Season end - in the hunt for playoffs - mixed dubs isn't a priority for anyone on the team except the captain.

[Cawlin]

I'm a captain of a mixed team, we've got one last regular season match this coming weekend. We're in 3rd place but have beaten the first and second place teams head to head so a points tie (very reasonable likelihood) between my team and either the first or second place team would put my team on top of the tie. The first and second place teams play each other in the last week and we play a team that has no chance of playoffs. We need to take 3 lines to have a reasonable chance of making playoffs.

I've been talking to other captains as the season has gone on and the team we're playing this coming week has a line 1 combo that could handily beat any combo on my team EXCEPT my own line 1 combo which is very strong and which would be the only potential actual competition against that line 1 according to the other captains I've spoken with. Of course, both players on my usual line 1 combo are unavailable. My lines 2, and 3 are pretty strong and have a better than 75% win rate, but only at those lines. I have a decent shot with line 4 this week maybe 60/40. Line 5 will be a dice roll with odds likely against me - probably 30/70 chance.

I'm considering sacrificing line 1 but league rules state that I can't move anyone up more than 2 lines from their last legal line. Based on the availability of my roster (25 person roster, only 14 people available) that means I would have to put someone in who hasn't played all season. Those options are for men: me (approximate equivalent of strong 3.5), another male who hasn't played yet - (approximate equivalent mid level 3.0) and for females my only option is a brand new woman who is barely the equivalent of a 2.5... League rules do not simply allow me to default the line - as it is line 1, I would have to fill from lower lines up and default line 5 instead. I could move my line 2 up to line 1, and my line 3 up to 2, but my confidence in them winning at those positions is pretty low.

Further, my line 4 has availability issues for the weekend (she told me yesterday afternoon) and the other team has agreed to play that line early tonight - so once that line is played, I of course couldn't move them to line 3. Additionally, my line 3 male just informed me last night at 9 pm that he may be called into work on Saturday, he'll be able to confirm one way or the other today - and so if he has to work on Saturday, I will have to ask if the other team wants to play ANOTHER line early with very limited notice. If they are unable, I'll be lucky to take 2 lines and with only 2 lines, there are only a very few scenarios that get us into playoffs.

This team we're playing has no possibility of post season play unless there are at least two disqualifications among the top 3 (can't see anything that would lead to that). However they may be interested in spoiling... or they may just be interested in taking as many points as they can for pride's sake. So if the other team moves their line 1 down to line 2 to avoid facing our line 1 (whom they've no doubt heard about by now), we will probably get whipped at line 2 AND line 1.

So anyway... I'm thinking I'll just stick with my original plan and throw a few lambs to the lions at line 1 - myself one of them, if the other guy doesn't want to do it, and then let the chips fall where they may. If my line 3 guy says he can't play Saturday and the other team can't play that line early, I'll just shake up what's left of the line up and put anyone/everyone as the "bomb squad" and let the points and playoff hopes be damned.

I think this is my last season doing this team captain stuff. I agreed to do it last season for dear friends to keep the team from folding when the previous captain stepped down (even though I hate playing mixed myself), but somehow, as the captain, who doesn't play in the lineup, I feel like nobody cares about the team half as much as I do... I know... I'm throwing myself a crybaby pity party...

On this mixed team at this level (and this holds for most of the other teams in my division according to their captains), the women play as a lark since they get to play up, with the men, they get to play against pace, speed, actual poaching, reasonable serves, etc. And they get to play matches in the offseason between the women's seasons. For the men, it's a drag, especially if they aren't among the best 2 or 3 men on the team since they get stuck with one of the lower end women on the team who is likely to be WAY lower skill level (very few teams have more than 2 or 3 solid women on them because most women playing that well are able to play up on higher teams where their relative skill level is more mediocre than strong), but at least they get to keep playing matches in the off season between men's seasons.

