Tennis is arguably the most difficult sport of all to become very good at. At the higher levels of the game it takes tremendous athleticism, technical proficiency, mental capacity, and emotional toughness. Who in the world would want to pursue something that is so difficult?
I was recently talking with a kid about this iPhone game called Flappy Birds. It is notorious for being extremely difficult. It also is known for being one of the most downloaded apps ever and one of the most addictive.
After I played the game I found myself very intrigued and deep in thought. You see this game is different than most because it is so difficult. Kids will give up or get bored in 15 minutes or less with easier games but not Flappy Birds. It is the level of difficulty that makes it fun.
You see the real fun is not being successful. Things that are easy to achieve success with get boring quickly. The real fun is in pursuit of achieving success with something that is difficult. I know in my life the things that have been the most fun and fulfilling have been the things that have been the most difficult.
Tennis is the real-life version of Flappy Birds. It is the pursuit of excellence on the tennis court that makes it so much fun. In the process it also teaches tremendously valuable life-long lessons.
Think about registering your child for Summer Tennis Camp and I think you will find that once they pick up a racket it will be hard for them to put it down.
Movement on the tennis court might be the most important aspect of the modern game. That is a bold statement considering the overwhelming majority of players spend most of their practice time focusing exclusively on technique.
Consider these figures…
78′ by 27′ are the dimensions of the singles court.
A ball that is traveling at 60 miles per hour is moving at a rate of 88 feet per second. That means if you hit the ball down the line at 60 mph it gets there in less than a second, assuming it has enough topspin to keep it inside the lines.
Since the NFL started implementing electric timing of the 40-yard dash the record holder is Chris Johnson. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.24 seconds, which equates to moving at a rate of 28.3 feet per second.
If we put Chris Johnson, who owns the fastest 40-yard dash, on the singles sideline and hit the ball down the line at 60 mph he would make it just before the ball got there!
Think about the implications of all these numbers. Johnson obviously possesses world-class speed and he is just barely making it there in time. What about younger athletes who are not at the world-class level of speed? Also consider that 60 mph ball down the line is not even that fast considering there are professionals striking the ball well in excess of 100 mph. Andy Murray hit a blistering forehand at 124mph in Cincinnati last summer!
Naturally as players improve the speed at which they rally from the ground increases. The technology of rackets and strings also continue to enhance the speed at which players can hit the ball. This is all wonderful until the rally tempo becomes so fast the athlete can no longer get to balls. It is absolutely critical for developing players to improve both their movement and ball striking skills in unison. Tremendous ball striking skills are great if you can literally hit so fast that you can blow an opponent off the court. When an opponent has fairly equal ball striking ability the difference is movement. The player who moves better is the one who will perform better.
This ball striking and movement conundrum is often very apparent in the younger age divisions of junior tournament play. In the younger age groups typically the players who are the best ball strikers tend to win the most. However, as age progresses, other players “catch up” and ball striking skills tend to level out. This is the point where the players who move well now have the advantage. Many times the players who were successful in the younger age categories try to compensate in the older groups by attempting to hit the ball harder. The problem is you can only hit the ball so hard and it is a scenario of diminishing returns. Their time would be better spent improving movement around the court.
I tell players they are in a race with the ball. If a player beats the ball there, then they have the opportunity to return a high quality shot. If a player gets there at the same time as the ball, they will not be able to setup and end up hitting a weak reply. Finally, if the ball beats them there then obviously they lost the point.
You cannot defy the laws of physics and the math above proves it. So what are the keys to moving well on the court? Have an explosive first step, proper recovery positioning, good anticipatory skills, be able to hit open-stance on both sides, and have efficient footwork patterns that facilitate both quickness and maximize ball striking.
I was reading a book and the quote above was in it. I read it over and over again… What a powerful quote by 18-time grand slam champion and world #1 Chris Evert!
You see champions love to win. Champions relish in the pressure, rising to the occasions in the big moments, and arising victorious. However, as much as champions love to win they hate to lose even more. The pain of losing is the greatest motivator of a champion. When a champion trains or prepares for competition they are not motivated by the pleasure of winning, instead they are motivated by avoiding the pain of losing.
I have seen some real tantrums after tough losses in my time. I understand the pain of the loss and the pain is important because it is a great teacher. However, it is important for players to understand that all great champions hate to lose, but those who are truly great do not make a poor public display after a defeat. Champions like Federer and Nadal certainly hate to lose and I am sure it burns them up inside but you never see them throwing a fit after tough losses.
