We practice every day from 2:30 to 4:00. On days when those hours change, you will be notified. Be on time or have a note from a teacher explaining your tardiness.
If you come to practice without the proper footwear, you have not actually come to practice. The threat of injury to people wearing slippers or flip-flops is too great, and you will not be allowed on the court. I don't examine feet every day, not even my own. It is your responsibility to remove yourself if you don’t have proper footwear. (As long as you're there, even if you can't participate, it is not an absence.
Speaking of which:
Note: When the season starts and we try to fit seventeen matches into 35 days, practices are rare. Basically, the way you are playing once the season begins is the way you'll play through the season. You can always make little improvements here and there, especially if you're familiar with the port, but for most newer player, they have two weeks to get good—and of course, all summer afterwards.
(revised for 2020)
And by that, I mean number three.
Family always comes first, and since you're not in school only to play tennis, school—academics comes second.
But from March until the end of May, "I can't, I have tennis" should be your answer to every question about doing something else when a practice or a match is scheduled.
There's a long list of items that come after tennis, but here are a few:
I can't cover every eventuality. If you're unsure about a situation, ask me. But (1) family, (2) academics, (3) tennis should cover most situations.
1—WIN
I know that sounds simplistic and maybe even harsh, but the goal of every varsity team is to perform at its best in interscholastic competitions. Sometimes the final score shows the results; sometimes it doesn't. Still, striving to win and doing it fairly are honorable goals. I will not play someone just to "get her into the game" or just because someone requests it. And unlike many sports, the coach's feelings do not enter into it. If A beats B, A plays ahead of B.
2—FIND THE RIGHT POSITION FOR THE RIGHT PLAYER
Your daughter may be the greatest singles player since Serena Williams (spoiler alert: she's not), but I may see her skills as more suitable for doubles. Conversely a girls who wants to play doubles may have a singles temperament. I want the best players in the best spots, and I will always tell the players my intentions. If they don't like it, and you don't like it, I'm willing to discuss it...but I may not change my mind.
3—TEACH THE NEW PLAYERS TENNIS
A. My coaching is divided evenly between instructing and "polishing" and I love doing both. Watching someone develop from no skills to playing in a ghost match is very gratifying, but so is convincing a veteran player to change her stance or positioning or grip—and having it work. Without this aspect, the program dies.
B. Teaching and learning are interconnected. I discovered early on as a classroom teacher that teaching only works when there's a learner. The players know how I feel about that: present the information, repeat and repeat. But at some point, like someone with a musical instrument, they must take that teaching and make it their own through practice and repetition.
So that's it—no trophies for anybody.
There is no dishonor in losing, but that doesn't mean you should celebrate. Bus rides home from losses should be subdued—not silent or funereal, just subdued. Even in a loss, of course, there may be some winners, but their celebration should be quiet: loud cheering inside their brain. The captains will make that clear.
Losing, like winning, is a habit and a state of mind. That doesn't mean you can go out and beat the top tennis player in the conference just because you think you can, but it does mean that the possibility always exists and that management of that goal is yours.
In tennis we improve by repeating the same acts, the same motions, the same movements, over and over. Get used to hitting a topspin forehand and you can hit it in your sleep. You can get used to winning the same way. And, unfortunately, losing.
A 6-6 tie in a set results in a tie-break. Here's how to do it:
And those special rules for the 10-point Super Tie-Break that supersedes the third set? Forget them. The scoring and switching are the same as the 7-point tie-break. If they change the rules again, I'll let you know, but I think this is final.
The best golfers hit the ball deeper; the best quarterbacks throw the ball more accurately, the best batters hit the ball harder. From now on, new players will concentrate on three facets of the game: depth, accuracy, and power.
Power will come first. If you learn to hit the ball properly, the power will come naturally from the shift in body weight from the back foot to the front and from the uncoiling of the hips. That's the easy part, at least by comparison. Depth and accuracy are the results of reps.
Many of us don't know how to practice. We get bored hitting the same shot over and over, and so even though we can only hit 30 or 40% of our shots where we want them to go, we tell ourselves "that's good enough—I'll be better during the game."
NO YOU WON'T. YOU'LL BE WORSE.
One afternoon last season I set up the ball machine and asked you to do something very simple—hit a forehand that lands in the court beyond the service line. We had about twenty girls on the team, but it took one time through the line of players before somebody actually did it! I was shocked, but I was more shocked at the nonchalant attitude of the participants. Some of you thought—and still think—drills like that are boring. They are. Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic were probably bored a lot—it seemed to have worked out for them
Hitting a groundstroke beyond the service line is like learning the scales in music, or learning the alphabet in reading, or having a grasp of the periodic table in chemistry, or dribbling a basketball. Without the basic building blocks, you can't move ahead.
If you're a beginning player, take this to heart: the fun of playing tennis is playing tennis—win or lose. The fun is getting a new can of balls, meeting a new opponent, going out and competing for yourself, your team, and your school. For many of you that experience will end forever in June of your senior year. Why not make it as much fun as possible?
Yes, that fun has a price: practice.
If you've ever gone through a drill and said this is boring, you're not alone. But if you've ever gone through a drill, said this is boring, and then let that attitude inform your practice, then where you are now as a tennis player is where you'll be next year, and all the years after that. If this is you, fix it. If this is not you, keep up the good work.
In the past I've had great tennis players—maybe I have some now. But the one thing they all had in common was the willingness to be bored. They were able to see the endgame.
Are you?