 

[Powderwombat]

Well I'll speak generally as that's all too complicated to tailor for, when I captained important matches I would tryhard and basically if you have an idea of the lineup the opponent plays, run through a few different of your own lineups and I would assign my guess as to the percentage chance my players would have of winning each rubber, so for example if I put 2 weak players against 2 strong players, it might be 15% chance and then if I put 2 strong players against 2 weak players, it might be a 75% or 80% chance (all just how you feel about the matchups), all the way through all the sets and then depending on what rules your league is...so if you need for example 3 sets to win and 5 sets are played total, you just go with the combination that gives you the highest possible percentage across 3 different sets, and if that means saccing the other 2 that's what you do. Depends on the person though, some people might prefer to make all 5 sets as even as possible, but at that point you have to just rely on performances. I preferred trying to outstack the opponent.

 

[Matthew ATX]

5 lines of mixed? Yikes. That sounds like a nightmare to fill and organize.

We only play 3 lines in mixed here.

 

[Cawlin]

Well I'll speak generally as that's all too complicated to tailor for, when I captained important matches I would tryhard and basically if you have an idea of the lineup the opponent plays, run through a few different of your own lineups and I would assign my guess as to the percentage chance my players would have of winning each rubber, so for example if I put 2 weak players against 2 strong players, it might be 15% chance and then if I put 2 strong players against 2 weak players, it might be a 75% or 80% chance (all just how you feel about the matchups), all the way through all the sets and then depending on what rules your league is...so if you need for example 3 sets to win and 5 sets are played total, you just go with the combination that gives you the highest possible percentage across 3 different sets, and if that means saccing the other 2 that's what you do. Depends on the person though, some people might prefer to make all 5 sets as even as possible, but at that point you have to just rely on performances. I preferred trying to outstack the opponent.

Agreed... in this league, stacking options are relatively limited - which has its good and bad points.

As a side note, this season, we are at a supposedly lower playing level than we were last season, but have encountered SIGNIFICANTLY better competition at lines 1 and 2 than we did all last season at a "supposedly" higher level.

 

[Cawlin]

5 lines of mixed? Yikes. That sounds like a nightmare to fill and organize.

We only play 3 lines in mixed here.

I presume you're talking about USTA? This is a dubs only league - so spring and fall seasons are women's dubs and men's dubs, summer and winter are mixed dubs. 5 lines per week.

In truth it is a nightmare because it's typical adult rec tennis - and you usually have at least 30-40% of your roster unavailable every week. I carry 25 people on my roster currently (technically 27, but one is injured and was out all season, and the other is about to get bumped off because she "is working on her game" and refuses to play, though she is still friends with lots of people on the team. But yeah... it's a fkn nightmare - it's not a priority for anyone really... just a lark or a way to keep sharp between their preferred men's only or women's only seasons.

 

[OnTheLine]

It is nearly the end of the season, you have a 25 person roster and yet you have someone who hasn't yet played a match? Why?

I kinda like ALTA's rules on stacking.

You said you have 14 people available for 5 lines .... sounds like it shouldn't be that difficult.

My advice for what it is worth (exactly what you are paying for it) is to put out your best lineup of the people available, play it straight the way you are supposed to and trust your players. They may just rise to the occasion.

 

[Cawlin]

It is nearly the end of the season, you have a 25 person roster and yet you have someone who hasn't yet played a match? Why?

I kinda like ALTA's rules on stacking.

You said you have 14 people available for 5 lines .... sounds like it shouldn't be that difficult.

My advice for what it is worth (exactly what you are paying for it) is to put out your best lineup of the people available, play it straight the way you are supposed to and trust your players. They may just rise to the occasion.

It's the 7th match coming up, so we've only played 6 matches. One of which featured the opposing team defaulting lines 4 and 5. A few of the people that haven't played have had themselves listed as "last resort only" in availability all season, others have only been available for 2 or 3 out of 7 matches. One couple has changed their availability twice the day before matches when they were in the lineup, and the third time they were to play the team which defaulted their line. I only put myself on the roster in case we have to default lines - so I'm not even including myself in that 25 number. Further, if they don't update their availability, I don't chase them unless they are actually among the better players on the team. I have lots of newbies.

