Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Sweat Socks: RL HS Coaching Tennis Dynasty

Young Drachma · 03-18-2022, 12:29 PM

2022, Match 1

We played a middle of the road 6A (highest classification in Oregon) school yesterday who play in one of the two best leagues in the state. Historically, the state champions often comes from the MHC (where this school plays) or the TRL (where I coached a boys team for one season before taking this job)

Anyway, I scheduled it expecting we'd win but wasn't expecting a clean sweep. Unlike our stupid league, 6A schools play their rosters straight up according to the ladder until districts so you get best players in singles and then doubles are less that way. We played our lineup like we're supposed to in our league, so 2 best players at 1-2 singles, then our 3/4 best players played 1st doubles. We were missing three players yesterday (#2 singles, #3 singles & a 4th doubles player who is playing club volleyball and will miss half the year) but since it's the day before spring break, I didn't have many JV options available when my 3-singles told me she was sick on the morning of the match. So we subbed our manager (who does practice with JV) in the 4th singles slot.

It was also raining and our opponents were playing their 3rd match in 3 days. Because it was non-conference, the coaches can be flexible about the structure of the match, so we played it as 8-game pro-sets because we only had 2 courts (our indoor courts) available for the match meaning it was going to go slow otherwise.

Thankfully, my girls didn't drag the match out by and large and we finished before our practice would've been over normally. 3rd singles and 4th singles both lost, but everyone won handily. In the case of my 4th singles player, so gets very anxious when she's having to play indoors and feels like she's being watched. Part of the reason I was really convinced I wanted a March match before spring break, was because I know it's often hard for the kids to translate stuff from practice to matches; especially the ones who don't play tennis year-round.

In the case of one of my juniors who does play year-round, but hasn't ever played HS tennis before this season, she had to get the nerves out and also adapt to playing a doubles team that were not big hitters and had no real pace. It's a different strategic thing and I think everyone needs to learn how to play against people that aren't good because if you consistently make mistakes, you can find yourself in a hole and it's hard to get out.

This is what happened to 4th singles, she just got herself in a ditch down 1-6 before I even had a chance to calm her down and by then it was really too late to salvage it because she was too far gone. 3rd singles lost 5-8, but at least tried to grind back and the girl she played was a mirror of her who had been playing more matches this week so I think the reps probably helped that girl (also my player did not hold serve against a girl who didn't serve well and I'm going to cover that when we get back post-break. It was a missed opportunity.)

Good news is, my doubles teams are way more intact than last year where besides our #1 and #4 teams, it was very permeable all year and there was no real routine or rhythm, whereas this year, I have a pretty easy time of being able to swap people into the doubles rotation.

After spring break, we only place twice in two weeks -- a home match against one of the bottom teams in our conference, then we travel to a 4A school in our hybrid conference (it's a mix of 1A-4A schools since there aren't a ton that play tennis) that's an hour away. It's the match I posted about last year with the two courts situation playing at the fairgrounds. Unlike last year, the school will transport us on buses again and it's not during the SAT day, so we'll bring the entire team to that match, because I kinda want to exact revenge on that match for how unnecessarily close it was last year relative to the competition levels.

Then the following Tuesday are the first of two tilts with our league rivals and among the 3-4 schools we're expecting to compete against us for the state title this season.

In the meantime, we're going to have to work on match situations. I've had JV practicing only 3 days a week now, meaning we get all 4 courts two days a week and that's very useful. I'm going to start emphasizing match situations and spending a bit less time doing the varied drills and focusing half the week on situational and tactical tennis, because I feel like the advantage we had at districts last year was we spent that whole doing precisely that and less time on non-real game situations and I could see the impact.

The problem with these high-achieving kids is they often can be very cerebral about everything, their confidence drops to the floor when they start facing adversity often (more the ones who don't play other sports, than the ones who do...) and if you don't catch it early enough and shake them out of it, they can blow extremely winnable matches. Thankfully, we didn't do this very often last year and the jams we did find ourselves in a few times, we were able to manage our ways out of.

