Thursday Bracketology

Bracketology, the study of the bracket. Look at the Sectional bracket. The big question in breaking down this bracket is, which match do you want to draw? There are three distinct match possibilities.

1. "The Play-In Game"

The PIG has some awesome advantages, while at the same time, it offers some real nightmares.

Advantages first: You get to start playing. While the other three teams practice and wait, you get to get the Sectional started two days early. Playing in the first game, you have a chance to get the jitters out of the way and get some momentum going with a win. If you win the PIG, you won't be playing your first Sectional match on Saturday morning, and your opponent will. Another advantage is if you are the underdog, your opponent may arrive at the Thursday match less prepared to take you seriously.

Disadvantages: You could end too soon. If you win the PIG, everything is roses. If you lose, everything is that much more bleak. When you begin your season, nobody sees it ending on a Thursday night. At worst, they imagine losing in that Saturday round of Sectional. Losing on Thursday night makes the season end too abruptly. You are back at school the next day, feeling like you should have practice but having nowhere to go. In addition, if you are an underclassman and lose the PIG, you don't get the experience of Sectional Saturday, which is something to be figured out in and of itself.

Bethany History in the PIG: Since I've coached at Bethany, we've only played on Thursday night once, when we defeated the heavily favored Falcons of Fairfield, 3-2, in one of my top 5 favorite matches ever. So, the Bruins have a nice history in the PIG match.

2. "The Predetermined Semifinal"

This match pits too teams together who drew each other straight in the blue-bottle draw. From Selection Monday and on through the week, you know who you are playing and what you are up against.

Advantages: The main advantage of this match is knowledge. And this knowledge can lead you to preparation. In 2006, we drew NorthWood in this matchup, and we had to get the doubles prepared to attack and worked consistently with Luke trying to get him ready to face a player who hits every shot back. In 2005, we drew Jimtown in this match, and we knew we had to take the lower positions and so we drilled hard to get them ready to attack. Last year, we drew Fairfield and tried to prepare everyone with a style of play that would suit their opponent.

Disadvantages: You have to think about it all week. You know who you are playing, you know your previous result against them, and it is hard to not let that get in your head over a long 5 days. When we beat Fairfield 5-0, we thought about it all week and came out to play unprepared and complacent. When we lost to Fairfield last year 4-1, we thought about our losses and weren't quite ready at some positions to be aggressive. The worry can drive you nuts. No worry this year, just play!

Bethany History in The Predetermined Semifinal": Besides the Fairfield PIG match, we have always been drawn into this match. That's 6 times since I've been coaching. In 2003 we lost to Goshen, 2004 and 2005 were to Jimtown, and 2006 to NorthWood. In 2008 and 2009 we split first round matchups with Fairfield. So that makes 1-5 in these matches, so, naturally, I'm not really excited to be drawn here.

3. "The Undetermined Semifinal"

This matchup pits the winner of the PIG against a team that just sits there and waits to know its opponent.

Advantages: You can focus on you. The whole week, you don't have to worry about who you play, just how to get better. You can fine-tune your game so that you are ready to play your best. However, you also get involved in the spirit of the Sectional a bit earlier. In other words, if I was in this match I would go to the PIG and watch the teams play (after practice of course). That would get me mentally involved in the Sectional at least, with energy for the matchup on Saturday.

Disadvantages: The uncertainty. I think that is the big thing, you just don't know who you are playing (although you can usually guess).

Bethany History in "The Undetermined Semifinal": Since I've been coaching, we've never been drawn into this spot.

Summary

So where would I want to be drawn? Well, the optimal in my opinion is to be drawn into the PIG against a team you can beat. I like getting the Sectional underway, I like playing, I like getting the momentum going. Plus, we don't have a great history in the others, though we did win the Sectional from the "Predetermined Semi."

What do you think? What draw would you have liked? What are you hoping for this year? Does it not matter at all?

Thursday Bracketology

College basketball celebrates the fruit of its Selection Sunday, beginning today. The tournament is my most favorite Thursday of the year, although if we are drawn into the Thursday round of Sectional, that would be a close second. I love the intrigue that the brackets give, the hope of seeing a name you love on the final line, indicating them as champions. So, in honor of the NCAA Tournament, Selection Sunday, and the upcoming tourney weekend, I'm offering an inside view today of the Sectional selection process.