ALTA's rules on stacking are decent, I agree. Not a huge chance of getting blindsided... but still reward teams with depth.

As for trusting my team, I do trust their abilities, at least my regulars at lines 1, 2, and 3, and some of the time at line 4... but line 5 has been a loss all season and line 4 has been shaky because we only have 4 solid women on the team, and one of them has had some dodgy availability. My line 1 has been solid all season and have played competitively against the other line 1s, all but one of which would have HANDILY beaten anyone else on my team EXCEPT my line 1 (this is the first and only match they're not available)... The remainder of the women are either very new or just not very skilled and the remainder of the men aren't much better.

This team just isn't a priority for most of the players, and I guess that's the way adult rec tennis goes. In truth, I'd like to see either all the better players or all the weaker players leave it so that it can get into the position it should be in and so that I could recruit to fill the gaps - nobody wants to bring B-5 skills to a C-1 team, and likewise, nobody wants to join a C-1 team if they're a C-6 player... but I have a mishmosh... and basically 2 or 3 lines of B-5 players, a line or two of C-1 players and the rest C-6 or lower players... With the team playing at C-1 and me trying to motivate my C-6 players to do things like come to practice, work on improving their game, etc.

 

[Dartagnan64]

This team just isn't a priority for most of the players, and I guess that's the way adult rec tennis goes.

Yep. There are generally a lot more important things in peoples lives than hitting a yellow tennis ball around. Tennis is supposed to be fun and an escape from the dreariness of more important tasks. If you take that attitude, keep upbeat in victory and defeat, and take what comes, it makes leading a group a bit easier.

 

[Moveforwardalways]

Wow. You have a 25 player roster for a mixed team? Lol. Sounds like the 7th level of hades to me. Why on earth are there 25 players on a USTA mixed doubles league team?

 

[Cawlin]

Yep. There are generally a lot more important things in peoples lives than hitting a yellow tennis ball around. Tennis is supposed to be fun and an escape from the dreariness of more important tasks. If you take that attitude, keep upbeat in victory and defeat, and take what comes, it makes leading a group a bit easier.

Agreed... but if the captain doesn't work hard and go through all the administrative crap (which is actually an enormous amount of work for a rec league), then who will?

 

[Cawlin]

Wow. You have a 25 player roster for a mixed team? Lol. Sounds like the 7th level of hades to me. Why on earth are there 25 players on a USTA mixed doubles league team?

It's an ALTA mixed team - we play 5 lines of dubs for each dual meet - no singles lines - minimum roster size is 12 to start a team. Last season I had 18 people on the roster and only had one week where I didn't have to beg people to play or face defaulting lines - and I had to default lines on 2 separate occasions with that 18 person roster and that included putting myself in the lineup (which I loathe) for 4 matches. So I expanded the roster for this season.

 

[kevrol]

Dang gotta hate it when players prioritze their livlihood over rec tennis.

 

[Cawlin]

Dang gotta hate it when players prioritze their livlihood over rec tennis.

Like I said, mixed is low priority for everyone but the captain... for most of the women, it's a lark, for the men it's often a drag.

 

[brettatk]

We desperately need to add people to our Mixed roster. Of course Summer is always brutal with people going on vacation. After 6 weeks we have had 6 forfeits. ALTA's limit is 7 (or equal to the total number of regular season matches) and we'll probably get to that this weekend. I've yet to have a roster that was too large where there weren't any forfeits during the season.

 

[Cawlin]

We desperately need to add people to our Mixed roster. Of course Summer is always brutal with people going on vacation. After 6 weeks we have had 6 forfeits. ALTA's limit is 7 (or equal to the total number of regular season matches) and we'll probably get to that this weekend. I've yet to have a roster that was too large where there weren't any forfeits during the season.

I feel for you, I really do. Do your people complain when they're only available for 3 matches out of 7 and let you forfeit at least one line each week, when they don't get in to play every week that they are available?

 

[brettatk]

I feel for you, I really do. Do your people complain when they're only available for 3 matches out of 7 and let you forfeit at least one line each week, when they don't get in to play every week that they are available?

