Bill Oakes, tournament director on the ATP Tour, is back to discuss what adult rec players can learn from the pros.

Bill is a sports marketing, sponsorship, communications, and event production professional. He has worked at Wake Forest University, the Winston-Salem Open, the USTA Southern Section, and numerous sports marketing firms over the last thirty-plus years.

He has hosted tennis television and radio shows since 2004, including doing play-by-play at the US Open for usopen.org radio. Bill has been a tournament director on the ATP Tour, chaired ATP committees on Television and the 250s, served on the Tournament Council, and been an instructor at the ATP University during this period.

Bill also discussed the Best/Coolest Tournaments to Attend as a Fan. You can listen to that here.

Transcript of our Conversation:

Carolyn: 0:07
Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Aaron, and we are excited to have Bill Oakes back with us tonight. He’s going to tell us what we can learn from the pros to help our adult recreational game. Bill has worked at Wake Forest University, the Winston-Salem Open, the USTA Southern Section and numerous sports marketing firms over the last 30-plus years. So Bill, tell us what we can learn from the pros to help our adult recreational game.

Bill: 0:34
Because we need help. Well, some more than others, I will use. I’m going to start it with something I heard from Ellis Ferreira, who, if you don’t know who Ellis Ferreira was, ellis was ranked number one in doubles for a long time has won many Grand Slam titles in doubles, in men’s doubles and mixed. He is a South African who played at University of Alabama and is just a really smart, good guy, and what I heard him say once was and what I heard him say once was don’t hit winners. To 90% of you know USTA players, just keep the ball in play because, honestly, it’s a war of attrition. You know there are levels of USTA players that are 4-0, 4-5, 5-0 that can play it, but the average USTA player, which is a 2-5, 3-0, 3-5, they just need to keep the ball in play. And so it was a really interesting conversation because he said half the time when he coaches, he notices that people try to do stuff that they really don’t need to try. If you go to the 55s and 60s and 65s nationals top players in the country those guys aren’t necessarily hitting winners, they’re just keeping the ball in play. Those matches may go forever, but they’re trying to. They may not hit it down the center every time. The guys and gals, but they’re a little bit, a little bit, but they’re not trying to hit lines, they’re not trying to go down the line, they’re not trying to do something that’s crazy, because they know that the quality of player will make their own error. That’s why we have unforced errors. So I think keeping the ball in play is one thing I hear regularly from the top players is to most recreational players keep the ball in play. And since most of us play doubles, I think that the real issues are related to doubles. I don’t think people that play singles it’s a little bit of a different game, obviously, but I think that the real issues are related to doubles. I don’t think people that play singles it’s a little bit of a different game, obviously, but I think when we’re talking about USTA players, let’s concentrate on doubles.

Bill: 2:33
The number one thing is communication being able to communicate with your partner on where you’re going to go, what you’re going to do, what they’re going to do, where they’re going to go, and understanding that. And when you look at the players, watch doubles. And I will say this watch the doubles players. Between every point they talk and it’s not just a fist bump. They will talk about what’s going on on the court, what they are seeing. Hey, this player can’t do this, don’t worry about it. Sometimes it’s a pep talk. Can’t do this, don’t worry about it. Sometimes it’s a pep talk.

Bill: 3:12
I will say that I loved mic’d up players on changeovers because when coaching has occurred at the WTA and ATP level, they’d mic’d up some coaches and sometimes they’re talking about where to hit the ball or whatever. Keep the ball deep, hit to their back end, but sometimes they’re talking about where they’re going to go have dinner. I remember on Tennis Channel watching two women’s players and they’re talking about literally where they’re going to go have dinner that night. That may not always be the best. I just always thought that was pretty funny because they were trying to take their mind off a bad game.

