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| tennisoncampus.com |
Katelyn Caniford | Towpath Tennis Pro
Being
a part of any team is great. Making friends with your teammates and sharing
countless memories of hard fought matches is something truly unforgettable.
However, good memories aside, not everything on your team can be picture
perfect all the time. In many cases, whether its high school, college, or a
USTA team, favoritism is very common. Sometimes so much so that it can be
extremely detrimental to not only the players themselves, but the overall
success of the team. Here are some different scenarios involving favoritism and
how to deal with them.
Playing
Friends
This
is a very common problem especially on USTA teams. In many cases, if the captain
is making their lineup, it isn’t unheard of for the captain to play their
friends (regardless of what their playing level is) instead of other players
who may in fact actually be better than the “friends” of the captain. Not only
is this an incredibly frustrating situation, but it makes the team dynamic both
awkward and uncomfortable. The best way to deal with this? Begin with talking
to the captain yourself. Sometimes it even helps to get your teammates opinions
as well and maybe approach the captain as a group (if your situation allows).
Another option if talking to your captain isn’t working is to get an un-biased
pro involved to hopefully help sort out the situation. Try to emphasize that
the current situation you’re in is very detrimental to the team’s success
especially with not having the best possible players in the lineup. Hopefully
the pro will then be able to step in and help to resolve the situation.
“Pay-to-Play”
In
most cases coaches and pros are completely unbiased towards the players that
they coach, however, sometimes you can find yourself caught in a situation of
pay-to-play and I’m not referring to paying to play on your high school team. This
version of pay-to-play is where coaches favor certain players over others
because of how much money they are paying towards their program at the specific
club they play at. What this means is that players who are willing to spend the
most money on the tennis clinics, programs, etc., will be favored to play
higher in the lineup over players who might not be paying as much.
This
can be incredibly difficult because it doesn’t leave much option for players who
might not be financially able to pay as much as others, or because they work
and cannot attend as many drills. And if these players are incredibly talented,
is it really fair to downgrade them if they don’t play as often? Solution—if
you are willing to pay and have the time commitment available then great!
Otherwise, deal with the position you will be placed in even if it’s not where
you think you should be playing. But the best and most logical option would be
to find another club. Do your research ahead of time before making the
commitment to go somewhere else and make sure you talk to whoever is in charge
of the programs there to get a good grasp on how the club handles things and
what their staff is like. Then make a judgment call from there and go with
whatever will work best for you.
Tennis
Pro’s and Coaches Picking Favorites
Unfortunately,
it is easy to get caught in a situation of your coach or pro picking favorites.
This is very common especially on high school and college teams. So what do you
do when you know someone is playing higher then you because the coach likes
them better? Well there aren’t a whole lot of options but the best way to
approach the situation is to try talking to the pro/coach about your position
on the team first. You can even try to gauge how some of your teammates feel and
see what they think and then try to approach the coach as a group discussing
how all of you feel about where you are being placed on the team. If this
doesn’t work, your best bet is to talk to either the athletic director or
person in charge of the overall program and have them handle it. After all it
is their job to deal with those situations and hopefully fix them.
Overall
the best way to deal with a situation of favoritism is to begin with talking to
the person in charge of your program and go from there. Try to approach the
individual or head person in charge with the best attitude possible and
emphasize how your biggest concern is the success of your team.
