Dealing with favoritism on a team

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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. 

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How to communicate with your doubles partner the RIGHT way

Katelyn Caniford & Kristianne Bontempo | Towpath Tennis Contributors

In honor of our 3.0 40 & Over Men's USTA team competing at Nationals this month, we wanted to tie in how vital communication is in doubles and how to create a winning method. Communication with your doubles partner is by far one of the most critical components of succeeding together as a team. Whether your partner is your best friend who you’ve played with for years or someone on your USTA team who you’re meeting for the first time, those skills will be a huge factor on whether or not the two of you will work well together in your matches.

front row (l to r): Matt Birbeck, Scott Altman, Michael Kramer, Bill Fox, Adam Stopka
back row (l to r): Ron Bassak, Curt Binder, Ron Novak, John Ragner, Steve Wilt

Often times, communication on the court can be both verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication can consist of talking between points, during points, and in between changeovers about various strategies as well as the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. Sometimes verbal communication can even just be helping to lift your partner up if they are struggling to get their confidence back.

Non-verbal communication is just as important as verbal communication. This could be hand signals identifying where one of you will be moving on the court, fist bumps to stay connected with each other, or simply making eye contact or giving an encouraging smile. Even if you agree not to talk during the match (some players prefer it that way), non-verbal communication is still a must. So whether it's verbal or non-verbal, let’s go over how to communicate with your partner the right way.  

Do

·         TALK BETWEEN POINTS - In many cases, it doesn’t matter what you are saying to your partner, as long as it’s something positive, encouraging, and helpful. I know from experience that playing with someone who didn’t speak to me at all both during and in-between points is incredibly difficult and frustrating. Whether or not you are talking strategy or just playing therapist to your ailing companion, it is always helpful to speak to each other. That way both of you will be more comfortable as the match goes on and will be able to have enough trust in each other to be successful. Which brings me to my next point

·         TRUST YOUR PARTNER - If you don’t have trust in your partner’s abilities then it’s going to be extremely difficult to be on the same page with your communication skills.  A lot of times, especially in USTA you can get paired with someone that maybe isn’t at the same skill level as you, but the best advice I can give with this is, make it work! Just because your partner isn’t Serena Williams doesn’t mean they don’t have their own strengths to be successful. As their doubles partner it’s your job to build their confidence up and use their strengths to create the best possible match-up you can have. If your partner is incredibly patient during points, use that to your advantage. Get them involved in those long rallies so they can hopefully set you up to hit a winner. If their weakness is the net, maybe try having them stand at the baseline with you so you can be the one to go up and play the net.

·         STAY POSITIVE - There is nothing worse than having a partner that’s negative about every little thing that goes wrong or who knocks your confidence down. Doubles is about teamwork. In order to work together as a team, both people need to have a positive attitude about the match. If you screw up a point, high five your partner and get the next one. Even if your partner is hitting every single ball out, the best thing you can do is keep them calm. Help them to get their confidence back by lots of encouragement and really showing that you believe in them and their abilities. Being as positive as possible even in the worst of situations is the best remedy for a partner who is struggling. Tennis matches can go on for a while. There’s always enough time to come back from any terrible situation as long as you have the right attitude.

Don’t

·         SHOW FRUSTRATION - If things aren’t going well for you or your partner is having difficulty, one of the worst ways to react is by visibly showing those frustrations. If you are unhappy with something, do your best to change it. Again this means encouraging your partner even if on the inside you want to scream. If you’re playing bad, don’t show your opponents your frustration. Instead, slow your game down and focus on trying to be consistent until you can get your confidence back. That way, your partner doesn’t start to deteriorate as well.

·         STOP TALKING TO YOUR PARTNER - Duh! You could be beyond annoyed with your partner, feel the heat of a partner that's frustrated with you, or you could simply be cruising along in a match before you realize your communication has completely deteriorated. How to prevent this? The obvious solution is to remain talking, even if it's about your weekend plans. The more difficult solution is to keep talking when one partner is frustrated. Despite being intimidated, I once walked over to my obviously frustrated partner who clearly didn’t want to talk and sparked up a fun, non-tennis related conversation...guess what it worked and we were able to turn the match around!

·         TEACH - There’s nothing I hate more than having a doubles partner that feels they need to correct what I’m doing wrong when they’re not my tennis pro, especially when that partner could use a little help on their own game. Here’s the thing, you don’t have to sit back and watch your partner make the same mistake over and over without a little help, but it’s imperative you approach it encouragingly. It’s best to use ‘we’ in situations when you want to help your partner improve: “We might have better luck lobbing the net player.” “We should try laying off of our shots to reduce the margin of errors.”

Now here's the biggest tip-have fun! Remember that you and your partner are out there playing together because you both love tennis! Even when things seem tough, as long as you help each other, and have fun, you're already setting yourself up for success.

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