First of all, the site of the selection has changed in my years of coaching. When the Sectional was hosted at NorthWood, we would meet in a classroom at NorthWood High School. We would all slide into student desks and it felt really odd. I would pull out my roster and feel like I should be prepared to take notes. But there was really only one thing to write down, the outcome of the brackets. It was a strange and uncomfortable feeling, as I was nervous, inexperienced and I didn't know the other coaches all that well.

Now, I'm more relaxed, and the tournament selection site has changed. We now meet in a back conference room at Goshen High School, and that feels like a more appropriate place. All important decisions are made around conference tables right? In a dimly lit back room? Well, that's the way I imagine it.

The first part of the process is formalities, we have to make sure everybody's Sectional roster is right. The roster you submit is the roster you must play, unless an injury occurs, so it is essential to have everything figured out. This can be nerve-wracking of course. Last year, I had a bit of a dilemma. To beat Jimtown in the Sectional, we needed to have a strong singles lineup, because we had to win #2 singles to take the match. To beat Fairfield, we needed to have a strong doubles showing, because we probably needed to take both doubles matches to give ourselves the best shot. So I toyed around with different ideas to strengthen our doubles, moving Ben or Seth down to play at one of the doubles positions, hoping the other would win #1 singles... I probably wrote down 8 or 9 different lineups without even talking to any of the players. Then I decided that our best bet was to stick with what we had and hope that Jimtown and Fairfield drew each other in the first round. But in confirming your lineup, it feels like a big decision, and so you want to make sure you've examined every possibility.

And of course, you get to see the other lineups that the coaches are playing. Usually, these are fairly predictable, the lineups that they've been playing all year long. Sometimes, however, there are small changes. One year, Jimtown had suspended their #3 singles player, and it gave a glimmer of hope to us when we drew them. In fact, we ended up defeating them at that position, but couldn't pull together 2 other wins. I've often wanted to write a new name down at #1 singles, like Pete Sampras Jr. and tell all the other coaches that we just had a new transfer, just to see the reaction.

After lineups are exchanged and confirmed, the draw proceeds. The bracket is like the one above, and each team has a little ball with a number on it assigned to them. We are always #1, because they number the balls and the teams alphabetically. They put all the numbered balls into a little blue bottle, shake it up, and pour one number out into the hosting AD's hand. Whatever number it is goes on the top line of the bracket, and we proceed from top to bottom. First two teams out go against each other on Saturday morning, next two on Thursday night, and the last team waits to take on the winner of the Thursday round.

This is a nerve-wracking time, you know? I'll admit, when I'm sitting there, there are teams that I want to play and teams that I don't want to play. Last year, I was hoping to not have to play Fairfield in the first round. I was hoping for a draw that let us advance to the Sectional Final, so that even if we lost, we'd have a little taste of what playing for the title is like. In my early years of coaching, I always wanted to avoid the best teams early, because I didn't want to get blown away to end the season. But all you can do is bite your fingernails and pray. And even then it doesn't always come out like you want.

But, of course, you cannot react when your name and opponent are announced. I wanted to grimace last year when I saw us and then Fairfield. But instead, I just nodded my head like "yep, we're going to take them down." It is difficult to not let your emotions show, like in a class where you are getting a new seating chart and you seated next to the stinky kid who has Team Sports first period and never showers. You are trying to be nice.

The other funny thing is how my brain starts working on strategy right away. As soon as the AD says "line one Bethany, and they will be taking on... Fairfield," my mind starts going, "okay, now we really got to get Seth to attack Wyatt and get to the net. We can probably count on Ben defeated Malachi again, I don't know what Blake will be able to do at #3. Can #1 doubles play out of their minds and win? We should probably throw lots of different looks at them..." And on and on. Immediately, and then for the rest of the week, I think and think and think and torture myself.

The other thing about "Selection Monday"? I get to come tell all of you the results of the process after you've made your Night Out videos. Then, we get to be excited and nervous together.

You know the other thing we could be this year, other than excited and nervous? We can be confident. Confidence is simply knowing that we've worked as hard as we could throughout the season, and now we get to show that. I think that will happen too. It usually has before.

Thursday Rant

First off, let me say that more than angry rants, this is a day for me to talk about anything that I want. I started off this sequence last year, and I had things that I was angry about, so I called it "Thursday Rants." Now, I'm a generally happy guy with nothing to get bent out of shape over, so...

Today we're going to look at some predictors. I've done lots of interesting research over the past two weeks, looking for trends, patterns, formulas, predictors, all sorts of fun things. I was inspired by an old cartoon, but then the numbers themselves became a lot of fun.

