The Game

Coach Evan is here with his unique take on playing groundstroke points. Word over to Evan. Check out his other posts here.

Playing Groundstroke Points by Evan Gaudreau

The grey sky hid the sun. It was sixty-five degrees, and there was a five-mile-hour wind blowing. Perfect tennis weather.
“Do you want to play a twenty-one?” Noah asked after warm-ups.
“Sure,” Mike said, but he really didn’t want to.
Twenty-Ones were getting boring.

As he walked back to the baseline, Mike thought about starting the game off playing cross courts only and not worrying about what Noah would do. He wanted to think as little as possible and play as simply as possible.
After trading the first six points, Mike built a slight lead.
The score was 7-3.
If it had been 5-5, he would have continued playing the simple cross-court strategy. As he walked back to pick up a ball at the fence, he thought about switching to a quicker pattern. He planned to move every second ball for the following five points and see where that would get him.
He won 4 out of the five points, stretching the lead.
11-4.

He continued the open pattern for a few more points. They traded three points apiece.
Pawn vs pawn, Mike thought.
14-7.
Mike played conservatively and consistently for the remainder of the game and rode out the game with very few mistakes, trading seven points each.
21-14
Once the game ended, they walked over to their bags.

Playing not to lose

“You didn’t miss much,” Noah said. “Especially towards the end. I had a hard time getting into the points.”
Mike shrugged.
“Groundstroke games are boring, dude. The last half of the points I was playing not to lose.”
“But you won the game.”
“Sometimes winning is not everything.”
Noah looked confused.

“Let’s say for the next few months, I keep playing conservatively and winning a lot more groundstroke games. And I do it playing not to lose. Well, I’m going to think it will work all the time, and when I play sets, I’ll carry over that same mentality. But sets are a lot different than groundstroke games.”
“How so?”
“I used to remember going toe to toe with players during groundstroke games, probably going 50-50 in a lot of them and then wiping the player out in sets because their serve stunk or they were pushing the return back, and I would serve and volley the weak return.”
Mike took a sip of his Yeti. Then he went into his bag and pulled out a tube of liquid-IV and poured the powder into a separate water bottle.
“I played consistently at the end to show you winning by playing not to lose can block your game from going forward. Yes, I won, but what did I get out of it.”
He shook the water bottle, mixed the powder with the water, opened the cap, and took a sip.
“Lemon-Lime?” Noah asked.
Mike laughed.
“Yup. That’s all Costco had on the shelf.”
“Lemon-lime or Strawberry.”
“Ya. Their website has tons of options, though. Just don’t buy the Guava flavor. It was nasty.”
They both took a sip of their water bottles.

Two gameplans

“What should I be doing during the groundstroke games?”
“During twenty-ones?” he said rhetorically. “Start out playing two gameplans. One to start the game and one to finish with. During this game, I just focused on crosscourt points; once I got a lead, I played quicker attacking points and finished you off with consistency.”
Noah stared off, thinking and processing what Mike had said.
“If we play another one, I would work on a three to one combo to start and then hide the quick points in the middle again and potentially work on coming into the net.”
“So, I take it we’re not playing another one.”
“Nope. But we’ll change the point format.”
“Like play to 11?”
“No. 7 and 11’s are shooter games. Quick start, then ride it out…there’s not much game-planning in those.”
Mike played a lot of “shooter” games growing up on the court. Most of the time, they were in clinics, and most of the time, they were to keep the clinic moving and rotate the players around so Joey or Jimmy could say they played with whomever the better players were. Just another clinic trick.

Shooter games were more emotional-based too. Like anything quick and easy, like giving a kid a snack every time he whined. Those games focused more on winning than getting an opportunity to switch up gameplans and work on patterns.
Many players fell into the trap of winning being the goal.
They didn’t understand that winning was a by-product of game planning.

Gameplans…not shooters

“During most 21’s, you can play three types of gameplans…during shooters, it's hard because if the score is at 7-7 or 8-8, you're more focused on winning or losing than working on anything. They only work if you take winning and losing out of the equation, pretend you were playing a twenty-one, focus on one pattern, and keep getting more reps on that pattern.”
Noah let it soak in.
“So, what kind of format do you want to use for this game.”
“Regular scoring. 15’s, 30’s, 40’s. In some ways, it’s like a shooter game, but you can’t ride out the game.”
“With Ads?”
“Today, yes.”

Take-aways

Here are a couple of things to think about the next time you go out on the court. I was guilty of playing 21s—a lot of them. I felt like they were part of every hitting session, whether it was the groundstroke version or by serving five each. They work to a certain degree if you work on patterns and combos and aren’t afraid to lose while working on them.

