It’s January and we all know what that means. Teams will be coming back from Winter break ready to hit the courts for their first practices of the year. National Indoors is just six short weeks away! In this next segment of the How to build a winning program series, I will address how a coach can prepare his/her team for a match. This is something I took pride in as a coach. I might not have been the best coach for player development, but I was a damn good team manager and focused on how to physically and mentally prepare my players for the upcoming competition. One of the times where I could say my Sports Psychology Masters degree came in handy. For this particular scenario, we are going to have a hypothetical match on Saturday. Match preparation should start on the Monday of that week. Here are the few keys that I felt were the most important in preparing for a match.
Communication
Communication from the coach is of utmost importance and the earlier you can pass information along to your players, the better. Things that need to be communicated are line-up decisions, travel squad, time of departure, expected time of return, and even specific information about the upcoming opponent. Line-up decisions are crucial. The last thing you want is to surprise a player(s) either informing them they are no longer playing or are suddenly forced into the lineup. If a line-up spot is yet to be determined and some sort of challenge match needs to be played that week, then let the players know that. I personally am not a huge fan of challenge matches in particular because it pits teammate vs teammate with a lot on the line. That can begin to divide a team very quickly. Letting your team know who all is on the travel squad is also important. You will likely travel with an additional two or three players in case they are needed so their own preparation is just as vital. Answering questions like will there be any exhibition match opportunities or resting of the normal starters can be important. The earlier you can tell your team about when you are leaving, the less headaches you will have. If you are leaving Friday afternoon, it allows them to communicate with their professors any missed class. If you are leaving Saturday early morning, they can begin to prepare what it will be necessary to be on time. I am a coach who has left a starter at home for being late to the van and you should be too. It is a life lesson that can provide growth to the individual moving forward. One of the questions that always bugged me as a coach was “when will we get back?” While I would like to think they are asking so they can plan their academic work load for the weekend, it’s likely not. Be as transparent as you can. Finally, I usually tried to provide information on the opponent. Why is the match important? What sort of competition level is expected? Etc. If you don’t know your opponent, do your research. If you want the cliff notes, there’s a blog for that. Read it.
Mid-week Practices
As a coach, it is your job to know your opponent. With that knowledge, you should be able to focus your practices on what might be needed to be successful in your upcoming matches. If you are playing a team that is extremely disciplined in doubles, that might be good for you to work on. If you are playing a team that is full of guys who are grinders and get every ball back, tailoring practices to neutralize that should be a focus. Conditioning work should be done early in the week and taper off as the week progresses. Again, I am not a big fan of challenge matches, but do play practice sets or better yet tiebreakers with something on the line. Do your best to create a situation that might exist in the future. A tiebreaker AFTER you do your conditioning can emulate a third set where you have no legs left. Put your players in uncomfortable situations so they can get used to that feeling. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. Consider that for a moment.
Friday practice
Friday practices for me were short and simple. We would do an extended warm up like we will be doing for the following day’s match(es) and go home. You can read below where I outline the routine. That usually meant an hour or so of practice. This shortened practice would allow for any early week conditioning to recover to 100% for match day. Tennis isn’t exactly the most brutal sport on the body, but it is important to be rested for competition. Friday also was a day to reiterate any of the important points of communication that was outlined above and also include what uniform to wear, weather expectations, and potential need for last minute rackets to be restrung.
Food
Another area that you would think isn’t all that big of a deal, but in the mind of your athlete is, would be food. When will they be fed, what will they be eating, and how much of it seems to always come up. I am a huge supporter of pre-match dinners the day before a match. This allows the coach to monitor what kind of food is going into the player’s bodies. While there are usually a few good options at the college cafeteria, you can’t expect your players to choose them on their own. If the budget allows, have a team dinner. It can be a great team building event as well. Depending on the time of departure, let the team know if breakfast will be provided for the ride over or if you will have lunch before the match. If you have two matches back to back, will food be provided in between matches and if so, get the orders early to have it waiting on them as they get off the court from match 1. These things might seem inconsequential, but in the mind of your athletes, it is big. Bring something other than water. This is of particular importance for players who struggle with cramping. Pedialite or pickle juice can do wonders if started early. Taking care of all of the outside logistics allows them to focus on winning their matches. Properly fueling your players (both food and drink) can help avoid diminishing physical play as a long day of tennis closes.
Match Day Focus
There are so many cliche’s that you can use here, but they are there for a reason. As soon as you step off the bus/van, it’s time to narrow your focus to tennis. As a coach, I allowed the long van ride to fulfill whatever need the athlete’s wanted. That might be studying for an exam, catching up on a few more hours of sleep, listening to god awful music, or simply conversation with their teammates. As soon as you get out of the van and have your school colors/name plastered all over your clothes, you are representing yourself, your teammates, your coach and most importantly your school. Do whatever it takes to take care of business off the court before you get out of the van in order to make the business on the court the biggest concern. That match day focus doesn’t change until the last ball is hit. That doesn’t necessarily mean your own last ball, but it could mean your teammates last ball.
Routine
Routine is the best way to keep your athlete’s focused and zoned in on the objective. I made sure we were significantly early to all of our matches. Sometimes so early the home team had yet to get there. This allowed us to prepare how we normally would prepare. A pre-competitive routine is a sequence of task relevant thoughts and actions which an athlete engages in systematically prior to his or her performance. This definition highlights that a routine needs to be task specific, systematic and engaged with. Establish a routine for matches early in the preseason and stick with it. The point of a routine is to keep it consistent from match to match. The first step in designing a pre-competitive routine is to make a list of everything you need to do before a competition to be prepared. Some of the common elements you should include are meals, review of competitive tactics, physical warm-up, technical warm-up, equipment check, and mental preparation. Other more personal things that might go into a pre-competitive routine include going to the bathroom, changing into your competition clothing, and using mental imagery. When developing a routine, consider the answers to the questions of where? when? how long do you have? Most of the pre-competitive routine things can be done as a team, but each individual may have his/her own things that are needed to complete their routine and be fully prepared.
The bottom line to all of this is allowing your players to know what to expect of you and the match. This expectation covers everything you as a coach should think about. Don’t think that your player(s) will consider all of the things that you might. Yes they are 18-22 year old college students, but they have a lot on their minds outside of tennis. Constant reminders and communication along with routine preparation will fully prepare your team physically and just as important mentally. It just might be the difference in a 5-4 match going your way and it will definitely enhance your athlete’s overall experience which in the end is what really matters!
I wonder if the #ThielkeDiet factors into the “Food” section.