For today, let's look at a stat that will tell us what our most difficult matches will be next year. Early in my posting season, I ranked the opponents we will play from hardest to easiest. That was before I found a way of predicting the most difficult matches. Let's see how my list matches up with this predicting statistic.

In my "eye test" ranking, I predicted the 5 most difficult matches next year would be:
1. Northridge
2. Fairfield
3. Concord
4. Westview
5. Goshen

So, that was just by looking at scores, seeing them play, knowing their coaches, predicting ability jumps, etc. Now, during the past two weeks I've worked on various patterns to see whether or not I could find one that gave some indication of what the most difficult matches would be. After going through many different ideas, here is the best one I came up with.

Whoever has the higher amount of players who won against that given opponent returning will win the following year's match.

Let me give you an example using Triton. From last year's match vs. Triton...
- We return: Ben Mast (L - #1S), Seth Krabill (W - #2S), Kyle Miller (W-#1D), Russell Klassen (L-#2D)
- They return: Jeff Ross (L-#3S), Josh Shafer (W - #2D)

If you assign a point for every winning singles player returning, and half a point for every winning doubles player returning, you get this score: Bethany - 1.5, Triton - 0.5. This would give Bethany a +1 in the stat. I'll call this calculation the "Winners Returning Stat" or the "WRS." So for the Triton match this coming year we will have a "+1 WRS."

Over the past five years, whoever wins this simple calculation wins the match 97.6%. It has only not held true once, when we defeated NorthWood in 2008 despite having a 2.5-2 disadvantage in the WRS. And many would tell you that this was one of our great matches, where we played the best, over the past 5 years.

This also tells us that this stat is not fool-proof. A team that works hard can overcome any deficit in the WRS. But it is a good indicator of what matches we will need to be ready for.

So I'm sure you are wondering by now, what are the WRS's for next year's varsity opponents? Well, here are the top 5 most difficult...

1. Northridge (-1 WRS)
1. Fairfield (-1 WRS)
1. Concord (-1 WRS)
4. Westview (-0.5 WRS)
5. Eastern (0.0 WRS)

So the only difference between my "eye test" ratings and the WRS is at #5, where Eastern replaces Goshen. We can also see that none of the WRS's are unbelievably difficult. For example, last year we had a -2 WRS against both Fairfield and Concord. We have no -2's this year. (As a side note, in 2008 we had a -2 against Concord and still almost won!)

By contrast, on the other side of things, we have five matches where we have a +3 WRS. Those matches are Mishawaka, Fremont, Laville, Prairie Heights, NorthWood and Bremen.

So, make of that what you want. This is what I'll make of it. There are still opponents that we need to work harder than. And if (or when) we defeat them, it will be a sweet cause for celebration!

Thursday Rant

Spring is about to pop up again, the courts will dry, the sun will come out and we will play. This fresh restart has me filled with hope.

This past tennis year has been crazy. From graduating 8 seniors, putting together an entirely new lineup, an exhausting and rainy tennis camp, making a 10-2 start to the season, losing a member of the team to suspension, losing Sectionals, the work ethic of many of you getting into lessons, finding out about stupid decisions, recruiting new members to the team...

There's a lot that has gone on in the past year for me as a coach, stuff that I've never had to deal with before. And honestly, I don't always know how well I've dealt with it. I'm always concerned about doing the right thing that will help people learn from mistakes and mature, both in their tennis game and in their faith. I don't know how well that gets accomplished at times.

But my point is, despite these challenges, you know how I feel right now. With 120 days left until the season begins with our first practice...

I am feeling unbelievably hopeful.

The thought that keeps running through my mind is that we have an unbelievable opportunity coming this year. In many ways. I hope that we can take advantage of them. I think that we will. Think about what we have been given...

- 5 returning players with significant varsity experience
- A number of heartbreaking loss to give us that sting we don't want to feel again
- Because of those losses, we have motivation to work hard in the offseason and summer
- We have motivation to work together as a team to accomplish a goal
- We've made mistakes in the past year, and can mature and learn from them
- We'll have plenty of fresh faces to lighten things up and push us forward
- The sun is coming back out and we can play outside again!

I'm sure that you could list more blessings that have fallen on this program. I pray that we are preparing for a new year, a new team, a new focus. And I pray that we can all strive forward for the things that we hope for.

Thursday Rants

I like to know what is going on in your lives, I like to feel like I make a difference for my players. During the season, I have a real sense of connectedness to all my players. I know who is dating who, who is struggling with their parents, who is struggling with their tennis, and all sorts of other fun stuff that I hear on the bus rides and don't tell you that I know.