My other thing to continue contemplating is our district lineup (for state entries) because my dilemma is that our 4 best singles players are legitimately the 4 best singles players in our conference, and just based on UTR/USTA rankings as a barometer, likely are among the 5-10 best players in our classification statewide. Like, if one of my two top guns doesn't make the state singles final, it'll be an upset; both were seeded in that bracket as 9th graders and this is their last crack at it. (1-2 ranked seniors in their class on tennisreporting)

The issue is, my other senior -- who'd play #1 singles for any other team in 4A-1A short of one other school -- and the junior I've been recruiting for a while (who is better than her) are also quite good. The junior is open to playing doubles, the senior would rather not. I was going to jam them together anyway, but I've come to realize that so much of doubles is touch and feel and if you're not comfortable out there, you're going to lose to someone you shouldn't lose to.

The junior is friends with our 5th best player (3rd place in singles districts last year) and so we might just opt to let them play #1 singles for most of the year besides our rival matches, and then see if their cadence is good enough to play at districts. Since they're both returning next year as seniors, it's a nice way for them to potentially get far at state before switching to singles next season (or maybe they'll decide to team up again and see if they can get further...)

Lastly, we also a tentative match against a neighboring 5A school that'll be similar to what we played yesterday. I suspect they're maybe a little better but assuming we have anything close to our full lineup, we should win 7-1 or 8-0 and that's kind of what I'm angling for/expect.

I don't think I can scrounge up anymore non-conference matches because most teams already have their schedules set for the year, I'd love to get a crack at one of the Top 6A teams because after yesterday's match it's evident that'd we finish 2nd at worst in the 2nd league 6A league in the state, which makes me feel like it's truly state title or bust.

Don't worry, I'm not telling the team that. It's a long season and we're taking it a match at a time. I don't want them getting the impression that if we somehow don't go all the way we've failed, because stuff can happen. But after the covid years and knowing this is easily the best girls team the school has ever had (and they've won 5 state titles since 1980) -- I've had dozens of people tell me this -- I feel like we need a banner hanging to validate the past 3 years of work and recognize this team forever.

Back at it in a week.