Read and reread the quote above and let the power of it really sink in…
I bought AppleTV for my wife over the holidays but I it turned into more of a present for myself than her I think…
If you have AppleTV go to the “HBO to Go” app and watch the 1981 classic Chariots of Firewhile it is available. I have watched it a few times and I did so again this morning, which led to the inspiration of this post.
Chariots of Fire is a deep movie that tells the true story of two athletes, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who both achieve a gold medal for their sprinting at the 1924 Olympic Games. The interesting part of the movie is what drives each to compete. Harold is driven externally by a need to win and Eric is driven internally by expressing his inner-self through running.
So how does this all relate to tennis? When a player makes a decision to commitment to put their all into tennis they can do so by being motivated externally or internally. Either means of motivation is necessarily better than the other. Champions athletes have both been motivated either externally or internally as is the case with both gold medalists in the movie. However, there are distinct differences that arise when an tennis player is motivated externally versus internally.
When a player makes a commitment through external motivation they are driven by a product such as winning or playing #1 on the team. Often times what can happen when a player is driven by product is that they validate who they are based on their results. They wrap their entire self-worth up in winning and losing.
In the movie Harold was so obsessed with winning the gold medal when it came time to compete the fear of either winning or losing was tremendous. Preparing for the competition was filled with stress and anxiety. The whole process was filled with the feeling of burden. These feelings all make sense when you look at how Harold’s self-worth was wrapped up in the future results. When he did win the gold medal it was not very fulfilling, In fact, winning was more of a relief and feeling that a burden was lifted than a joy. These same feelings can happen to tennis players as well who are driven by the product of winning.
On the other hand Eric Liddell was driven by internal motivation. Sprinting was not a way to validate himself, instead it was the means of expressing his inner-self. Training and competition were fun and joyous experiences. Winning the gold was an incredible satisfaction and filled with happiness. Losses were certainly disappointing but the joy came from the process of training and competing even when the product was not attained. These same feelings can happen to tennis players who looks at tennis as the means with which to expression themselves.
If you are a player go watch Chariots of Fireand I bet after reading this you will see the depth and brilliance of a movie made 32 years ago. If you are a parent sit down with your children and use this movie as a great teaching experience.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) has mandated experimental rule changes for NCAA Division I College Tennis beginning January 1, 2014 though the Team Indoor Championships in February.
The current system in use was championed back in 1993 by Coach Paul Scarpa of Furman. The “Scarpa Scoring System” is playing 3 doubles matches in an 8-game pro set format followed by 6 singles matches in a best of 3 set format. All singles and doubles matches consist of regular scoring. Make an important mental note right here that all games are played with regular scoring because it will be a pivotal point by the time you finish reading this.
3 doubles matches in 6-game pro set format with no-ad scoring* and tiebreak at 5-5.
6 singles matches in a best of 3 set format with no-ad scoring* and tiebreak at 5-5.
No warm-up permitted prior to matches.
*No-Ad scoring means that at the “deuce” point of a game one sudden-death point is played to determine the outcome, eliminating the need to “win by two.”
3 doubles matches in a 6-game pro set format with regular scoring and tiebreak at 6-6.
6 singles matches in a best of 3 set match format with regular scoring and tiebreak at 6-6. However, if competitors split sets they will play a tiebreak in lieu of a 3rd set.
No warm-up permitted prior to matches.
Now that we go through the logistics I can really get to what this post is about, just stick with me here because this is going to get good…
Official College Players Against ITA Rule Change Facebook Group
College tennis programs across the country have been cut and continue to be. The ITA’s rational for the rule change is pretty simple, they want to increase the fan-based, generate excitement, garner support for programs, and they believe shortening the format is they key to doing so. I love their vision and I believe the people at the ITA have the best of intentions. However, I believe the ITA is going about accomplishing their mission all wrong and I am going to lay out some very strong supporting points and logical solutions momentarily. Before I do everyone should know that I am not alone in my opinion. In fact, players and coaches are outraged at these changes because the changes destroy the integrity of tennis itself. These rule changes literally change the way the game is played (more on that in a moment). If you want to find out more information and join the movement to stop these changes please do so by joining a Facebook Group entitled Official College Players Against the ITA RuleChange or simply use the #SaveCollegeTennis hash-tag in social media.