During the offseason though, there is a weird disconnect. The only students that I get to know are middle schoolers, which is cool, but I enjoy the depth at which I can talk to high school students. Some of you come to weight lifting workouts (just find me after school if you are interested) and we continue to talk that way, but some of you play other sports, are in the plays and musicals, do other things with your time, and I feel like I have to go through a mini-process of getting to know you again whenever the season starts or camp begins.

So, my rant is against the offseason. It isn't as fun as the season. Do you agree? What do you hate about the offseason?

Thursday Rants

A response to Emma Gerig's Reflector article "Under Pressure"

2 Peter 1:5-8

"Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Emma's article the other day really made me think. First of all, I believe that she is right. Most teenagers hate conforming to what adults want them to do. And my first response to the article was anger. As an adult who cares about the teenagers I interact with, I don't ask them to do things for no reason. I ask them to do things, to be things, to believe certain things because I know those things will be for their good. And it drives me nuts when no one listens.

Recently, I have noticed that maturity has a lot to do with rebellion. That is the same solution that Emma came to in her article (nice job, Emma!) Except, I think that very few people actually talk about the maturity process. And so, with the lead from Emma, here's a view of that process.

The verses that start this post is where I ground my view of the maturation process. This first begins when we decide that we are truly committed to goodness, rather than, say, selfishness. A huge first step in the maturation process is deciding to seek the good in a situation rather than whatever you want. That means that even if the best solution came from someone else, you take that solution.

This is a step that many of the students I see here at Bethany never take. Often in Bible classes, I will assign a group project. I like students to start to understand what it takes to work together. I hate group projects in middle school however. Because students have just barely begun the maturation process, most of them only want to do their ideas. So, the group process becomes a fight. Everyone likes their idea the best. And the winner is usually the one who complains longest and loudest that they want to do their idea. So it has nothing to do with who has the best idea, it is all about who is the most selfish!

In a team situation like tennis, I also see this difficulty in the maturation process. Many people can only think of their own success, and have difficulty realizing what might be good for the team. Players in tennis become obsessed with their position, whether they like playing singles or doubles, whether they should have another chance to play a higher ranked teammate, etc. They forget to think about what might be best, what might be good, for the team. This shows a lack of maturity.

After I process these selfish actions, they cease to make me angry. I realize they are part of the maturation that we all go through. Like Emma pointed out, I had to go through them as well. I simply think that it is important to start thinking about our actions, and attempting to move through the maturity process.

Maturing takes action. It doesn't just happen. Ever met a 35 year old who is still as selfish as a teenager. Chances are they've never given their maturity any thought. Any teenager's natural instinct may be to rebel, to not listen, to do what they want regardless of the consequences. And this won't just naturally change as you get older. So I encourage those who read this to begin to contemplate your actions, begin to mature. Begin to add the qualities mentioned in 2 Peter to your life in increasing measure.

Seek the good.
Seek knowledge.
Seek self-control.
Persevere.
Seek godliness.
Show kindness to all.
Show love to all.

As you do, you will grow, both in faith and in life.

Thursday Rants

Again, I'm a day behind on all these posts. Sorry to avid followers of the blog.

I've been avoiding this post for a long time, but it's time to come clean:

I don't like competing with soccer for athletes.

Yep, okay, if you know me, you know that I'm not a big fan of conflict. And so I hate entering into these conversations with students who are torn between soccer or tennis. I know that they'd have more fun on the tennis team (:-) But I find it really hard to put any real pressure on them. The truth is, I'd really like to have another big class of incoming freshman athletes for the tennis team.

The truth about tennis is that it is about the third or fourth most important sport at many northern Indiana schools in the fall. It definitely falls behind football and soccer, and at some schools even cross-country is more important. But there are some advantages to this for the Bethany Christian tennis team.

The main advantage is that it allows us to stay competitive with the much bigger schools. Because the best athletes at big schools play football and soccer, the playing field is leveled a bit. Tennis programs have less people to choose from, because so many are playing other sports.

So what it takes to be successful in tennis here at Bethany is easy. It takes one class of athletes to decide they all want to play tennis and want to work at it together. That's why our 2008 team was so successful. 11 people went out for tennis in the 2008-2009 senior class, and by their senior year 8 were still on the team. That allowed for 8 people to go out on a Sunday afternoon to play tennis leisurely during the summer, 8 people to come to open courts and challenge each other, 8 people to encourage one another, and so on and so on. What ended up happening is that they pushed each other right to a Sectional title.