Too many players hit the wall through repetitive practicing. There’s a gap time. If you put the work in and improve the simple stuff, you can get to 10 UTR, but many players hover between 10-12 and never get passed the next wall, which is harder to break through than getting to 10.
Duh!
As if you didn’t know.
If you are a higher-level player, start using more regular-based scoring games to work on actual point structures that will carry over to sets.
But, if you are under 8 UTR, any points will help. You are probably not playing enough points and doing too much technical training.

TN guest contributor, coach and analyst, Evan Gaudreau is back with another one. It's called The Secret of Being Great.

Check out Evan's other pieces here.

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The Secret of Being Great – by Evan Gaudreau

There are certain qualities you need to be successful. Not just on the court but off the court too. Without them, you won't make it. At least not as far as you're dreaming.

Your outside life mirrors your inside life and if you don't understand that, then work on understanding what makes you tick and if you don't understand that, there's no need to read further. Some you can control, some you can't.
To be Frank!
May I be frank?
Who is Frank?
Anyway.

I'm going to start with work ethic. Everybody has some form of this. At the pro level, they have a lot of this. Even at the junior level, they have a lot of this.

It's funny, all the information that's out there and the studies done. The 10,000-hour rule, for example.

Is that all you need to do?
“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
“Practice! Practice! Practice!”
Really? Is that all?

If that were the case, Midtown Manhattan would be flooded with wannabes.

Work ethic is a layup

Work ethic is a layup. We've all heard that before, yet many players or athletes who don't make it to the professional level probably have practiced just as much as the current pros, and in some cases, probably even more.
So, what happened?
Let's shift to Parents.
We can't control that.
But, Parents can have a significant effect on how far you go in life. Is there a right set of parents?
Not really!
Great people and great athletes come from all kinds.
Good and Bad.
Absentee parents, Divorced parents, single parents doing it on their own, but not helicopter parents (maybe…).

What about having brothers and sisters? That can help in some ways, and it can hurt in others.

For instance, I don't mind when my kids fight. I let them hash it out. How else are they going to learn? Sometimes, this can be OK, but if it's the norm (like it has been in my household), it can cause resentments…Between each other. Between the parents. From the parents to the kids.

Now I try to do something different. I'll get to that soon.

Can family have a stake in the game?
Sure.
Strong family.
Strong bonds.

For sure, but it's just another piece that keeps the negativity away. Like Toni Nadal. Rafa says in his book Toni was challenging, sometimes over the top, yet he says neither would be successful without each other…AND the robust and tight family and friends that surround them.
That's rare.
Rafa, with his background, probably would have been successful doing whatever he wanted.

What is success anyway?

If you view success as monetary, you don't get it. Yet, money can go a long way.

But in the end, after you feel empty inside, and your character sucks, drugs and alcohol, or whatever you're into by that point…hopefully you're not Epstein-esqe, the Reaper will come to collect. He always does! Have you never watched Scrooge?

Money can only buy you short-term success. It's a cheat code that makes you feel like a cheat at the end of the day.

Just ask Lance Armstrong. About cheating, not about money. He worked his butt off. When he was winning the Tour De France, I watched every minute. And I don't care about the EPO, because he was just evening the playing field…like playing a cheater in tennis. Isn't it only fair to make the court on your side the same size as the court on the cheaters said?
Half-joking, but if you make bad calls VS me, be prepared. Kidding!

Funny story

In college, I was playing a match in which the other player was cheating…A lot! We had won the doubles point and were up a set in most of the singles matches. My Coach walks over on the changeover and said,

“Hey. You're hitting good shots and he's calling them out. That last shot was in.”
“I know,” I said. “He's been doing that the whole time.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“What can I do?”
“Win. Do what you have to do.”
“We're going to win the match. If I lose, I don't care. The team is going to win.”
“You should care,” he said and walked away.

At the changeover, I was down a set and 1-4. What the coach said to me ignited something in me, and I started to work for every point. I was able to get it to a tiebreaker, and at 3-2 me, my opponent was serving.
He hit his first serve. I called it out. It had hit the line. Actually, it was inside the line.
He never said a word and got ready to hit his second serve.
What I did next, I'm not proud of but…
He hit a second serve kick that landed in the middle of the box. I caught it with my left hand and said, “OUT.”
4-2.
I yelled over to the roamer (umpire) who was two courts away.
“I need a line judge over here!”
He was pissed and put up a fuss over the call. I just let him get worked up and tried to stay focused.
I won the following 3 points.