It seems like this season if you were available you played. Women have been our biggest issue this season but that hasn't always been the case. For one we only have 7 women on the roster. We lost a couple from Winter and didn't pick any new ones up. So a couple of times we've had enough guys but no women for them to play with. I think we forfeited two lines twice and one line twice this season. I'm not captaining this team but help out the captain. I've told him we need to add at least 2 more good women who are available most of the time. The issue is that we are currently A-1 and we've found it hard to find women at that level that aren't already committed to a team. And the women we need to add need to be able to play lines 1-3, we have plenty of line 4-5 women. Hopefully we can find a few in the off season.

 

[Cawlin]

It seems like this season if you were available you played. Women have been our biggest issue this season but that hasn't always been the case. For one we only have 7 women on the roster. We lost a couple from Winter and didn't pick any new ones up. So a couple of times we've had enough guys but no women for them to play with. I think we forfeited two lines twice and one line twice this season. I'm not captaining this team but help out the captain. I've told him we need to add at least 2 more good women who are available most of the time. The issue is that we are currently A-1 and we've found it hard to find women at that level that aren't already committed to a team.

Yep, I understand totally... it's rough. I love the social aspects of my own team, but when it comes time to set up the lineups, it's murder. We recruited a lot of brand new players since Winter when I had similar paroblems to those you describe, but most of them really are 2.5 to 3.0 level at best, so I've been bombing line 5 and sometimes 4 most of the season (in fact, my only line 5 wins (2) I have this season are from defaults, and 2 out of 3 of my line 4 wins have also been defaults. If we took the 6 best people off the roster, this team would be a C-5 or C-6 team at best.

 

[OnTheLine]

One couple has changed their availability twice the day before matches when they were in the lineup, and the third time they were to play the team which defaulted their line. I only put myself on the roster in case we have to default lines - so I'm not even including myself in that 25 number. Further, if they don't update their availability, I don't chase them unless they are actually among the better players on the team. I have lots of newbies.

.

Pet Peeve!!! If you are listed as last resort and I don't put you in, and then you whine about playing time .... grrrrrrr
If you change your availability every few days or few hours .... oh just kill me now.

25 is still a lot of people.... I spend most of my time fielding the calls of "why didn't I play as much as so and so"

 

[Cindysphinx]

A captain cannot make the players care.

I would say the players are probably caring just the right amount.

After all, if you’re not a powerhouse team, you’ll probably get destroyed in the post season anyway.

Just put them out there and they’ll win if they’re good enough.

 

[Cawlin]

Pet Peeve!!! If you are listed as last resort and I don't put you in, and then you whine about playing time .... grrrrrrr
If you change your availability every few days or few hours .... oh just kill me now.

25 is still a lot of people.... I spend most of my time fielding the calls of "why didn't I play as much as so and so"

I try to have the lineup for Saturday out 5 days in advance on Tuesday. This usually gives people enough time to remember their appointment to get their cat shampooed. I like TP nagging them daily to confirm as well once the lineup is out, I start chasing if they haven't confirmed by Thursday.

As for 25 being a lot of people - I have to field 10 players/week. At any one point in time 30 to 40% of them are unavailable on average - that leaves 16 or 17 players on average available each week - some weeks it's 11, some weeks it's been 22... when my roster had 18 people on it, the same availability ratios existed - and some weeks that meant I couldn't field a full lineup - and that.just.sucks...

There were a number of people that were "unavailable" for the first 3 to 4 weeks of the 7 week season, never came to any practices, or even corresponded with me... some of them never made it into a match this season.

