Advice for a high school player who has committed to a tennis program? Play lots of tournaments or not?

[texrunner]

First off, sorry if this is a dumb question! My daughter recently committed to a top 20 d3 program and has asked this question to peers as well as her private coach and has gotten differing responses. Some say focus on fine tuning skills/ hone in on weaknesses in her game through lessons and drills and don’t worry about tournaments at this point. Others have said tournaments, tournaments tournaments - the more the better!
We don’t live in a metropolitan area so she hasn’t had good matchplay in several months (because of covid and other conflicts, she hasn’t traveled for high level tournaments like she did pre covid; and high school tennis competition is pretty weak- I don’t mean that in a negative way, it’s just that most of her competition aren’t looking beyond high school tennis).
She did play a large tournament a few weeks ago and didn’t do as well as she hoped. (For reference she has about an 8.1 or so utr - it was higher before the tournament- and lost pretty badly to someone rated a little higher and lost a close match to someone almost half a point lower than she). Basically she said not playing people her level and better in awhile has made her mentally rusty.
I told her in that case she should play as many tournaments as possible, especially since the pressure is off regarding having a certain UTR. (Although someone she asked said she needs to “protect her utr” - whaaaat!?!?!)
There are certain metro areas that have monthly utr events that I am willing to travel to that host good utr tournaments monthly and I thinks he should try to commit to one a month.

She just wants to use the rest of her time as a junior in a way that would help her to start her college career as prepared as possible!
(And I will add that she will still keep taking her lessons)
What do you all think?

 

[Rattler]

Tournaments

 

[joule]

Play tournaments, make sure she can enjoy the matches and competition instead of stressing over results, improvement comes with practice and experience and losing is natural and a big part of the game.

 

[texrunner]

Play tournaments, make sure she can enjoy the matches and competition instead of stressing over results, improvement comes with practice and experience and losing is natural and a big part of the game.

I couldn’t agree more! Obviously she wasn’t thrilled with her performance but loves the competition. If I were a college coach I’d want my recruits to play as much as possible rather than sitting around protecting some rating

 

[RiverRat]

She should continue to play enough tournaments to have something to look toward and really hone her game, if she's truly motivated. That is always the best advice for developing players. There are a million factors here. Tennis is a nice component of a student's life in D3, but there's much more beyond tennis. Maybe she has other interests she wants to pursue or maybe make some money to put in her pocket teaching or stringing racquets. She's not a scholarship athlete. Go get an education and enjoy the ride.

 

[jcgatennismom]

Definitely play tournaments this summer if not now. Once she starts college, she could be playing against or practicing with players up to 4-5 years older with more muscle strength too. My son's senior year he played his first Future Quali over spring break and several men's events and one additional Future Quali the summer before college. After playing college players and recent college grads over the summer, there was no adjustment for the fall of his freshmen year-he was ready to play and not be intimidated by older, more experienced players. Luckily with all the UTR events, there are many events with juniors, collegians, and young pros. Also by playing these tourneys, your daughter may meet older players who are willing to play practice matches with her outside tourneys. My son had a group of 3 guys who were 3 years older and playing D1 tennis who would hit with him that summer-helped a lot. Also continuing to play keeps up confidence, and tennis is as much a mental game as a physical game. If a player doesnt compete for a while, and then performs less than his/her best when he/she does return to tourneys, it can cause the player to lose confidence. Instead, the player should continue to play and push through the slump. Once he/she gets some new wins, each match becomes easier. My son who is in college now didnt play a tourney or competition match for 7 months. The first two back he had to play top seeds, and though he lost, he kept it competitive. His third match back he beat a higher ranked player in the 3rd after losing 1st set and his next couple he dominated lower ranked players allowing 4 or less games. It was a relief for him to get his 1st post COVID wins. Your daughter just has to push through this rough patch, get in some more competition until she is comfortable playing her A game.

 

[First3Shots]

Why ask peers/private coach/internet strangers rather than the coach she committed to? Seems like that is the person she should speak to...

 

[texrunner]

Why ask peers/private coach/internet strangers rather than the coach she committed to? Seems like that is the person she should speak to...

Because a lot of you seem to really know what you’re talking about...frankly I was surprised that some people, whose advice she values, recommended cutting way back on tournaments. She enjoys them, but I’m realizing a lot of her peers stopped playing tournaments once they committed to a school

 

[First3Shots]

Because a lot of you seem to really know what you’re talking about...frankly I was surprised that some people, whose advice she values, recommended cutting way back on tournaments. She enjoys them, but I’m realizing a lot of her peers stopped playing tournaments once they committed to a school

Understood. But why not have your daughter ask the coach? The coach would probably appreciate the inquiry...