03-18-2022, 12:29 PM	#36
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	2022, Match 1 We played a middle of the road 6A (highest classification in Oregon) school yesterday who play in one of the two best leagues in the state. Historically, the state champions often comes from the MHC (where this school plays) or the TRL (where I coached a boys team for one season before taking this job) Anyway, I scheduled it expecting we'd win but wasn't expecting a clean sweep. Unlike our stupid league, 6A schools play their rosters straight up according to the ladder until districts so you get best players in singles and then doubles are less that way. We played our lineup like we're supposed to in our league, so 2 best players at 1-2 singles, then our 3/4 best players played 1st doubles. We were missing three players yesterday (#2 singles, #3 singles & a 4th doubles player who is playing club volleyball and will miss half the year) but since it's the day before spring break, I didn't have many JV options available when my 3-singles told me she was sick on the morning of the match. So we subbed our manager (who does practice with JV) in the 4th singles slot. It was also raining and our opponents were playing their 3rd match in 3 days. Because it was non-conference, the coaches can be flexible about the structure of the match, so we played it as 8-game pro-sets because we only had 2 courts (our indoor courts) available for the match meaning it was going to go slow otherwise. Thankfully, my girls didn't drag the match out by and large and we finished before our practice would've been over normally. 3rd singles and 4th singles both lost, but everyone won handily. In the case of my 4th singles player, so gets very anxious when she's having to play indoors and feels like she's being watched. Part of the reason I was really convinced I wanted a March match before spring break, was because I know it's often hard for the kids to translate stuff from practice to matches; especially the ones who don't play tennis year-round. In the case of one of my juniors who does play year-round, but hasn't ever played HS tennis before this season, she had to get the nerves out and also adapt to playing a doubles team that were not big hitters and had no real pace. It's a different strategic thing and I think everyone needs to learn how to play against people that aren't good because if you consistently make mistakes, you can find yourself in a hole and it's hard to get out. This is what happened to 4th singles, she just got herself in a ditch down 1-6 before I even had a chance to calm her down and by then it was really too late to salvage it because she was too far gone. 3rd singles lost 5-8, but at least tried to grind back and the girl she played was a mirror of her who had been playing more matches this week so I think the reps probably helped that girl (also my player did not hold serve against a girl who didn't serve well and I'm going to cover that when we get back post-break. It was a missed opportunity.) Good news is, my doubles teams are way more intact than last year where besides our #1 and #4 teams, it was very permeable all year and there was no real routine or rhythm, whereas this year, I have a pretty easy time of being able to swap people into the doubles rotation. After spring break, we only place twice in two weeks -- a home match against one of the bottom teams in our conference, then we travel to a 4A school in our hybrid conference (it's a mix of 1A-4A schools since there aren't a ton that play tennis) that's an hour away. It's the match I posted about last year with the two courts situation playing at the fairgrounds. Unlike last year, the school will transport us on buses again and it's not during the SAT day, so we'll bring the entire team to that match, because I kinda want to exact revenge on that match for how unnecessarily close it was last year relative to the competition levels. Then the following Tuesday are the first of two tilts with our league rivals and among the 3-4 schools we're expecting to compete against us for the state title this season. In the meantime, we're going to have to work on match situations. I've had JV practicing only 3 days a week now, meaning we get all 4 courts two days a week and that's very useful. I'm going to start emphasizing match situations and spending a bit less time doing the varied drills and focusing half the week on situational and tactical tennis, because I feel like the advantage we had at districts last year was we spent that whole doing precisely that and less time on non-real game situations and I could see the impact. The problem with these high-achieving kids is they often can be very cerebral about everything, their confidence drops to the floor when they start facing adversity often (more the ones who don't play other sports, than the ones who do...) and if you don't catch it early enough and shake them out of it, they can blow extremely winnable matches. Thankfully, we didn't do this very often last year and the jams we did find ourselves in a few times, we were able to manage our ways out of. My other thing to continue contemplating is our district lineup (for state entries) because my dilemma is that our 4 best singles players are legitimately the 4 best singles players in our conference, and just based on UTR/USTA rankings as a barometer, likely are among the 5-10 best players in our classification statewide. Like, if one of my two top guns doesn't make the state singles final, it'll be an upset; both were seeded in that bracket as 9th graders and this is their last crack at it. (1-2 ranked seniors in their class on tennisreporting) The issue is, my other senior -- who'd play #1 singles for any other team in 4A-1A short of one other school -- and the junior I've been recruiting for a while (who is better than her) are also quite good. The junior is open to playing doubles, the senior would rather not. I was going to jam them together anyway, but I've come to realize that so much of doubles is touch and feel and if you're not comfortable out there, you're going to lose to someone you shouldn't lose to. The junior is friends with our 5th best player (3rd place in singles districts last year) and so we might just opt to let them play #1 singles for most of the year besides our rival matches, and then see if their cadence is good enough to play at districts. Since they're both returning next year as seniors, it's a nice way for them to potentially get far at state before switching to singles next season (or maybe they'll decide to team up again and see if they can get further...) Lastly, we also a tentative match against a neighboring 5A school that'll be similar to what we played yesterday. I suspect they're maybe a little better but assuming we have anything close to our full lineup, we should win 7-1 or 8-0 and that's kind of what I'm angling for/expect. I don't think I can scrounge up anymore non-conference matches because most teams already have their schedules set for the year, I'd love to get a crack at one of the Top 6A teams because after yesterday's match it's evident that'd we finish 2nd at worst in the 2nd league 6A league in the state, which makes me feel like it's truly state title or bust. Don't worry, I'm not telling the team that. It's a long season and we're taking it a match at a time. I don't want them getting the impression that if we somehow don't go all the way we've failed, because stuff can happen. But after the covid years and knowing this is easily the best girls team the school has ever had (and they've won 5 state titles since 1980) -- I've had dozens of people tell me this -- I feel like we need a banner hanging to validate the past 3 years of work and recognize this team forever. Back at it in a week.