There are two women giving me a hard time about playing time - everyone else is aware of why I'm playing others ahead of them:

One woman started off with me in the winter season (my first one as captain) saying "I hope I'll see some match time this season, [the other coach] didn't get me in at all last season". The truth is that she's never at practice, never corresponds with me or anyone on the team unless she's in the lineup, never comes out to support the team, supposedly takes lessons all the time, still is a terrible player - barely 3.0 despite taking lessons weekly for years (always on the night we call practice somehow) and playing on various womens teams for years and years. None of that is a deal breaker for me, but the one thing I actually can't stand and won't tolerate is that she makes objectively TERRIBLE line calls - whether it's old eyes, or the tried and true "When in doubt, call it out.' mantra, I don't know, but I can't abide it. I inherited her on this roster. I am hoping she leaves the team. During the only practice I ever saw her at a couple years ago, before I was captain of this team, I questioned one of her more egregious line calls... her vociferous and supremely indignant "IT'S MY CALL, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!" reply told me all I needed to know. The one match I had her in last season she and her partner lost bagel, breadstick, and I counted no fewer than 10 horrendous line calls from her during those 13 games... and I give considerable leeway when I am not on the court, for judging line calls to be bad... but I will NOT have my team known as a bunch of cheats.

The other woman giving me a hard time is brand new to the team, and is an enthusiastic 2.5ish player, but she's just not up to par for this playing level - despite that, I've had her in the lineup twice. She thinks that match play is what she needs to improve... I think she needs to stop switching the racquet to her left hand and learn a real backhand and also in general, she needs to learn another shot besides her "as hard as I can into the net" and her "as hard as I can to the back fence" shots... she's a work in progress.

 

[Cawlin]

A captain cannot make the players care.

I would say the players are probably caring just the right amount.

After all, if you’re not a powerhouse team, you’ll probably get destroyed in the post season anyway.

Just put them out there and they’ll win if they’re good enough.

It's true, we're not a powerhouse team - we're not deep enough... but... at lines 1, 2, and 3, we're solid with our "starters", and when they're available, line 4 is solid as well. Line 5 - not so much. If anyone from line 1-4 is unavailable, I have no choice but to move everyone up a line, and then 2 lines are in real jeopardy. Classic lack of depth.

 

[Dartagnan64]

Agreed... but if the captain doesn't work hard and go through all the administrative crap (which is actually an enormous amount of work for a rec league), then who will?

There should be a small slice of heaven set aside for team captains of any rec sport. My wife was a team captain for a woman's beer league hockey team and she spent hours of time dealing with team issues. All uncompensated.

 

[Cawlin]

There should be a small slice of heaven set aside for team captains of any rec sport. My wife was a team captain for a woman's beer league hockey team and she spent hours of time dealing with team issues. All uncompensated.

Well I wasn't trying to fish for such "credit", but I certainly was having a pity party with my OP, haha! Nevertheless, thanks!

I think that the leagues should prorate fees for captains or just get rid of those fees altogether. In the case of ALTA, that would be $25/year (no roster fees, just one flat rate for annual dues). In the case of USTA, maybe you still pay your annual USTA dues of what, $60 (or something like that?) But the roster fee (isn't it like $20 per team you're on?) for the captain could be waived for each roster they're a captain on, with co-captains prorated maybe, or captain and co-captain each pay half the fee... or SOMETHING... just the tiniest little acknowledgement from the leagues would be nice. I think @Cindysphinx might have suggested something like this in another thread some time back.

Instead what we get from the leagues are rebukes and admonitions to accommodate the other squeakiest wheel captains with their outlandish crap, and warnings that we will be punished twice as severely as any player on our team for any infractions and so forth...

As for the players' gratitude, interestingly, the former captain of my mixed team stopped by this past weekend and we had a chance to talk. He and his wife had lots of great advice for me on the handover of the team last year, and this "check-in" after a season and a half of doing it myself was very welcome - if only for the commiseration on the gripes about things like:

1) Why do adults have to be reminded over and over to keep their league dues up to date?
2) Why do adults have to be reminded over and over to put in their availability?
3) Why do adults have to be reminded over and over what the website is for them to use to put in their availability (even though the email each week has the link to it)?
4) Why do adults have to be reminded whether the match is home or away and what the address of the away courts is (even though the email includes this information)?
5) Why do adults have to be reminded to confirm that they're good to go for the scheduled match (even though the email about it includes a GIANT "click here to confirm" button and the application sends them a fresh email every day that they haven't confirmed)?