 

[texrunner]

She should continue to play enough tournaments to have something to look toward and really hone her game, if she's truly motivated. That is always the best advice for developing players. There are a million factors here. Tennis is a nice component of a student's life in D3, but there's much more beyond tennis. Maybe she has other interests she wants to pursue or maybe make some money to put in her pocket teaching or stringing racquets. She's not a scholarship athlete. Go get an education and enjoy the ride.

She loves tournaments and has had r

Understood. But why not have your daughter ask the coach? The coach would probably appreciate the inquiry...

Oh she definitely has and he’s all about tournaments- I think she was just questioning because so many of her older peers pretty much stop tournaments and focus on lessons or groups. And several parents as well said the minute their kid committed they didn’t play tournaments. (Some actually admitted they were happy with their utr and didn’t want to risk it going down).
I know my daughter has a hard time coming back from a “break” whether that is due to covid and, as I mentioned in my original post, lack of matches against people her level (because of the nature of high school tennis in our area)

 

[max]

I don't think you've said how tennis fits into her long range goals.

I think that matters a lot here.

I played D-3 for a mediocre school. I've done some high school coaching and HS private lessons. This said, I think at that age the tournament experience would be very broadening and perhaps make me--myself---appreciate the points I needed to brush up on, and make me more committed to improvement.

 

[CHtennis]

I would make sure that she is ready for challenge matches when she gets to school for practice. We I played we had challenge matches the first day of practice. Many coaches do things differently but I would be surprised if many (any?) coaches just put out their players in order of UTR rank without some sort of internal match play.

 

[texrunner]

I don't think you've said how tennis fits into her long range goals.

I think that matters a lot here.

I played D-3 for a mediocre school. I've done some high school coaching and HS private lessons. This said, I think at that age the tournament experience would be very broadening and perhaps make me--myself---appreciate the points I needed to brush up on, and make me more committed to improvement.

In a nutshell, she wants to play college tennis because she loves the game, the competition and the friendships she has and will make. All that being said, she loves to win and compete well and wants to do everything she can to make sure that happens

 

[JLyon]

Would say have her play the ITA Summer Circuit, if available, but do not over do it, find the right balance of practice to stay sharp and tournaments, but do not over do it and risk injury as the college season and practice begins.

 

[Ihatetennis]

I couldn’t agree more! Obviously she wasn’t thrilled with her performance but loves the competition. If I were a college coach I’d want my recruits to play as much as possible rather than sitting around protecting some rating

As a coach, one of my players recently committed to a very good d3 program as well.

I talk to her college coach and I told him I’m not worried about the results nearly as much as making sure she’s in the best fitness and tennis level to make her transition into college essy.

if your daughter has any flaws in her game I’d worry more about expanding her tennis than competing with what she has.

now she’s an 8.1 maybe she doesn’t have deficiencies and only needs tournament players.

every player and situation is different. Especially since I don’t know your training. But if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[ryushen21]

I'd suggest balancing it out. Continue to work on development through drills/lessons but also play tournaments to have practical application of those learned skills. This would result in the best prepared player both mentally and physically in my opinion.

 

[Wild Card]

If your daughter enjoys playing tournaments then she should play them. Important to enter competitions where she will play weaker and stronger opponents and achieve a win/loss ratio of ~60/40 to build her confidence. I also think it's important not to get too hung up on an opponents rating and whether she 'should ' win or lose to that opponent. It's all 'on the day', win or lose if she felt she played well, then she should be pleased. The main thing is not to put herself under a lot of pressure and just to enjoy competing.

 

[texrunner]

As a coach, one of my players recently committed to a very good d3 program as well.

I talk to her college coach and I told him I’m not worried about the results nearly as much as making sure she’s in the best fitness and tennis level to make her transition into college essy.

if your daughter has any flaws in her game I’d worry more about expanding her tennis than competing with what she has.

now she’s an 8.1 maybe she doesn’t have deficiencies and only needs tournament players.

every player and situation is different. Especially since I don’t know your training. But if you have any questions feel free to ask.

I think her thing is she can get mentally out of shape if that makes sense. she said she was hitting the ball well - and from my observation she looked as good as the people she played, but what she said she didn’t have was the patience to work the point. I think she’s afraid if she doesn’t play plenty of tournaments that she won’t be able to practice her mental game, which as we know is often more important than the physical game. I’ve seen her play like absolute crap and simply refuse to lose - right now that’s something that’s a little rusty from not having consistent high level competition

 

[BusyMom]

My observation is that the majority of girls play almost no tournaments once they commit. They often say they hate junior tournaments . I think the parents are also relieved to stop traveling. Personally, I think playing tournament, particularly in the May-July time frame is important to be mentally tough. If it exists in your area this year, your daughter can play USTA women’s leagues if she will turn 18 in 2021. They will be thrilled to have a young person to play singles!

