Keeping High Schoolers Engaged During Matches

[Rogersbackhand]

High school coaches, I'm looking for useful ways to keep my players involved in matches this season when they aren't playing. Do you chart? Do you assign them to watch specific matches to root for that/those players? I want to try and keep kids engaged rather than having them be bored or goofing off. Thanks for your input.

 

[r2473]

Create a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram page for your team and have those not playing assigned to post about the matches

 

[Doc Hollidae]

Make whoever gets on their cellphone run lines. Or threaten potential play time.

 

[TParker]

Doc's idea is BRILLIANT!!!...I see them ALL the time@practice playing on the phone more than running drills!!!

 

[10s talk]

tell them to support (cheer) their teammates or find another team...this is a team rule that I (the head coach) and my captains enforce. There are 25 teams in my county only about a third of the teams support each other.

FWIW... I was coaching a match where a national politician's daughter was playing. And the entire team left, while one girl was still playing.

 

[Booger]

In my day, we were all expected to watch our teammates and cheer them on. I can't imagine kids having a problem with that. Lines and wall sits are always available for chronic offenders.

 

[rkelley]

Dave Smith, a successful HS coach and author, talked about non-playing players charting matches. Both kids learn from the experience.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Dave Smith, a successful HS coach and author, talked about non-playing players charting matches. Both kids learn from the experience.

Along the same vein,... recently read "Methany Maniphesto",... pro baseballer's philosophy on coaching (prinicples I've adopted). For kids, in the dugout, he would engage 1 kid per inning, and ask questions about what they would do for various positions,... eg.
* pitcher: what pitch would you throw
* outfield: would you move up or back, why
* infield: play deep, or shallow, if someone on base, where to throw first, etc...
* current batter: any "tells" about their batting?
* etc...
Personally charting matches would be boring, but if I was coaching, I'd ask questions like:
* How is your teammate winning or losing?
* If you played this opponent, how would you approach it.
* if you had to give your teammate advice, what would you give them
* For individual points, ask what good/bad things happened for your teammate
* Any missed opportunities?
* Break points,... what do you think (s)he's thinking right now? Nervous? What would you do?
* Before the point (based on the score), on the serve and return, what should your teammate plan be?
* Count depth of shot, and correlate to who won the point (ok this is in the "charting" category, but more valuable than charting winners and unforced errors)
* Count rally, and correlate to who won the point (eg. establish teammate and opponent's shot tolerance)
* etc...
my $0.02

 

[BMC9670]

Think bigger picture to garner more engagement. Lets face it, HS tennis is lame. Generally, no one other than the team and parents care or watch. So, of course kids are not that engaged. IMO, the coach needs to get the kids to engage themselves and their peers by creating more excitement around tennis. Rather than ban phones and social media, create a webpage and/or FB page and Twitter account and have the kids post photos, commentary, quotes, stats, etc to them - even live while their teammates are playing. Try and get them to engage their peers at school to interact and maybe come see a match or two. Have contests, have themes, get creative. Create some pride in the team and the sport. It's an uphill battle to make tennis cool in HS when you have to compete with football, basketball, baseball and more, but it's worth it to try and carve out some excitement and give the kids a good experience.