I know that's all simple stuff and nothing new there to anyone who has done this job - but honestly, that whole list of things would take each team member a sum total of less than 30 minutes combined for the entire season. That's less time than it takes me to put together a roster for one week's match... anyway... there... I've gotten it off my chest (again).

 

[OnTheLine]

Well I wasn't trying to fish for such "credit", but I certainly was having a pity party with my OP, haha! Nevertheless, thanks!

I think that the leagues should prorate fees for captains or just get rid of those fees altogether. In the case of ALTA, that would be $25/year (no roster fees, just one flat rate for annual dues). In the case of USTA, maybe you still pay your annual USTA dues of what, $60 (or something like that?) But the roster fee (isn't it like $20 per team you're on?) for the captain could be waived for each roster they're a captain on, with co-captains prorated maybe, or captain and co-captain each pay half the fee... or SOMETHING... just the tiniest little acknowledgement from the leagues would be nice. I think @Cindysphinx might have suggested something like this in another thread some time back.

Instead what we get from the leagues are rebukes and admonitions to accommodate the other squeakiest wheel captains with their outlandish crap, and warnings that we will be punished twice as severely as any player on our team for any infractions and so forth...

As for the players' gratitude, interestingly, the former captain of my mixed team stopped by this past weekend and we had a chance to talk. He and his wife had lots of great advice for me on the handover of the team last year, and this "check-in" after a season and a half of doing it myself was very welcome - if only for the commiseration on the gripes about things like:

1) Why do adults have to be reminded over and over to keep their league dues up to date?
2) Why do adults have to be reminded over and over to put in their availability?
3) Why do adults have to be reminded over and over what the website is for them to use to put in their availability (even though the email each week has the link to it)?
4) Why do adults have to be reminded whether the match is home or away and what the address of the away courts are (even though the email includes this information)?
5) Why do adults have to be reminded to confirm that they're good to go for the scheduled match (even though the email about it includes a GIANT "click here to confirm" button and the application sends them a fresh email every day that they haven't confirmed)?

I know that's all simple stuff and nothing new there to anyone who has done this job - but honestly, that whole list of things would take each team member a sum total of less than 30 minutes combined for the entire season. That's less time than it takes me to put together a roster for one week's match... anyway... there... I've gotten it off my chest (again).

Why are you channeling me?

My club gives captain's 1/2 off for our league fees ..... USTA sends us a thank you email. That is it. An email. How about a towel or a cap or something?

Why am I hounding my team to pay their club league fees? I do not want to be a bill collector!
Why am I having to deal with a player's nonsense if they can't communicate?
Seriously, read the schedule, do not call me 15 minutes before match time and tell me you went to the wrong club for the match ..... on the opposite side of town. READ THE DANG SCHEDULE! READ YOUR EMAIL ... there is even a link to the directions right there!
Why are you telling me that you won't play with players A, B, C, D & E .... there is no one left that are willing to play with you!?!!!

 

[TimeToPlaySets]

Why was my post censored ?
It was the best reply OP got in this thread.
Cawlin, did you read it before it was censored for truth and reality?

 

[Cawlin]

Why are you channeling me?

My club gives captain's 1/2 off for our league fees ..... USTA sends us a thank you email. That is it. An email. How about a towel or a cap or something?

Why am I hounding my team to pay their club league fees? I do not want to be a bill collector!
Why am I having to deal with a player's nonsense if they can't communicate?
Seriously, read the schedule, do not call me 15 minutes before match time and tell me you went to the wrong club for the match ..... on the opposite side of town. READ THE DANG SCHEDULE! READ YOUR EMAIL ... there is even a link to the directions right there!
Why are you telling me that you won't play with players A, B, C, D & E .... there is no one left that are willing to play with you!?!!!

Hahaha! I'm sorry, I must have attributed your idea/suggestion/experience regarding league fees to Cindy instead...

As for the captains' gripes - well, if I didn't realize their prevalance a year ago, I certainly do now, and I think all of us go through them and they vary very little in all of our experiences.