So now let me explain why these rule changes and thought process behind the rule changes is destroying the integrity of the greatest game on earth.
First let me be honest, tennis does not exactly have the reputation of being a popular, mainstream, tough-guy sport. In my opinion it has been marketed poorly because the true essence of the game is lost in the tennis whites and country clubs of yesteryear. Tennis is like walking into a gladiator arena where two people are going to fight, one remains victorious and the other perishes. In that arena there is no time clock or judges, just two people fighting until one remains victorious. Do I have your attention? Good, because tennis is literally the same exact thing! Two people (singles) or two teams of two people (doubles) take the court and fight it out until one is victorious. It is eye-hand combat just like two men fighting it out in the Roman Colosseum. The only difference is you do not destroy the other person with a sword or battle ax, instead you destroy them with a racket and a fuzzy yellow ball and thankfully no one dies at the end.
People love this kind of stuff and have for thousands of years! Could you imagine the different response if we approached marketing tennis this way? How about we get Russell Crowe to do some commercials to promote tennis? Youth sure do play enough violent video games that work on the same premise…
Instead of changing the scoring system or format I think a different marketing strategy is where the ITA should focus their efforts. Shortening the length of a match will do nothing because people are missing the simple message as to what tennis really is. Good marketing is nothing more than placing a clear, consistent, and simple message with a product. Someone says, “Starbucks” and you think “coffee.” That is all good marketing is. When someone says, “tennis” we need people to think “eye-hand combat where nobody dies, awesome!”
Second, the scoring system in tennis is strange. What is with the Love-15-30-40-Deuce-Ad all about? Well the truth is it is the scoring system that might be the most genius part of the game. It really does present a paradox because the scoring system is so complex yet built around the simple idea of grouping points.
Let me continue by explaining a little about the history of the scoring system because it really simplifies everything. I read this in Oscar Wegner’s book Play Better Tennis in 2 Hours. The scoring system of tennis was born on a court with a broken clock. The broken clock became the scoreboard. One player was the hour hand and the other the minute hand. When a player won a point their respective clock hand was moved to the 15-minute mark, win another to the 30-minute mark, and a third to the 40-minute mark. If the score was tied with both players at the 40-minute mark it was called “deuce.” Deuce is an old French word meaning “two” which signified that 2 more points were needed to win the game. Win the deuce point and your clock hand was moved to the 45-minute mark signifying it was your advantage or “ad” to winning the game. Lose the advantage point and back to the 40-minute deuce mark. Win the advantage point and win the game. Then both clock hands go back to the 0-minute or “love” mark and signifies the start of the next game. Thinking of scoring tennis with the face of a clock sure does make it easier to explain to people doesn’t it?
What is even more fascinating is the idea of winning by two. This is unique to tennis and is one of the sacred heirlooms to the sport. You see tennis is unlike most other sports because you must win by 2. The entire game is built around grouping points together. Think about it, if you lose the first point of a game you must win 3 points in a row or 4 out of 5 to win the game. Knowing all this look at the rule change to no-ad scoring and now you understand how it is fundamentally changing the way in which tennis is played! These drastic changes to the scoring system is what has the players so upset.
On a side note, the whole tie-break system was only invented and added with the birth of televising tennis matches to prevent marathons. Which is kind of amusing because I think the most famous and most televised tennis match in recent years was Isner and Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010 where the score was 70-68 in the 5th set. Interesting how the match without the tiebreak at the end of the set was televised the most?
Again, marketing is all about being unique and become easily recognized. Instead of trying to make tennis like every other sport where you can win by just one point we should be championing how tennis is unique and different from every other sport because of the sacred scoring system based on grouping points and winning by two. Again it comes down to the idea of going into eye-hand combative battle with your opponent. The founders of the game wanted tennis to be a game where you had to finish off your opponent just as a gladiator would have to do.
Finally, I do not understand why tennis is not more popular in America because it fits our society so well. American’s pride themselves on individuality however the most popular sports in America are team sports. Before I continue I do not want anyone to think I am against team sports because that is not my opinion at all. Young athletes should be able to choose whatever sport they enjoy competing in and strive for excellence in it. Team sports are absolutely wonderful and very American. However, I think college tennis and tennis in general could do a better job of leveraging how the game of tennis itself aligns so well with American value of individuality. In fact, college tennis could be the only sport that has individuality and team competition rolled into one event.