At this point, the match was already clinched. So, we played a breaker for the third also. I won that too.
Oddly, he wouldn't shake my hand after. I didn't care. But I walked in his direction and said,
“So, it's OK for you to hook me 6-8 times, and I take one back, and it's not OK.”
His teammates were blocking me.
“Have fun on the ride back,” I added. “Don't kill anybody,” I added for good measure.

I was a kid. I had a lot more maturing to do and lessons to teach.

Creativity

Let's talk about creativity. Do you need it?
Maybe when it comes to workouts and training sessions.
That's more of an intangible.
But it does help a little.

Do you need a cerebral brain?

Like Medvedev? Or Djokovic? It helps, but unless you want to be #1 it is not entirely necessary. Usually, these players think and plod their way through matches. They can't live on their skill set alone.

Circumstance

Circumstance can play a role. I would have never played tennis if it wasn't for two things. My neighbor, who played 4-5 days a week, needed a hitting partner and there was an indoor tennis club built five minutes from my house.

It also helped that I could do “errands” at the club for free court time because my parents were blue-collar. And tennis isn't cheap. I'm like a usurper. Mucking it up with the mucky-mucks.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone wrote a book on How to become an 11 or 12 UTR without a coach? Wink. Wink. Hint. Hint.

Parents, coaches and mentors

Coaches and Mentors play a big role.

Think Brooksby. He has that in one guy throughout his tennis life, which worked out OK.
Oh Yeah! And Nadal.

Parent/player combos don't seem to work too well.

The parents being involved help also…when they know when to back off when it relates to things they don't know about.
(This is a huge factor. Parents who can't let go, can hold the player back. Especially when they brainwash the kid into thinking Mommy and Daddy know best. Sometimes they do).

(Same for the pros. Picking a pro isn't easy. Like I said, there are a lot of charlatans out there).

Compassion

Do You have it and does your kid have it? If you answered no, how can you get it? Maybe you can learn it from the back of a Fruit Loops box.

Do you know what bothers me? I wish I had learned that a long time ago, not necessarily for me, but to be able to teach my kids. And I'm still working on that.

Do you know what else bothers me? They still haven't found the Oak Island Treasure. They keep stringing us along. So annoying! Right?

Humility

I want to etch this word into a wood board and smash it with a hammer. Not really!

Humility is tough. Growing up, I hated to lose, even in board games. It would ruin my day until my neighbor and I controlled the $$ in Monopoly. One of us would be the banker and “sneak” a hundy here and a 5 spot there. It was no surprise we would be the last two standing. The Devil made me do it.

Man! This was a tough one. To learn it was OK to lose and have fun. Fun to me was winning. I actually had to teach myself how to lose and it was agonizing.

I'm reaching my word limit.

This next one is hard to write. I feel like Jim Carrey in “Liar. Liar” when he can't tell lies and he chokes himself jokingly.

Love, Unconditional Love.

Too much of anything can be a bad thing. Not enough can be a death sentence.

Without it, Good luck! All the stars have to align and you need plenty of $$$ to overcome…but like I will echo, it comes with a cost. You pass on your crappy-ness to your kids or your friends and the cycle repeats itself, like every July 25 when I put a used toilet in my buddy's backyard while he's at work. That's more of a tradition, I guess.

The last thing, and I probably missed a couple of minor things, that I will end with is Hugs.

Hugs

Seriously!
My family is not Huggers.
No way.

Yet, it has been brought to my attention that that is weird. Comedians joke about it, but I'm sure they understand it. I thought this last one was a joke…but the joke was on me. At first, it was weird to hug, everyday….man!
Get away from me…creeper.

But I was surprised…something so simple and easy…You can call it intangible if you want. It's not like you can say, “If I was hugged more, I would have been pro.” That's cuckoo!

Here's the deal! There's not one thing! There are multiple. And I'm sure you can add a thing or two I missed…

But here's the real DEAL.

Tiger Woods is about to Tee off at the Masters, and I need to go.

Good morning, good afternoon, and Good Night!

Evan is back with his new take on the second serve. He calls it “Change is on the horizon.” Let me know what you think about in the comments below.

Look in the distance. Can you see it? Something’s coming. Can you feel it? Probably not. It’s going to pass you by if you’re not paying attention. Change is on the horizon.

What is it? It’s a big wave. A wave full of knowledge but if you can’t see it or feel it, you will be crushed and washed away with your dogmatic thoughts. I first felt the wave when I read pieces by Craig O Shannessy, The brain. The Shaunmeister. Shaunny Shaunnington. Two Shauns don’t make a right.

