressed. She, yes she, threatened physical harm to the other player. I immediately suspended her from the team, she lost her captaincy, and was only allowed back into competition after her apology was accepted by the other school and the player in question.
I have a fun game that I play with my teams that helps them learn to be good front runners, and save time and energy during the season. Many times high school players race out to a big lead, then become bored, and their play can go down to the level of the opponent. To combat that I give a reward to the first player who comes off the court winning at least one set 6-0. If a player takes a bit longer but wins 6-0,6-0 they can trump the player who finished first, but had only one bagel set. This is a lot of internal fun for my team. They can win an energy bar, or an over-grip. But now, here is what I say no to:
* Don't rub it in the opponents face.
* Learn not to rush so fast that you lose points.
* The opponent must not know about our game.
* You must not tell anyone about our game.
Invariably, there is a player who talks loud, brags, or makes it obvious what is happening. Early on the players rush to fast, becoming sloppy in their play, until they discover an ideal pace of play for front running. If players do brag, or expose the game, it stops there, if the coach of the other team becomes aware of it I apologize and explain why we do it, and its nothing against their team. One time, my players came to me to say "The other guys on that team have a bet going about who will beat our guys faster." Similar behaviors go on in teams all across the U.S., lets say no to that for the sake of respect.
In conclusion the best way to say yes to all the great things we want to do and experience, is to say no to anything that would confuse, ruin, compete or otherwise interfere with moving in the direction we want to go with our teams.


Perhaps you want some other options for saying no

Stop is another good word

I wish I had more time to watch TV, but I don’t. A great show on public television, that had a huge influence on my way of thought was Connections, a 10 part documentary series that showed the development of technology over time leading to modern scientific breakthroughs, thus illuminating the genius technology that occurred before electricity. Recently a coach asked on a public forum if there was an app that could easily track attendance month to month for a student, and I suggested a clip board with a printed spreadsheet. My sarcastic response got some likes, but I wasn’t just joking. In our search for more, bigger and faster solutions, we sometimes leave the power of the obvious.

As we drill down deeper into planning, taking it out of the big picture of Preparation, Pre-Competitive, Competitive and Active Rest into examples of what would happen on a certain day we are met with one of the ancient technologies: The Calendar! Sometimes the very best and easiest way to draft out the details of the daily schedule is with paper and pencil. Writing and erasing sometimes is much better than typing and deleting. While those over the age of 50 are likely to remember the days before computers, those below the age of 30 probably find it hard to remember the days before cell phones, and/or what life was like before SmartPhones, and may find themselves asking “Is there an app for that?”, or stating “I wish there was an app for that.”

Pardon the lengthy introduction, so now let’s get into the daily planning. We have purposely left out any daily plans for the Preparation Phase and you will discover why if you read last weeks blog. If you are just picking up this series this week, we urge you to start at a seminal point in development at the first in this series.

Looking below you will see four sample days from Bill, followed by three sample days from Styrling. Cryptic notes are easy to follow when you have the full plan completely written out, and/or your team knows the routine. Notice the difference in style of presentation…

Example One Pre-Competition Phase Practice

2:15pm Practice Begins because school had not started yet.

Warm Up is 15 minutes

2:30pm Players are assigned courts and either work on Loops and Angles, or doing the transition challenge.

2:55pm It’s not written but we will take a short break for water and explain the next segment.

3:00pm A quick 15 minute segment of poaching to build the habit, with a diagram showing diagonal movement.

3:15pm All Players Lob and Overhead for 7 minutes each.

3:30pm An intense bout of exercise. Previously we had not done 15 sprints. I can explain side sprints if you like.

3:55pm a full five minute rest after sprinting.

4:00pm Kamikaze is a doubles game where the net person must attempt to touch the first shot from the returner. If they do, then they cannot lose the point. If they make an error on the volley the point is replayed. A regular set can be played or just 4 service games to allow each player to be the net person. Variations: Serving team can have a bonus point for net person making first volley, or return team can get a bonus point for net player failing to touch the ball. (I said I would explain below, but really I am explaining above)

4:30 Cupcake is fully explained in my book. Three groundstrokers hit big forehands at three net players. The game goes to five. If the groundstrokes win they become champions, run to the other side for volleys. If the volleyers win, then a new team of three groundstrokers comes into the game. For the sake of space here, let me know if you want the full rules. Three players on each side make spaces to volley smaller, and places to pass smaller, creating a challenge of precise placement. It’s a fun large group game.