We have talented players this coming season. We just don't have the depth in any one class. And so it is hard for the whole group to get together and push each other to greatness. I hope we do anyways.

But, we need that one big class again. I would love to see a whole class of student-athletes decide for tennis. Tennis camps would be a blast, practices would be a lot of fun, leaders would emerge, tennis videos would be awesome - okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. But we would definitely continue to compete for Sectional titles, and that would be awesome. We want to keep up this tradition.

And so 8th graders, I'm looking at you!

TR #1: Affirmation

Back again are Thursday Rants, things that I am passionate about. Usually, these pertain to tennis. Not always.

I crave affirmation. Here on this website, I feel affirmed when people leave comments. In my classroom, I feel affirmed when people confirm that they have learned something new or had fun. At home, I am affirmed by a hug from my son or an "I love you" from my wife. At church, I am affirmed when someone doesn't sleep through my sermon, or (rarely) takes notes!

When I don't feel affirmation, I'll tell you what I do: I quit.

That's what happened to this website. I was really stressed, had a lot of things on my plate, and nobody seemed to be interested in what I was writing on this website. So I stopped writing. It also happens during the tennis offseason. I get really excited about all the possibilities for open courts, tournaments, taking lessons, assessing strengths and weaknesses. But if no one else gets excited, these things don't happen. I could track a million other things like this in my classroom, home, church, and on and on.

If no one else cares, then I have trouble caring.

I say this not as a way to get a flood of comments (though it would be cool), but instead because I'm ashamed. Well, ashamed is too strong of a word, but I hate the fact that I need affirmation. Well, hate is a strong word too.

What I do not understand is why I can't just do something because it is the right thing to do. In other words, having an open court every Monday morning at 6:30 so we can continue to serve throughout the winter is the right thing to do. It is how we will get better. Even if no one shows up, why don't I just do it? Or having weight-lifting after school so we can grow stronger and can compete with big hitters like Wyatt Stutzman or Steve Blinco and others, that's the right thing to do. Why don't I continue to do it even if varsity players never come?

I want to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing.

So maybe this rant is just aimed at myself. I need to get over my fear, and simply do the right thing.

With that in mind, tomorrow we'll move on to the right question.

How about any of you? Feel like you have trouble doing the right thing, putting in the work, making the sacrifice if no one else is willing to? How do you deal with that?

Thursday Rant: No Nets!

TR #10: No Nets!

Okay, so that picture is a sweet tennis court somewhere. But there is one problem. No one can play because there is no net.

And we have that problem all the time in northern Indiana. Because the snow gets on the courts, and the wind is cold and harsh, and the freezing and thawing ruins the nets; for all of these reasons and more, most courts take their nets down for the winter.

While I understand this, it drives me nuts at the same time. For example, we played tennis on Tuesday and it was only 30 degrees outside. While it wasn't the most pleasant experience ever, it wasn't really all that bad once we got moving. And most of us weren't even wearing gloves. So if it had gotten down to temperatures of 25 degrees, we probably could have still hit.

But all winter in Indiana, that option is pretty much closed off to tennis players. This forces us indoors where only those who are willing and able to pay money or get up early in the morning to use the gymnasium are able to play.

I want to see the nets stay up. Or put not as nice nets up. Or whatever. But allow us to play even when it is freezing cold. Why? Because then tennis becomes about dedication. Then it's about who will persevere. Completely.

And I think that the team that is willing to sacrifice the most should get that opportunity, and not be denied because there are no nets.

Thursday Rant: Winter

Thursday Rant #9: End of Winter Please

I'm tired of winter. Let's go play tennis outside. I looked at the weather next week. It's supposed to be 40 degrees on Tuesday and Thursday, and sunny. I say we go play tennis on Tuesday and Thursday. Anybody with me?

Thursday Rant: Morning People

TR #8: Morning People

I am a morning person. I love getting up before the dawn to welcome it. I know many of you are morning people, because I see your bright, shining faces each morning before school in the hallway .

But seriously, I think that most people are most productive in the mid morning. I mean, my best classes of the day are second through fourth period, all before lunch (not so close that people are getting hungry) but yet not right after people get up and get here to school. ISTEPs are usually scheduled for the morning because people begin to lose focus in the afternoon. In middle school, we have our core classes in the morning, the "important" ones.