Yes they do. Second serves are disappearing. Kick serves hold less value. Don’t you agree? I watched a match last week between Marton Fucsovics and Nikoloz Basilashvili. They’re second serves held no value during the match. Every time there was a second serve, the other guy was licking his chops. And the stat line showed.

During the rallies, there was a problem I noticed with location that I will touch on another time. So, I watched Shapovalov also. Huge second serves, which is why he holds a lot easier. Yes, with some double faults mixed in. If you’re going to win only 20% of your second serve points, why not go a little bigger.

Go big, or go home?

You know who taught me this? A student. He got sick of me ramming his second serve down his throat, so he started sneaking in bigger second serves. And he caught me.

“Now, Come on,” I said as I shook my head. “That’s B.S.” He laughed.

But over time it worked a lot more and then all of a sudden, I had to be more alert on the return. I had to wake up from my cloud, and actually get ready to return instead of sleeping on the second serves. I watched Ivashka. Same theory. I watched Felix, FAA. Same theory. The young guys get it.The announcers don’t. They think the players have weak second serves, so they have to go for two firsts. Or they question the strategy. It’s hilarious. They don’t see the change coming.

You know who else doesn’t? Coaches. College coaches. Junior coaches. Parents.

You see, the parents go to the tournaments. They come back and tell the coach what happen. Lots of double faults. So, the coaches work on crappy, consistent, second serves for the next five years and the kid is no better off than five years ago.
Really, the player should be hitting more buckets of serves anyway. But when they’re so wrapped up on technique and emotion, good luck. Shannessy said, stop hitting 100s of crosscourts a while ago, yet you’re still doing them. Why?

The Wizard of Oz

Because you are the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. Which brings me to an important song that just popped into my head. Take a listen.

“The Trolls go marching one by one hurrah hurrah
The Trolls go marching one by one hurrah hurrah
The Trolls go marching one by one
The little one stopped to suck his thumb
And they all go marching down into the ground
To get out of the rain.”

Don’t be a troll! Don’t fear change. If you do, you’re the teacher we laugh at for not “getting with the times.”
I don’t follow Craig O Shannessy verbatim. I don’t follow anyone verbatim. Everyone tells me I march to a beat of a different drum. I don’t know if I do. I just don’t listen and follow the leader as much. I always lost at that game. These words may make sense, they might not. Never believe anything 100%. Unless someone asks you, “What’s one plus one?” There’s a fact.

It’s funny. The hoarding of knowledge. This is why the game of tennis is not progressing. Look at knowledge as money and you will see that the top guys have it and the rest don’t. We’re all dinosaurs. Most of us anyway. Change the way you train. Use your brain. Beware of youtube. Cut the baseline into pieces and work on combos. At least that will get you started.

Don't Fear Change.

Don’t fear change. My style as a player has changed since I was a kid and my coaching has changed every few years, adapting to the game. Just don’t fall into the trapdoor of no-ad scoring. No REAL player would ever want that. The people who advocate for that are Charlatans. Phony’s. A scoring system that stops using the brain and adds luck to the element.

Buddy! In your heart of hearts, you know it is wrong. I’m going to send Homey the Clown after you. Look Homey up on youtube. You might learn something.

Last thought. I remember being in Florida, watching a few futures tournaments. Two fifteen-year-olds caught my attention. They played different. More like the pro game. One boy was Denis Shapovalov. I wrote his name down in my phone. We know what happened to him. Another boy was Patrick Kypson.

Let me tell you, I liked Patrick’s game and fearlessness just as much as Shapovalov’s. I watched him knock of seasoned college players. He had the look in his eyes also. The warrior. I wrote his name down too. I followed his tourneys and saw him rise. He even won Kalamazoo and got a wild card into the US Open.

New coach, new form

I went to the Open that day to show a buddy about this young kid who might light it up also. But as I watched the match, I didn’t see the same look in his eyes. He looked unsettled. Unsure. It pissed me off. I thought, “What happened to him. He’s still solid, but he wouldn’t pull the trigger.”

He didn’t have that warrior look. He was turned into a machine, like jack Nicholson in ‘One flew over the cuckoos nest.’
Then I thought about myself at his age and all the coaches trying to program me to be a system guy. The coaches didn’t know what to do with me. I had too many options.

The funny thing is Patrick went on to play a year in college and he did something that made me laugh on youtube at the end of a match. Why did I laugh? I would have done the same thing. Look. My hope is to see him break through He’s still grinding, but time is running out. Do you think Denis can win a major? Not in his current form, right? Keep an eye on his change this year. New coach. What’s he going to do? I have an idea.

-Evan The Meathead