To wrap up this post I hope it sheds some light on this hot topic of the rule changes to Division I College Tennis. I hope you now see how drastic the ITA mandated rule changes really are and how they do in fact fundamentally change the way the game is played. I think a better solution would be to look at marketing tennis for it’s truly unique traits as opposed to trying to make it like every other sport. “if you do what everyone else is doing, you will get the same results. However, if you do the opposite of what everyone else is doing you will get unique results.” I think we need to take the approach of championing the game for it’s roots because it is exactly what makes tennis different and the greatest game ever.
If you enjoyed this please help by using the share buttons and use the tag #SaveCollegeTennis.
“Players learn to win only up to the level they cannot stand to lose down to.” – Chuck Kriese
That quote up above is something my good friend, mentor, and hall of fame coach, Chuck Kriese taught me and it has profound meaning that requires a whole entire blog post.
Players on my team after winning the WPIAL Doubles Gold Medal – 2013
Winning and losing is a part of the game of tennis. When you walk out on the court it really is like stepping into the gladiators arena where you are going to do battle and one person will come out a winner and the other a loser. The scoring system of tennis is amazingly complex because points must be grouped together and their is no clock to run out and do the dirty work in finishing off an opponent.
The feeling of winning a match and the pain of losing a match are tremendously important to the development of a player. Winning should feel really good and losing should hurt. These feelings are certainly there when a player truly makes a commitment, investing significant time and energy into their game.
So back to Coach Kriese’s quote… You see when players cannot stand to lose they figure out a way to eventually win and it fuels their growth. Players who cannot stand to lose will hit extra balls, study professional matches, get in better physical shape, and basically do whatever it takes to figure out a way to win. At the same time players who can stand to lose will hit a glass ceiling in their development. When a player loses and they are ok with losing they will stop getting better. Let me explain why. When a player is ok with losing they basically become satisfied with their level of play and quickly lose motivation to put in the extra work necessary to raise their level of play. In essence, players only learn to win up to the level in which they are satisfied with their game.
The performance expectations players set for themselves play an enormous role in how good they become. I am not saying everyone who plays tennis wants to be a USTA Gold Ball National Champion. Some may just want to make the starting line-up of their high school team. What I am saying is that players will only learn to win up to the level they cannot stand to lose down to.
It is absolutely true that players need to focus early on in their development getting down the base fundamentals of stroke production. That simply means players have to get to the point where they can serve, hit groundstrokes, and volley automatically. The skill has to be so ingrained that even when they are choking and under tremendous stress they still can perform the skills. That takes lots of repetition and repetition is the “mother of skill.”
Lessons and group clinics are a great way, especially under the guidance of a coach, to achieve those repetitions. Tennis should be fun,especially for youth, and a group environment with the right culture certainly can provide that. However, lessons should not be the only means of practice.
Let me explain why…
I am going to assume that ultimately players are doing all this work so they can compete in matches, not just get exercise. If competitive goals are in the picture then players must also practice in the manner in which they are expected to perform. That means they have to get into the heat of the battle and play practice sets and compete so they are prepared for the big moments. This is often part of the reason why players choke in tournament competition, they either don’t know what to do in the big moments of the match or they know what to do but have never practiced it before and are not truly prepared.
So think about the benefits of playing practice sets, players get to hit a ton of balls, but in the manner as close to a real competition as possible. In other words they are practicing in the manner in which they are expected to perform. They get to practice shot-selection, game plans, problem solving skills, and so much more. This is where they apply what they learned in the lessons. It is just like doing the word problem at the end of the math lesson in school…remember those?!
The more practice sets a player competes in the better prepared they will be for their next high school season or tournament. Now don’t get me wrong the technical work and repetitions in lessons under the watchful eye of a coach are still very important but usually players spend an abundance of time focusing on technique and far too little if any time playing practice sets.
Practice sets prepare players for the heat of the battle and the more competitive the better. Some of my best practices as a teenager came in the form of playing sets against my best friend or adults I hated losing to because my pride was on the line. Which brings me to my final point about practice sets, the kids should care if they win or lose them. Playing a practice set and not caring if you win or lose is like doing the word problem at the end of a math lesson and not caring if you get the answer correct.
The bottom line is continue drilling and doing technical work but incorporate playing more practice sets.