What's interesting is that sports is never given this time period, to practice or to play. And when it is (summer two-a-days), you guys usually get up right before practice then sleepily yawn through the first hour of practice (not that I blame you, it is the end of summer).

Wouldn't it be awesome if sports practices could somehow be moved within the school day? Like, you get up and come to school, first period you have Pre-Calculus, then second and third period is Tennis, then fourth period is English, etc., etc. Think of what a great break that would be! Think of the productivity of that tennis time, the energy boost it would give to the rest of your schedule!

It would be awesome!

Or not.

Just an idea. With the school changing schedules a bit next year, maybe I'll suggest it!

Thursday Rant: Concession Stands

TR #7: Concession Stands

Tennis team has concession stand duty again tonight, so I thought I'd post some thoughts on that...

Things I Love About Working the Concession Stand
- Money for the tennis program
- Seeing people I know from the Bethany community
- Free handfuls of popcorn
- Free leftover pizza
- Free leftover hotdogs
- Spending all night with sweaty tennis team members
- Russell teasing the police man

Things I "Dislike" About Working the Concession Stand
- Making pretzels with cheese (too much time)
- Making nachos with cheese (don't like plastic gloves)
- Running out of quarters
- The night away from my wife and son
- Trying to find people who are willing to work
- Spending the night around all the food, not being able to eat anything
- The incredible heat in the concession stand
- Not being able to watch the game
- The burns from the popcorn popper
- The oil from the popcorn popper
- Cleaning the cheese dish

Short and simple, what do you all think about the old concession duty?

Thursday Rant: Three Types of People

TR #6: Three Types of People

After sharing a series of sexuality chapels this week, I've been thinking about how it will impact the student body. Who will take things to heart? Who will actually change? What will sink in? What will people believe and then do?

These are similar questions to the ones that I have any time that I offer coaching advice or direction. What will you believe? Will you be able to change?

In thinking about this, I've come up with a theory. It's not a real worked out theory, but it is one that I see a lot of truth in. When it comes to advice, help, coaching and the like, there are three types of people in the world.

#1: Those who think and process.
When given coaching or advice, the first type of person thinks about what is said to them. Usually, they will then try to put the advice into practice. The important part about this person isn't whether they do what they are told, but why they do or don't do it. If you ask this person, they could tell you why they, for example, hit their forehand with a semi-western grip instead of a full western grip. Or, they could tell you why they believe that war is wrong. These people are full of ideas and process new ideas well.

As a consequence, they sometimes will escape the experiences that could cause them harm. This is because they have processed their decisions all the way through what the consequences will be. Often, others will look at this type of person and complain that they are "goody two-shoes" or something like that, when in reality they are simply thinking and making good decisions.

#2: Those who will have to learn from experience.
The second type of person is one who may listen to advice or coaching but won't necessarily put it into practice. They believe that their own way is right. However, they will change on one condition. They will change when they see their own way fail or bring pain upon themselves. For example, this is the high school athlete who believes it is okay to drink alcohol, as long as they don't get caught. But then when they get caught in their junior year, and are suspended for half the season, they realize they've made a mistake and therefore don't drink during their senior year. This is the tennis player who won't attack the net in doubles because "they aren't comfortable at the net," then loses their first five matches before they decide to change.

This type of person is manageable but frustrating. Seriously frustrating in a team sport where the whole team may have to suffer in order for this person to learn a lesson. It's happened to my tennis teams before, and I'm sure it will happen again. But the change has to come in the thinking and deciding. This person needs help realizing that they could be wrong, and putting into practice others good advice. This type of person also struggles with the "why" question, often not knowing why they do something a certain way but still wanting not to change.

#3: Those who have chosen to never learn.
The last type of person is one that is encountered often in our American society, but I haven't had to deal with as much in my time at Bethany. But we have had a few. This is the person who will not change, who always believes they are right, and who is full of a lot of pride. No matter how many times they are proven wrong, they can't come to admit it. This can often cause them to be confrontational (and even violent) because when pressed with an obvious flaw in their beliefs they will not take time to process it but instead become angry for its being brought up at all.

I've dealt with this type of tennis player before, and the honest truth is you just can't coach them. There is always opportunity to change, but this type of player kills a team. The lack of humility infuriates others, and the continual failure without adjustment infuriates the coach.

So, that happens throughout the world. I know people can change, and prevent themselves a whole lot of hurt in doing so. I've myself gone through a transformation from high school to college until now. I suppose it's part of the maturity process. But it is always better when the maturity starts early.