I feel like we should all be sitting around a table drinking shots and beers and smoking stogeys like they do at the season end wrap-up of Deadliest Catch or something!

 

[Cawlin]

Why was my post censored ?
It was the best reply OP got in this thread.
Cawlin, did you read it before it was censored for truth and reality?

I did read it and you were correct, to a point. I have my personal reasons for why I took on this captain role, and none of them had to do with my own tennis development.

I would point you to this statement in my OP ("wall of text", as you aptly described it haha!) that you also said you didn't read:

I think this is my last season doing this team captain stuff.

As for why the post was deleted - I am not sure why. I wasn't offended, and I surely didn't complain about it to anyone.

 

[TimeToPlaySets]

Glad it wasn't wasted.
And glad you're not wasting any more of your time

STAY FOCUSED

 

[Cawlin]

Glad it wasn't wasted.
And glad you're not wasting any more of your time

STAY FOCUSED

I will tell you this - if you remember your thread a few weeks ago about things a tennis team captain should and shoudln't do... I guarantee you that every single word I posted in that thread came from my own experiences (short as they have been) about the matter...

 

[OnTheLine]

Hahaha! I'm sorry, I must have attributed your idea/suggestion/experience regarding league fees to Cindy instead...

As for the captains' gripes - well, if I didn't realize their prevalance a year ago, I certainly do now, and I think all of us go through them and they vary very little in all of our experiences.

I feel like we should all be sitting around a table drinking shots and beers and smoking stogeys like they do at the season end wrap-up of Deadliest Catch or something!

Oh no, I believe @Cindysphinx has also said the same .... she has captained teams for a lot longer than I have. But I think her region gives tickets to a pretty good tournament (Citi open IIRC)

I am not captaining this summer ... the relief from the stress has been wonderful. I am now on the fence as to whether I will captain again in the Fall or not .... the only upside: I get to play with who I want on the line I want .... well 50% of the time, when I am not playing fill-in and playing where I don't want with who I don't want.

 

[Cashman]

The best way to get people to care about mixed doubles is to have a lot of young, single and attractive people on your team.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Oh no, I believe @Cindysphinx has also said the same .... she has captained teams for a lot longer than I have. But I think her region gives tickets to a pretty good tournament (Citi open IIRC)

I am not captaining this summer ... the relief from the stress has been wonderful. I am now on the fence as to whether I will captain again in the Fall or not .... the only upside: I get to play with who I want on the line I want .... well 50% of the time, when I am not playing fill-in and playing where I don't want with who I don't want.

I'm also taking a break, and as I said on another thread, I am on strike this fall out of spite for how our league handles tri level.

But despite the headaches of captaining, I'll be back in the winter for 2020. The reason is that captaining one team means I will get to play when, where, with whom, and against whom I want on one team. That makes it easier to deal with some of the decisions my other captains might make that don't make sense to me.

And honestly, I am traumatized by what happened when I stopped captaining 4.0. I had captained 4.0 for several years, and I decided to give up my team because I was too busy with travel to captain, and my roster was filled with ladies who wanted to play two matches and then decamp to their European bungalow for the rest of the season. Yup, that one horrific 4.0 season was my undoing.

It wasn't that I needed better partners to carry me in 4.0, although that would have been nice. It was that everything is working against you when you're on a good team, you aren't the strongest, and you're not the captain. I was paired with one match with a self rate (who got bumped down), and also a lady who was playing up. And I didn't get many matches because I was no good, which left me frustrated and rusty. The bad taste in my mouth was so strong that I stopped liking tennis and I wound up taking nine months off.

I guess I figure that captaining allows you to work around your own problems and slumps. Say your game is off, you're coming back from injury, you're working a lot, you're trying to change a stroke or develop a tactic, whatever it is. You can know things aren't right and you can bench yourself, or put yourself up against weaker opponents, or whatever. But when you're not the captain, you can't call a time-out and go fix yourself. And for me, feeling like that for every match on someone else's team was a total drag.