Van Zee’s Vault: How to Build a Winning Program: IN MATCH COACHING

I would like to welcome you all back for the 5th installment of the How to Build a Winning Program series. The more and more that I write these, the more I realize I miss being a coach. But because I live by the 50 cent model of “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” I find myself happy to only reminisce. For this week, I will be covering IN MATCH COACHING. This includes both pre and post match speeches and most importantly coaching individuals on changeovers. A couple of caveats before I get into a few tips. First, many of this is very individualized. Different player personalities demand different levels of attention. Some may want to be left alone while others may need to be talked to every changeover and potentially between points. The second caveat is that while I coached women (poorly I might add), these tips apply towards men’s programs. Coaching women is a whole different beast. So below are a few tips on how to be an effective coach during a match.

Before the match starts

Similarly to being a player, your match day as a coach starts the minute you get out of the van. Outside of the logistical aspects of getting 18-21 year old kids awake, dressed, and on the court, there are many things that you should be doing as soon as the first ball is hit. While the draw of conversing with the opposing coach talking about the ups and downs of your season is strong, you need to have an active role in your players warm up. In particular, if you are not familiar with your opponent and their style of play, you get about 30-45 minutes of time to study their strengths and weaknesses. Let your players focus on getting their bodies/minds ready to play. Keep them on schedule and then participate in drilling near the end of the warm up. I know that I stole a doubles drill from Coach Todd from Case because I saw it and loved it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right? Finally, the speech before lineups isn’t going to be groundbreaking, but needs to be focused on the task at hand. I wasn’t much for the cheerleader (rah rah) type of speech guy and I don’t think tennis as a sport really necessitates that type of speech. If it is a huge match, let your captain or team leader give the pump up speech after the lineups have been announced. It will mean more coming from them.

Talk Technical

The first type of communication you provide to your players on changeovers should be technical in nature. Be specific and try not to provide feedback like “Get more depth on your shots” or “Focus on your returns.” While those things are important pieces to success, you didn’t provide the information as to how your player can achieve those goals. Talk about the process and less about the result. Here comes that sports psychology background again. Give them specific technical feedback that will help them achieve the overall goal of better shots. By starting with process goals (specific technical advice), it will lead to better performance goals (hitting a higher percentage of balls beyond the service line), that will then lead to the better outcome goals (winning the match).

Talk Tactical

Tactics should be the second thing discussed on a changeover. That can be both tactics focused on your player’s strengths as well as tactics focused on the opponent’s weaknesses. This would mean you would have to be watching enough of the match to understand what has occurred. This isn’t always easy because at times, there will be 6 singles matches going on at the same time. It is impossible to watch every single point of every match. Because of this, it’s important that you fully understand each player and provide guidance accordingly. This is why “scouting” the opponent before hand in the warm up can be a crucial part of the job. If you are able to watch the flow of the match, notice trends or tendencies that you can tip off your player of a likely outcome. It can be something as simple as the opponent always hits his passing shots down the line or as complex as watching for different ball tosses to determine what type of serve is coming. Knowing these things allow you and your player to conduct a game plan to neutralize any attack.

Give Encouragement and Exude Confidence

While the encouragement piece of this seems obvious, it’s important to remember. A lot of players tend to get down on themselves and in particular following a bad couple of games. I personally used to deprive myself of getting water when I was mad which was a terrible thing to do. If your player needs a pick me up, provide it. As for the other part, there is nothing more powerful than showing your player that you have confidence in their abilities. Sometimes that means sitting quietly and letting them do their work. Sometimes that means cheering from the sidelines. What it does not represent is showing an obvious case of nervousness in the result. Don’t pace the sidelines. Don’t avoid getting near the court because you can’t bear to watch. Definitely don’t bring up the fact that this particular match is important and the team needs you to win. Trust me, they likely already know that. One of the best things I ever did as a coach was show little to no emotion even under the highest pressure. Tied at 4-4 and six singles in a tiebreaker against nationally ranked Denison in 2013, I once had a bench player ask me as I was sitting a court away, “Are you really that calm or are you just hiding it extremely well?” I looked at him, smiled, and replied “I am absolutely freaking out inside!” But the guy on the court didn’t know that. He saw me calm, cool, and collected while providing him the instruction he needed to pull of the win. Your confidence will spill over to your players.

Do all three!

All three of the above suggestions can be fit into one changeover and probably in that exact order. You are given 60-90 seconds to get your message across. While it isn’t quite the sandwich method, providing a small piece or technical advice, discussing a tactic, and ending with a piece of encouragement will maximize your message. All that isn’t always needed and sometimes a simple hand slap sends a quiet, yet important message of “You got this, keep doing what you are doing.”

Post Match

Post match talks are sometimes difficult logistically because the team never finishes at the exact same time (unless playing to decision) and corralling the guys in the van to go get food is usually the biggest priority. Most of the time I would provide my post match commentary at the end of the van ride home. Obviously this is different for home matches, but there is no better place to grab their attention than an over crowded van ride. This also allows them to take some time to reflect on the match, how they played, and what the result means. If it was a loss, they can calm down from any anger or disappointment they may have. If it is a win, same thing. Having discussions when emotions are heightened in either direction usually isn’t a good practice. That time to decompress can be valuable to both the coach and the player. Discuss important takeaways from the match, what the plan is to improve on things, and what might be next on the schedule to work towards.

There you have it. My few suggestions as to how to be a better coach during matches. I only have 2 or 3 topics left in the How to Build a Winning Program series so stay tuned next week!