February 2008 -- I was very interested in CEO Tim Heckler’s article on cheating in the October/November ADDvantage magazine.
The past few years have brought a change in the role of the teaching professional at the club level. The arrival of interclub teams, USTA adult leagues, junior teams, Ralleyball, and now QuickStart tennis has changed the club environment. Most club activities tend to be geared toward team or group situations - moving away from individual tournaments or ladders. In other words, the job of a teaching professional seems to be morphing toward that of a full-time coach.
Teaching professionals are feeling pressure from an array of sources such as owners, managers, members and even parents. That pressure might be comparable to what a college football coach or even a professional coach in a major sport can experience. In today’s world winning is absolutely everything, and that mindset brings with it a key question. Is a teaching professional trained and qualified to take on the increasingly demanding role of a coach?
I personally feel that the wrong atmosphere or environment makes cheating by individuals competing in team activities almost acceptable in the cheater’s own mind. It is time for the tennis professional to step up, in the role of coach and as the one accountable for the team’s actions, to help set the right example.
Some of the issues that a club tennis professional might have to address are team sportsmanship, recruiting team members who aren’t associated with the club or public facilities program, performance-enhancing substances, and educating students on how to handle this era’s new technology.
The first topic of team sportsmanship is an issue that I personally feel very strongly about. I know that playing on a team is exciting and a lot of fun, but when did it become acceptable to clap and cheer when an opponent makes an unforced error or double faults? Tennis professionals need to be responsible for how their players conduct themselves. Even more critical is how tennis professionals themselves act during a team event.
Tennis is a wonderful sport. A teaching professional needs to be just that at all times — professional. Recently, I attended both the Northern California junior team championships and my local high school sectional championships. I can’t convey how shocked and dismayed I was to see that it was a coach who was the person clapping when his player’s opponent double faulted or made an error. This is happening more frequently, and if the coach is clapping on opponents’ errors, how do you think the players and parents from these teams are going to act? Even more disturbing is that I have seen coaches try to psychologically get under an opponent’s skin even though the kid might be only 10 years old.
What is happening to this great game? I know it is very hard in a team situation to control everything, such as when players’ friends and parents clap and cheer, but I do feel that coaches should teach their teams good sportsmanship.
If this quality is lacking, a team member playing on a court in front of poorly behaved supporters will probably be more apt to cheat. Even the coach might look the other way and not deal with the situation because of the environment.
The second topic is recruiting team members from outside the club or program. Some clubs or tennis professionals will do anything to win a sectional or national team title by bringing in players from outside their club and beyond.
I’m sure bonafide cases exist, but really, what is the likelihood that a player who lives three hours away would be a member of a club if there was no incentive for him or her? These coaches are almost like college football recruiters looking for anyone to help them win by bending the rules along the way. When team members experience these "win-at-all-costs" situations, how can you expect them not to cheat on the court? Also, when one professional starts recruiting outside his or her club, the other professionals in that area often seem to follow suit.
I had an interesting conversation recently with an old college buddy. My friend is now a certified trainer and plays tennis recreationally in the Bay Area. He went to watch the USTA National Girls 18s Hardcourt Championships at the Berkeley Tennis Club and Claremont Resort this summer. He said he was in awe of the level of play he saw, but he couldn’t help feeling deeply disturbed while wondering whether some of the girls were taking some type of performance-enhancing drugs. As a trainer who helps people improve their level of fitness, he pondered how these players could get that physically developed without help from performance drugs. I know this a touchy subject that is perhaps better kept for another article, but as certified tennis professionals, it is important that we not be naive about this growing concern.
I wonder how many parents are either giving their children human growth substances or looking the other way so young players might get an advantage over the competition on the tennis court. It is our responsibility as tennis professionals to be educated on this matter. Please be direct on this issue and help educate your members who are representing your club in team situations. Have a meeting with your owners, managers and tennis staff to figure out the best way to handle these cases. Obviously, if players - and indirectly their parents - are willing to cheat the system with performance-enhancing drugs, I would think there is a likelihood that they might cheat on the court.
The final topic has to do with the technology age. There are so many ways for people to communicate these days that it becomes almost comical when and how they try to do it. The cell phone has obviously become a way of life, but I am amazed that people in tournaments actually walk on the court talking on the cell, call people in the middle of changeovers, or keep the ringer on even if their phone rings during a point.
Is respect for an opponent or even basic etiquette truly gone? I know players might need the phone on for family emergencies, but they should remember that they are playing a competitive match against an opponent who deserves to compete fairly without delays and distractions in the match. Here are a couple of junior team situations that I have witnessed in the past couple of years. The first one was catching a teenage boy calling a buddy at the end of the first set with his opponent sitting right there to let his friend know he had won the first set 6-0. To say that I was upset about my student’s complete lack of respect for his opponent in this situation is an understatement. Please know it was addressed immediately, and I am confident that it will never happen with this player or any of my players again. The second was catching members of our junior girls team texting each other on changeovers in their matches. Although the texted items had nothing to do with tennis - even though a couple of these girls were in the process of playing a third set - it would have been very easy for them to ask for and possibly receive input or advice on how to win their match.
Some of the other issues I have had to address include players playing video games on changeovers, taking pictures on the phone during matches, checking messages and calling friends back in the middle of the match. Every year, we have discussions with the coaches and captains on this subject and the rules that need to be followed. I’m sure some other new gadget will arrive in 2008 that will have me scratching my head as to why players think it’s OK to use it during competition.
How does the subject of new technology pertain to cheating? I would think that if a player is willing to talk on the cell phone, text message or do other things during a match that show a basic lack of respect for his or her opponent, making a few bad line calls might be the next step.
In closing, does our organization - the USPTA - need our most qualified coaches to start producing seminars that relate to team coaching? I believe so. The lack of sportsmanship and cheating mostly starts at the lower levels of tennis - the start-up junior leagues, advanced junior leagues, interclub teams and high school tennis. We need to make sure that young or beginning tennis players don’t develop a "win-at-all-costs" mentality as they continue to develop. Let’s make sure their focus is on improving their strokes technically and helping them develop basic rituals as well as learning strategy and tactics. I know our two new online learning resource centers - the high school coaches Web site and the parent-coach Web site - address these issues.
Most of us went into this field as a career because of our joy in teaching the game of tennis. Now it is time to learn the right way to coach a team on how best to play the game of tennis.