The vast majority of upperclass students at D3 play very little in the summer. They do internships. So if your daughter arrives at college with a lot of summer tennis practice, she will do well in the fall and make a good first impression. The D3 ITAs are often dominated by freshmen for just this reason. (This is based on the women). Also, the older players do have more experience, but I don’t think they have a size/strength advantage like on the men’s side.

As far as UTR, I can’t imagine why that matters. It might be used to seed freshmen at the ITA. Otherwise, it is meaningless. Based on my limited sample, in the past, the junior girls moving into D3 have inflated UTRs compared to the existing D3 players. Just something to keep in mind as you look at the ratings. This year may be different as the limited play has made UTR very unreliable.

 

[texrunner]

My observation is that the majority of girls play almost no tournaments once they commit. They often say they hate junior tournaments . I think the parents are also relieved to stop traveling. Personally, I think playing tournament, particularly in the May-July time frame is important to be mentally tough. If it exists in your area this year, your daughter can play USTA women’s leagues if she will turn 18 in 2021. They will be thrilled to have a young person to play singles!

The vast majority of upperclass students at D3 play very little in the summer. They do internships. So if your daughter arrives at college with a lot of summer tennis practice, she will do well in the fall and make a good first impression. The D3 ITAs are often dominated by freshmen for just this reason. (This is based on the women). Also, the older players do have more experience, but I don’t think they have a size/strength advantage like on the men’s side.

As far as UTR, I can’t imagine why that matters. It might be used to seed freshmen at the ITA. Otherwise, it is meaningless. Based on my limited sample, in the past, the junior girls moving into D3 have inflated UTRs compared to the existing D3 players. Just something to keep in mind as you look at the ratings. This year may be different as the limited play has made UTR very unreliable.

You mentioned “seeding freshmen at the ita.” Is this a team tennis tournament or individuals? There’s a lot about how college tennis works that I don’t yet understand - heck, I feel like I finally got the whole juniors thing figured out!
That’s interesting about junior’s inflated utrs - I hear that a lot. I don’t think my daughter has played any college players, either in the ita’s she did this past summer or in the utr tournaments she’s done, so I’ve never seen that play out for her personally. I wonder why that is?

 

[BusyMom]

ITA regionals are in the fall and are individuals. There are 8 or 9 regions. Check out the schedule for your daughter’s college for the 2018-2019 season to get the feel for how a normal year works.

As far as the inflated UTRs, I’m not really sure if the juniors are inflated or the D3 players deflated. In my opinion, the general issue is it is hard to compare UTRs between groups that rarely compete against each other. They have no common matches to use to level set. It is very rare to see a D3 woman play a summer ITA or a non-college tournamen, so there’s almost no play against juniors. Similar issue for comparing juniors and adults or boys/girls. The quickest way to raise a girl’s UTR is to play UTR tournaments against boys.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Obviously your girl has talent or she would not have been accepted to this college team.
The question is, how will she maintain this level of sharpness, intensity, drive, stamina, and confidence
while waiting for the season to start?

Obviously, she could continue with drills, practicing of the various strokes, patterns, and training that got her to this point-
but actual competition (which is what she she is there for) involves pressures that grow with the importance of a match,
pressures from her friends, the team, the coach, her own ego, pressure from the coach, the alumni association and so on.

So the question is- how do you duplicate the levels of stress, anxiety and fear of embarrassment that you get in a tournament
situation?

At this point, much depends on the person. If your daughter is always relaxed in a tournament situation and feels no special need for
testing herself and her skills, then let it slide- let the team coach deal with it.

If, as you say, she feels rusty, untested and uncertain- then it would not hurt for her to enter some local tournaments and
(hopefully) build up some confidence.

 

[sovertennis]

Understood. But why not have your daughter ask the coach? The coach would probably appreciate the inquiry...

This. As a former coach at a high level D3 school, this is what our staff would have recommended. Best of luck to the OP's daughter.

 

[texrunner]

This. As a former coach at a high level D3 school, this is what our staff would have recommended. Best of luck to the OP's daughter.

Thank you! I will suggest my daughter reach out to him...it however may be a moot point for me because with covid cases out of control and now this new UK variant to worry about, I’m not sure I want to travel, which we would have to do for her to get challenging matchplay. It hit me the other day that I know 5 people who’ve died of covid, many healthy individuals who’ve gotten horribly sick, and heard of several instances of young healthy people suffering terrible after effects.

 

[PURETENNISsense]

She enjoys them, but I’m realizing a lot of her peers stopped playing tournaments once they committed to a school

That's a personal preference I'm guessing?

I coached college tennis for 4 years and I was disappointed in recruits who were coming the thr Fall and basically admitted that they hadn't competed in a few months. Obviously nothing can be done about this but Fall seasons are important hitting the ground running is nice.