I get to wear many hats while on-site at the USTA BJK Girls’ 16s & 18s Nationals… volunteer for social media, registration, tournament survival guide and college recruitment forum, coach to one of the players, college consultant for two players, and a former player and spectator.

Here are a few of my reflections on the changes in the 35 years since I played… The tournament site looks like a professional event. The variety of ways for parents to coach their player has not evolved. Mental skills coaches have made many players robots between points. Ok, what is up with the obnoxious fist pump and scream “come on”? Draws are horrifically large. By day 3, it feels like there are more college coaches than players. Final 8 dinners have filtered down from the Slams. Apparently, bladders are much smaller in this generation, making a need for multiple bathroom breaks every match. And, my main pet peeve, parents and coaches allowing players to pull out of the consolation draw.

Tournament Site

Lornie Kuhle has done an incredible job transforming the Barnes Tennis Center into a world-class tournament site: Newly resurfaced courts, shaded stadium seating, electronic scoreboards, new Pancho Segura draw boards, electronic match status for every court, umpires for every match, sponsor tents, sponsor cars on-site, flags for every state represented in the draw, and both the semis and finals televised on the Tennis Channel. Adidas has excellent player gifts and the La Jolla Beach, and Tennis Club hosts the Final 8 Dinner, catered on the beach, in the sand, at sunset! Lornie puts his heart and soul into putting on a top-class event, and it shows!

Parents

One of the most painful, yet entertaining, things to watch, are the parents watching their kids compete. Not an easy task, and I am glad I don’t have to do it! You see all ways to deal with the stress: One is sitting tightly wound up, one is pacing, one is moving around like they are playing (that would be me), spouses on opposite sides of the court, one can’t stop talking (that was my mother), one is peeking out from behind a tree (that was my father), and then there are the ones coaching during the matches. I can’t say that the ways to coach during matches have evolved all that much.

Here are just a few of the most common ways to coach during a match:

Clapping codes: Think of Morse code in clapping. One clap means x, two claps mean Y. You get the picture.

Strategic Cheering: When the player does something right, and you want them to continue this strategy (just in case they did it on accident). “Great way to move forward!”. “Great way to get the ball DEEP.” You get the picture. I will admit to being guilty in this area.

Signals: Having been a professional tennis player, we can walk through a tournament site and see the hand/body signals like a dog smells food. It is in our genetic makeup. Coaching signals are timed meticulously as the player glances over to the parent. Hopefully, the same time the umpire looks down to score on the iPad. Some comon signals are: tapping of the hat, turning of the hat, hand gestures, (hand waving on the right generally means to play the opponent forehand) tapping body parts (Tapping knees while doing a squat stretch generally means ” BEND YOUR KNEES”), a big stretch above the head (usually means to reach up on your serve). And of course, bulging eyes while doing the signal indicates an expletive in the player’s ineptitude to execute the instruction.

Constant conversation: Some parents just chat away with their child from behind the court. Commonly done in Russian, Mandarin, and Spanish, (hoping the umpire doesn’t understand) but frequently out in the open in English.

Metal Skills

Many of the players have mental skills coaches. In my day, this was our coach or parent, feeding a hopper (or 20) of balls, torturing you side to side, hitting targets, without missing, until you were about to lose your mind. And then, (just when you think it is safe to go in the water) you have to do 3 more sets. Nowadays, you can see who has a mental skills coach. The routine looks like this between points: the player quickly turns their back, stares at their strings, walks back to the fence, has a conversation into their towel, bounces on their toes, gives themselves a “come on”, and turns back to the baseline to play the next point. Between every single point! We had a good laugh with a view of 3 courts with all the players doing the same routine. No wonder so many matches are 3 hours. Can someone change it up? PLEASE!

Draw Sizes

Ok, I know this isn’t going to be a popular opinion with many people, but I am sorry, it is ridiculous to have a draw size of 256! A draw of 128 is MORE than enough. I will stop there.

