Why I keep coaching
Players have to earn trust, but I like building a culture where players have agency to help direct their practices. I’m very vocal about asking players things they want to work on, I’m not shy on abandoning ideas that aren’t working. As I’ve gotten further into this, I’m a lot more directive about what I’d like to see in matches, and I can be very reflective about the ways we need to improve.
My practices are fluid. Throughout my career, I’ve leveraged both technology and video as tools to help players improve. It’s harder to do in high school because of the resource-intensiveness of tennis (basketball teams can all be on the court at opposite ends, whereas 12 tennis players on one court is a lot.) but we make it work.
A lot of programs are pretty rigid about varsity status. In that, once the “tryout” period is over, you can try again next year. If I ran a program at a school with cuts, or if it was a hyper-competitive, state championships above all culture, I’d have to adopt some of these methods too because of sheer practicality.
Because I’ve run a no-cut program that past few years, at a school with only tennis and track as spring girls sports options, I end up with a fairly large JV bench every year. Half of those JV players aren’t interested in playing competitively, but like practicing with their friends. The other half end up comprising our B-team and depending on their progress and who our opponents are, I’m very liberal about bringing them up to varsity. I’m especially this way about seniors, who through their participation and commitment earn that sort of reward if they’re showing up and putting in the work.
I operate a ladder out of necessity, but challenge matches on our team are rare because the season isn’t really comprised of enough time to make it worthwhile. Injuries, school assignments, trips, and other things will often shift the lineup on its own. If two players are particularly close in level, we leverage opportunities for them to test themselves in a higher spot or to pair together and try doubles.
Our best players are often ones brought by their friends to a practice to see how we operate. Players say people assume that a championship winning team must have a scary culture, based on their experiences with other sports, and when they see how “chill” it is but that we still perform, entices them to come back and stick with it. After they get match action and realize how much progress they make in a short period, they sometimes become year-round tennis players.
I run a program that I’d want to participate in. It doesn’t mean it’s always easy. You don’t get what you want all the time. You can earn trust, role changes, and opportunities to try new things. I just don’t think it makes sense for a sport that’s so individual to be rigid, so I work to keep things interesting throughout the year.
Last year before the state tournament, I changed our entire pre-state week routine. We did our usual practice setup for the week of state (it’s different than the regular season, but I’m not telling you about it here) but I also changed up the normal routine with different activities at the end of each practice. One of those was bringing in a friend who teaches yoga to help us with flexibility. It was less about the yoga practice — though it went over well — and more about getting us off the court and focused elsewhere.
What brings me back year after year are the people. Not only my players, the parents, or our administrators. But the rival schools, seeing opposing teams kids grow up and improve too. So much of my professional life is through screens, tennis gives me an opportunity to switch up contexts and I learn as much about myself, as I think my players do.