So who are you?

Thursday Rant: The Australian Open

TR #5: The Australian Open

Well, okay, it's not Australia's fault, but I'm really tired of the Australian Open.

First of all, I hate the blue on blue court.



After playing so well on the green and blue, nothing seems as atheistically pleasing to me as that great combination. The blue on blue makes it difficult for me to watch too, because it all looks so monotone and boring on TV. And you should know that I'm not a fan of the ridiculous courts that team tennis uses, I just want a classy combination of colors. All the all blue does is make the Open look unbearably hot and static.

Secondly, everything seems so out of place. I mean, the players look like they are about to die under the summer sun, and I look outside to see someone slipping on a snow covered sidewalk. It makes the whole thing seem like a dream. I would like the whole world to have to suffer the winter that we're going through, don't tell me that somewhere it is really nice and they get to be outside hitting tennis balls while I play at 6:45 on a gym floor.

Thirdly, the matches are on at really weird times. I mean, they are at normal Australian times, but it is not normal for me. I wish I could stay up through the night, but I can't. I wish I could watch matches as I get ready for work, but I can't.

Lastly, they replay the matches during the day on ESPN Classic. This could be a brilliant solution, except for the bottom line has already shown the score of the match that they are replaying, which makes it not worth watching.

Now, I've got nothing against the Australian Open as a tournament. But as a major? I'm ready for a change. How out the Chicago Open?

For those of you who are fans of the Land Down Under, continue your dedication! To those who like me are watching little of the year's first major and wish for a change well, suck it up and get used to it. Even I realize this blog post won't make the ATP change their majors :-)

Thursday Rant: Poetry Edition

TR #4: In the Bleak Mid-Winter

Under winter's length and reach,
sultry elegance exists in a long line
of woven nets, doubly enforced beneath
a straight white mistress who I've seen
kissed and cursed as the fate of a point,
set, or match hung suspended on her
fickle whims, how the topspin felt
whipped up against her lacy cords.

Drawn unawares to drawn green squares
outlined in baselines and alleys.
Opposed to gym floors with their sliding
bounces, awkward skids and balls rolling
out the door; this ground is dedicated
to opposing players in Prince and Nike
meeting and flipping green and red scorecards,
not turning volleyball nets upside down.

Longingly I gaze through the glass,
watch the arc of odd-looking high schoolers'
strokes bounce oddly off the concrete blocks,
yards away from intended location.
On this occasion, I would lace up old
Wilsons and pull out short socks,
but this passion ignited is smothered in me
for 22 dollars an hour is the freaking fee!

Thursday Rant: Night Vision Goggles

TR #3: Night Vision Goggles

I mean, seriously! What would a game of "Hide-and-go-seek" be with night vision? A sham!! I'm telling you, Blake is completely out of line, walking around and wishing that he had night vision goggles! What's next, Luke and Jared hiding on a secret hidden roof beneath the real roof and finding their way with cellphones?! When is it going to stop people?! Why can't a game just be a game!

Thursday Rant: Sour Grapes

TR #2: Sour Grapes
When we fail we all have a similar response: We look for something to blame.

In basketball we blame the referees, in school we blame the teachers, in relationships we blame the other person, all the time completely glossing over the real subject of the blame. It was like the ref was watching a whole different game, that teacher just doesn't like me, she was always nagging at me, etc, etc, etc. We're really good at taking things that were slightly annoying at the time (a bad call, a misunderstood grade, a bad habit) and blowing them up to be the reason we failed. Frankly, those are excuses and they grow old quick.

Tennis is a sport begging for players to make excuses. It is played outdoors, in all the grandeur of God's creation, and all the havoc that it wreaks on a simple game of knocking a small yellow ball back and forth. The wind, the precipitation, the sun's evil glare when we are serving. Layers of nature that are all useless at deflecting our blame.

Then there are the courts, with all their glorious cracks and crevices. Bad bounces can absolutely provide a glorious scapegoat, especially if they happen at the right time. Oh, and my favorite tennis excuse, the tape. It either loves you or hates you, but it can definitely feel the player's wrath. I've known some players to talk to the tape, yell it at, or in a simple goodwill gesture, give it a little kiss. But how many times it is at fault for our losing of a point.

Of course, when the elements and the court conditions fail, there is always a more villainous cast to paint the blame on. The other team and anything associated with them. Their fans (forgetting that every team has fans who get a little too excited at excitable times in the matches), the way they play ("they just dinked the ball, it wasn't even real tennis!"), or the way they call the lines.