4:45 Practice ends. It was a long practice, because school had not started yet.

One Pre-Comp Day

Example Two Pre-Competition Phase Practice.

2:00pm Practice Begins with a low movement drill, no running, no stretching, but a low stress activity.

2:15pm X-files is a short court game played crosscourt, and balls cross each other from two games on one court.

Works short angle shots and concentration due to another pair on the same court.

2:30pm An intense bout of exercise. This one more explosive than the one before.

2:55pm a full 5 minute break.

3:00pm S/R – Serves and Returns for 30 full minutes. 6 players per court, two servers for every one returner. Servers take turns serving two balls to the returner who gets more continuous practice while servers learn to slow themselves down to a more realistic speed. Every 10 minute (9, to allow a minute of walking), rotate, each player should get 20 minutes of serving and a slower pace with 10 minutes of returning. As the season progresses this becomes 21 minutes, then 15.

3:30pm Players assigned to courts and have specific challenges bases on singles, doubles, and skill level. This is where a lot of magic can happen if we give them good challenges. Beginner players can get stroke work. Singles players will play challenge sets for the ladder. Doubles teams play one bounce doubles, and others have a stroke to work on.

4:00pm Singles players have a challenging footwork skill to develop. All other players work on lobs and overheads.

4:30pm Game: Stations, where the first shot must be a lob or overhead. Game: Cupcake for dessert?

5:00pm Practice ends. Rarely do we have 3 hour practices.

Two Pre-Compete Day

Example Three – Rainy Day Plan

It’s great if you can secure a classroom or some gym space. If you can play in the gym. I have a lot of fun ideas. Most commonly you can get into a classroom to do a light warm up and some stretching. Maybe there is enough room to throw some medicine balls around and do some fast feet or other burst training. If not, having a fun discussion of strategy starting with having players summarize what they know about strategy for singles and doubles. When you can then ask a question that they don’t know the answer to, then you can work with player’s natural curiosity to deepen their understanding.

Making everything into a game by choosing teams and having a great quiz show makes or a really fun experience. You can give prizes like overgrips or a pre-approved energy bar, but make sure players don’t have allergies to any of the ingredients. A great thing to do is to split strategy into two categories one for singles and one for doubles.

Rainy Day Plan.jpg

Example Four An Easy Rest Day.

A day like this is VITAL to the success of your team. Players get very stressed out after a very tough competitive phase against top competition and league rivals. Give them a day to rest recuperate and be together having fun no matter if they win or lose. Let the players choose the games and play them in reverse order. I have had players say they want to skip the practice because they don’t feel like its a valuable experience. Sadly, some players have been programmed not to have fun. I find this to be a vital time of team bonding, and enjoyment that leads to a lot of great morale so that when the chips are down, the players realize that it’s really supposed to be a fun time. A couple times during my career players have asked if we could have a normal practice because we did not play well enough in our competition phase, we did not have much hope of going to the post season, and they wanted to perform better in the final round of competitive phase, only once did I grant this wish completely.

3:30pm 15 minute dynamic warm up.

3:45pm a quick recap of the competitive phase, successes and lessons learned

3:55pm Vote for games to play

4:00pm Game #4 Player’s Choice

4:15pm Water Break Jokes, Grunting Contest

4:20pm Game #3 Players Choice

4:40pm Water Break Story Telling

4:45pm Game #2 Players Choice

5:05pm Game #1

5:30pm Practice Ends.

(no image)

Here are three examples from Styrling

Pre-Comp Practice 1

Competitive Practice 1

After seeing these your reactions may run the gamut. Some of you are loving my chicken scratch, because you like I am tired of coaches who are so anal retentive all the time. Let me reassure you that just because the writing is sloppy doesn’t mean I don’t run an airtight practice, but also won that has space for fun and getting to know each other. Others may have lost respect for me and now are loving Styrling’s approach. There have to be some people in the middle. What you can see here though are two distinctly different styles of presentation on paper, but he same amount of organization, although with different amounts of time allotted to each item.

As always we welcome your questions and feedback. Coming at the end of July we are going to have a one day sale on Lifetime membership to USATennisCoach, LLC and a one week sale on your first certification with us.