The Six Week Spring Break

Preamble from D3West because I like to see my words on the screen. This article is the result of a whimsical tweet from D3AS and a whole lot of awesomeness from the guys in the Hen House. One unique aspect of the West region is that many of the teams in Southern California have these loaded schedules against all the other teams in the country making their annual pilgrimage to DIII Tennis Mecca. It’s awesome to play so many great matches, and I would guess that the current P-P men’s team wouldn’t trade this particular stretch of matches for anything, but it’s also a unique challenge. It’s difficult walking out from a mentally and physically draining science lab, for example, and getting yourself psyched up to play an important Pool C match. I asked them to write about it. Here is their response.

The facts are these:

– Between February 18th and April 3rd we play 22 total matches, starting with Bates and ending with Gustavus.

– For only one of these six weeks are we actually on spring break.

– Four of those matches are against local teams who are also not on spring break (Cal Lu, Point Loma, CMS, and Westmont).

– Seven of those matches fall on our spring break.

– The remaining 11 matches we play during school against teams that are on their spring break:  #26 Bates, #39 Christopher Newport, #19 Mary Washington, #9 Carnegie Mellon, #8 Bowdoin, #3 Middlebury, #14 Williams, #13 Chicago, Lewis and Clark, #21 UC Santa Cruz, and #16 Gustavus Adolphus.

The question are these:

– How does this play into our match readiness?

– How do we handle the distractions of being in school while playing against schools that are coming out here to play tennis and battle for a week?

– Are we at an advantage because we’re on our home courts, or are we on equal playing field?  How does this affect other aspects of our college lives?

Before I make any really blanketed responses, please understand that whatever is mentioned in this article is a reflection of inputs by some of our players, not all.  There will almost always be exceptions on how people feel, but what follows is the general consensus I’ve gotten from this year’s team and teams in the past.

Why did we lose to Bates? The first thing that comes to mind if you’re outside the team is, “Well, Bates was on spring break.” (I guess? I’ve never been really clear on how their spring break works).  We’re still trying to find our groove with our coursework.  We have our own distractions to deal with – relationships, work, campus jobs, tests, homework, keeping up with what few social relationships we have outside of tennis – while they’re cooped up in a hotel room looking to get their first marquee win of the season. (I like to think we would be considered a marquee win by any program).  Losing 5-4 against a team that was ultimately more mentally prepared than us appears to be a reflection of us still being stuck in school mode; however, the reality of the situation is that their program has their own obstacles to deal with as well.  I live 5 minutes from our courts and am fortunate enough to be able to walk over, put on some music and grind for 2 hours in what will be essentially match conditions weather wise for the next 4 months.  However, something that is easy to overlook is where Bates is located.  If I exaggerate a little, I apologize, but the weather at Bates during the offseason is probably more similar to Siberia than Southern California.  How much snow have they gotten in the last year?  What’s their indoor court situation like?  Are they able to walk across a street to get to their courts?  How much do they get to play outdoors before a match against us?  Ultimately the adversity a program like Bates has to face before playing a team like us, is much more overwhelming than what we experience.

To think academics is a conflict with how I prepare for our school year matches, take a look at my almost-failed exam from the day after the Bates match.  While some may posit that we are at a disadvantage by playing teams that are on spring break while our school is still in session, I contend we actually have a very distinct advantage.  For the most part we have established some sort of routine and have a level of comfort on our courts that isn’t felt by opposing schools.  Most of us are in the same place mentally as teams that come here on spring break.  These matches put us into tennis spring break mode for the 6 weeks that we play teams that are on spring break, with a little bit of school added in between.  After our first match, winning and tennis became the priority.  (If my mom is reading this, I apologize for admitting to this on a public forum. But let’s be honest, after seeing my performance in spring semesters for the last 2 years, I’m just admitting to something you probably already know.)  Our futures aren’t going to be decided by getting a 4.0 because we decided to put tennis on the backburner and focus on school.  If anything, our futures will be brighter because of the lessons we learned through tennis. Because most of us are generally smart, we can maintain pretty satisfactory GPAs. Even if we don’t, we still all have bright futures.  Most of us have grown up while developing some emotional relationship with tennis, and this is our last chance to do anything noteworthy with this sport.

Matches during the school year should provide a disadvantage to our team.  However, what I’ve come to find through reflection on my last 3 years here is that when we play a team on spring break, mentally, we’re in the same place as our opponents with the distinct advantage of being in a comfortable setting.  Our match results are more a reflection of where we are mentally than any outside factor.  Upsets come from a mentality of powerful belief, while losses to teams we “should” beat stem from overconfidence.  In the four years we’re in college, we get one more shot to excel on the court. Whether or not we know this, I would contend that we’re not at a disadvantage playing teams on spring break when we’re in season.

There you have it. If anyone else would like to share their experienced (do my job for me), please message me on Twitter (@d3_west) and we’ll work something out.