Lisa Stone is hard at work providing valuable information to “Tennis Parents.” If you are not following all the resources on her blog, Parenting Aces, you need to whether you are a parent, player, or coach.
http://parentingaces.com/
Here is a recent show that I just listened to in my car while driving. This is just an example of the quality information that is out there. It is so easy just subscribe to the UR10s Network with the podcast app on your phone and bluetooth it right to car stereo while driving. Trust me its better than what is on the radio.
I have been following the work of Steve Chandler for some time now. He has an amazing way of making profound distinctions between one thing and another. I recently listened to an audio he made entitled The How To vs. The Want To. I could not help but relate this distinction to the development of a tennis player because it is so true.
Junior tennis players spend so much time taking lessons, doing group clinics, and hopefully playing practice sets. They spend their whole entire career searching for the perfect way how to hit the ball, to serve, and to play the game. In other words they spend all their time focusing on how toplay tennis. However, they are missing something more basic that is even more important than the how to, they are missing the want to.
Think about this for a second if a teenager does not clean their room is it because they do not know how to or is it because they really do not want to? The answer is simple, they do not want to. As a parent it would be highly unlikely that to remedy this problem you would give your child a manual or directions for how to clean their room. That would be silly because the real problem is they do not want to, instead you just tell them they have to or they are grounded.
Nationals Wall at JTCC
So think about this deeply for a minute, if a player truly wanted to become excellent at tennis, finding out how to do so would actually become quite easy. The real key to success is the burning desire to want to become excellent. It would be easy to find how toinstruction on the internet, take a lesson, or even just follow this free blog. Players and parents search all over for the best instruction in the world of tennis but are failing to see the most important part of the puzzle which is the want to. Think about the greatest players of all time like Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Novak Djkovic, and Rafael Nadal, certainly they know how toplay tennis but more importantly they wanted tobe #1 in the world much much more than most others.
So as a coach I approach getting my players to discover how critical the want to is in two different ways. First, I ask my players if they absolutely had to become excellent at tennis or win a tournament or else something terrible would happen to them what would they do? When they really think about if they absolutely had to get really good at tennis all kinds of ideas come to mind like they would do extra practice, get strength workouts done in the morning before school, study professional matches, read books, and stop wasting time on their phone and use that time to get better. It is amazing what they come up with when they absolutely would have to get better at tennis. Second, I ask them what they would do if I guaranteed them a $1,000,000 if they would win a big tournament 6 months from now? Again all kinds of unique answers come up on how they would prepare to ensure they won and received the million dollars. Those two scenarios put the emphasis on the want toand the how toeasily comes into focus.
Then I ask them if it is really that they do not know how to become excellent at tennis or win their next tournament? Or is it that they really do not want to become that good at tennis badly enough? If you think back to a time in your life that you really wanted something badly enough you probably figured out how to make it a reality. I can think of many instances in my life where this was the case. I am not saying it was easy but if you really have the want to it became easy to find the how to.
Finally, Steve Chandler was nice enough to give me permission to give you FREE access to his audio recording How To vs. Want To. Just click the link, download, and enjoy.
I have a very inquisitive mind. I am constantly in search or learning new information that I can utilize to become a better coach. I have recently been digging deeply into the works of Coach John Wooden. John Wooden is one of the greatest coaches of all time. He built a championship basketball program at UCLA from nothing. More importantly he had a profound impact on the men he coached. What is even more interesting are his philosophies, principles, and viewpoints on coaching.
In his book, Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, the very first concept he discusses is “Industriousness.” He defines this concept as, “There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning.” I could not agree more. In terms of coaching youth, especially in the sport of tennis, to become an accomplished tennis player it easily takes 10+ years of technical, tactical, physical, and competitive development. Not only is this a tremendous amount of hard work (10,000 plus hours to be exact) but the development must be carefully planned and monitored. Just working hard is not good enough, the work must be industrious.
In his books, Coach Wooden explains how deeply he studied the game of basketball and how much time and effort he put into planning practices. He literally would spend 2 hours planning a 90-120 minute practice, no detail was too small. It took a tremendous amount of industrious work and it was not easy but obviously it was worth while and only he knows how worth while it was.
As a coach his work inspires me to continue to work hard and improve my skills. It also shows me how important it is to teach my players that attaining high achievements in the sport of tennis are not easy, in fact it is very hard and it is the price you pay that makes it all worth while. Too often we are fooled by what is new or flashy or the quick fix. The wisdom of Coach Wooden is that there is no quick fix or easy street for anything worth while.