The thing is, I believe that tennis is about dealing with all of these things. I've had players go crazy with anger because of the other teams fans (in one match my second year coaching, I had to pull someone off the court for turning around and yelling at the other fans). I've had players beside themselves because their long practiced strokes and power based game was just undone by someone who ran everything down and lobbed every other shot. I've dealt with players who were crying because of how badly they thought they'd been cheated. And these are all things that these players have had to learn to deal with and grow from.

Because the only thing you can control in the game of tennis is yourself.

If you are mad about something, you can choose to handle it in a respectable way. But it is important that you deal with it at the time. Don't cry to me about line calls after the match, especially when you didn't bring it up with me during the match or were not willing to call for a line judge. That's what those rules and procedures are for. You control your actions during the match, and at the time. Then you accept responsibility for those choices afterwords.

Again, there will be some things we can never control. Sometimes we will get cheated, sometimes the fans will be inappropriate, and sometimes the wind will blow our "perfect" shot out, but isn't life like that too. We can only control ourselves. We won't cheat, we'll try to teach our parents to not cheer double faults, we'll pray that the weather is kind. But that's all we can do.

So instead of worrying about all that stuff, let it roll. Control what you can control, play your game of smaggressive tennis, and shake hands at the end of the match. And leave it there. Don't bring any excuses off the court.

Thursday Rant: No Ad Scoring

Yes, that's right, the Thursday segment will be a place for me to do what all bloggers do: rant. Then you get to write your comments about whether you agree, or disagree, or don't care. But every Thursday you can hear my deep passion for the game of tennis resounding in some fashion at this location.



TR #1: No Ad Scoring
Speed, efficiency, practicality, "getting things done." I hate those phrases. In a society that worships at the altar of speed and immediacy, I have always held onto the things that fight against that tide. My favorite sports show that, both soccer and tennis have an endurance, a patience, a buildup to them. Tennis has always been a sport that celebrates the patient and ongoing, the "battle" as assistant coach Andrew Lanctot would say.

If you search the records of our website, you'll see one of the stats that I celebrate is the longest recorded match. It's actually a match that we didn't win but I'm proud of the participants none the less. If you read match reports you'll often find that my favorite matches are the ones that stretch on and on and in which we persevere and win.

The beauty of tennis is that the nature of the game is to provide epic memories. And I believe that is what tennis, and sport in general, is supposed to provide. Memories, and the grander the better. Just think about some of the best matches ever. Federer and Nadel's Wimbledon final this year in which the final set extended beyond the normal point of the tiebreak. Or think about what we talk about after matches, "We had one game that went to like 12 deuces before I finally won the last two points in a row." We remember these epic battles that go back and forth within every game.

But practicality and modern society is pressing in on that beautiful game now. Many are wanting the matches to get over faster to manage the travel and time that matches take. And the answer to this at many tournaments and leagues is no-ad scoring.

Now, no-ad scoring has it's place as a practice drill. It allows for superficial pressure to be placed on one point. But it should never be used in a real match. It fundamentally changes the talents needed to succeed in tennis. Instead of a player who can persevere and fight back, force the match to continue and rescue themselves from the point of defeat, no-ad scoring places an emphasis on the luck of one point and the player who is able to step up repeatedly in a situation that concentrates all the pressure.

What I feel like is that society loves something that is containable. It wants something that it can control. This match is going to take two hours, period. Or one hour, or whatever. It also wants the same type of athlete. They want it to all come down to one moment, and then worship the person who succeeds in that moment.

I love tennis because it stands against that. If it is deuce and you take a chance and don't succeed, well, you can fight your way back to deuce by winning the next point. The variability of watching a game take 20 minutes because of the multiple deuces or watching a game take 2 minutes because someone wins each point, I think that is part of the beauty of tennis. Replacing it because we want to speed matches up seems like a cop out to me.

Here's hoping we never see no-ad scoring in Indiana high school tennis, because high school tennis has another dimension to it. We're also teaching lessons about life through sport. And one of the valuable lessons that tennis teaches is that of endurance and perseverance, picking yourself up from defeat and pursuing victory. That happens within each game, within the set, and obviously within the match. And all of that is crucial. It makes the player focus on each part as a small and important piece of the whole, a lesson that is important to life.

Anyways, I guess I just get annoyed when I watch a professional doubles match and see them speeding things up with the no-ad scoring system. I also know I'm probably in the minority in disliking it. But that makes me need to speak all the louder.