Obnoxious Fist Pump & COME ON!

I would love to know who started the obnoxious fist pump trend. Many of you know what I am talking about. After a point ends, maybe a 5-second delay (meaning not an immediate natural adrenaline reaction), a player turns to stare at her opponent and gives a very loud and deliberate “COME ON” while pumping her fist. It looks absurd. It looks obnoxious. One watching can’t help but laugh.

The match gets even more entertaining when both players are doing it back and forth. They aren’t only competing during the points, but they are competing in antics between the points. In those 20 seconds, I could barely compose myself and figure out my game plan for the next point, much less add these shenanigans into it!

I know coaches who coach players to do this, and I can’t help but wonder why? It is so absurdly manufactured it is laughable. To me, it is no different than giving your opponent the middle finger. If an opponent did it to me, I am sure I would have laughed (just before I pegged them on the next point). Don’t get me wrong, I was the queen of the “staredown”, but there is something to say about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Kids: Please drop the antics and just play. It is much better for everyone, yourself included.

College Coaches

The current college scholarship frenzy has a lot of activity and stress at nationals. We had 30 schools and over 100 players and their parents attend the college forum on registration day. Most D1 programs, along with many D2 and D3, were present at nationals. I am glad I didn’t have the pressure of playing a match with a row of coaches along the side of the court at such a young age!

You can easily spot the coaches with all the school logo gear. As the saying goes: one logo a fan, two logos a player, three logos a coach. I had a good laugh when one of the coaches made a joke that she can’t tell the players apart. They all have high ponytails in braids and visors. At least the players know which school the coaches are from with their school logos.

Consolation Draw Withdrawals

One of the biggest disappointments was the ridiculous amount of withdrawals in the back draw or consolation draw. This is something I simply don’t understand. When I tried to pull this and told my mother I didn’t want to play the back draw, her answer nailed it “then you shouldn’t have lost”. Pretty tough to argue that point. Parents and coaches are doing their players the BIGGEST disservice by allowing them to pull out! Here is why...

• You get to play more matches against the highest level competition in the country.
• You get to immediately learn from your mistakes in the main draw match.
• You are taking away the life lessons that tennis teaches. You are telling them it is ok to walk away and quit when things don’t go your way.
• College coaches HATE it when kids quit! They remember who had the guts to stay and play.
• By making kids play the consolation they will fight harder to win the main draw match. Anything to avoid the back draws.
• It builds mental toughness, resiliency, tournament endurance, and great confidence when you pull it together and win more matches. Yes, all those things you pay extra for with the mental skills coach.

Final 8 Dinner

One of the highlights of the week for the players and their families is the Last 8 Dinner. In my day, making it to the last 8 simply meant you made it to the quarterfinals and didn’t have to play the back draw. For anyone who has played or coached these events, you know the torture that is involved with the consolation draw. Now the players, families, and coaches are guests for a catered sunset dinner on the beach at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. I am always thrilled when I am asked to be the speaker for the event. It is tough to find a more beautiful spot in San Diego!

Bathroom Breaks

Apparently, bladders are much smaller in this generation. Having to take a bathroom break after a 45-minute set is absurd! Obviously, it has little to do with “needing” to use the bathroom. The abuse of this rule is an issue in the pros as well. It is so predictable when players are going to take advantage of a necessary rule and use it to try and change the flow of the match.

Jokes aside, the 2019 Girls’ nationals was an incredible week of tennis! Lornie Kuhle uses the tag line for the tournament, “Where Champions are Made”. Watching the players, it is evident that some of our future stars of American tennis were indeed competing this week. It is always fun to see the young players before they make the jump into the pros. Congratulations to all the players, coaches, and families who participated in the success of this year’s event! Well done, and I hope to see you out there again next year!

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Special congratulations to our 2019 USTA BJK Girls’ Nationals winners! Reese Brantmeier and Katie Volynets. Looking forward to following you at this year’s US Open!