Bill: 3:48
Another component that I think is really important for tennis is what professional football players call the cornerback mentality. If you’re a cornerback, the guy who’s on the outside covering the wide receiver throw touchdown pass against you. They tell cornerbacks to have a short memory. Don’t remember the bad thing that just happened. And I use the same mentality with players have a short memory. If you make a bad shot, you make a bad shot. Try not to think about making the bad shot, because the cornerback mentality, the short memory, will go a long way to your confidence. And that’s the other part. Play with confidence, that doesn’t mean play with arrogance. If you go into it with feeling like I can’t do it, that’s going back to my first point. Keep the ball in play. Everybody that plays can keep the ball in play. You have confidence that you can keep the ball in play, so keep it in play. The other parts I would say are you know, focus on playing. You know, stay in the game. Stay in the match. Don’t be thinking about picking up your kids. That’s hard though. That’s really hard. It is hard, but that’s where you need to stay focused.

Bill: 4:58
And when you look at the top players, and even the you know person ranked 150 in the world, when you look at them, some of the things that you can take from them that I think are really important footwork Look how what they do after it’s not just leading up to the point, but what they do right after they struck the ball. What are they doing? Are they staying there? Don’t admire your shot. This was one of my real problems. I’d make a shot and then I’d be like wanting to watch it instead of moving back into position. So footwork being and positioning are so important in the top and when you look at players on the tour, when they make a shot, they’re already moving. Once they’ve struck the ball, they’ve started moving to get back in position. So footwork and recognizing that, your footwork and the reason that’s important is because if you don’t start quickly, you’re going to get out of position quickly and there’s going to be, especially if the ball is off to one side or the other, your forehand or your backhand or whatever. You’re just not in a good position.

Bill: 5:57
The other thing I would say is when you look at the top players, before the match gets started, they set up their seating area so when they come for a changeover, it allows them to focus, be comfortable, get their mind right and create communication opportunities and doubles. So they’re not setting it up like they don’t keep their water bottle in their bag, and you know they are. They’ve got it set me. I don’t know that you need to be Rafa, but you need to be set up before and I would say, even before your match starts. You know you look at what players do, after the warm up, they’ll go sit at their chair for a second to get their mind right. You know, and it’s a mental part we all recognize, it’s the mental part of the game.

Erin: 6:41
Yeah, I think, yeah, I think the I read recently I don’t know where it was and I don’t know what the exact statistic is, but at the levels that you mentioned two, five, three, oh, three, five. It’s more of a mental game because everyone has generally about the same skills, you know, I mean, there’s certainly some better than others, but, like you said, people can keep the ball in play. But it’s such a mental game that I think the mental aspect comes in more in those lower levels.

Carolyn: 7:07
Yeah, it’s also hard too, because this is adult recreational tennis, so people will start talking to you about where are you going to? Eat, whether they’re getting a divorce, what’s going on in their life and it’s really hard but to be like oh, I need to focus, then you’re the mean one.

Erin: 7:24
I think, yeah, you’re the weirdo If you’re not engaging in conversation.

Bill: 7:28
Recreational tennis is recreational tennis and it should be about fun. So I take this there are many levels of this conversation that you can take in and you know, maybe the the social part is why you play and you don’t want to create the focus, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create the situations as it relates to communication with your partner, with your partner using your opportunities at changeovers to communicate their understanding your footwork, not admiring keeping the ball in play, like I agree, I don’t play tennis to be a competitive person anymore. I play tennis to have a social experience with my friends. So for me, yeah, I may not be talking about divorce. I mean, that sounds kind of like sad.

Erin: 8:13
I mean, carolyn, I just can’t believe that Exactly, Someone felt comfortable enough with Carolyn because she’s such a nice person that she felt comfortable. But you’ve also had people she’s also had, which I thought this was actually sweet, had people tell you about. There was a woman that lost to Carolyn and then I think she apologized because she said I’m getting ready to have this huge interview for a job she really wanted, Right, yes, yeah. And then and you know she didn’t play well, Carolyn beat her it was a nice match and then I think you saw her like a few days later, but she was so excited to tell Carolyn that she had gotten that job. So you know versus.

Carolyn: 8:46
I was like was this strategy? Is she telling me she’s got this job interview to mess me up?

Bill: 9:00
You know, know, and then it was just like no, she’s just a really nice person. Yeah, she actually was. She really had a job interview. Yeah, look, I think that most of the people one of the great things about tennis is I think that most people truly are nice and doing it because of enjoyment.

Bill: 9:06
But when I, when I look at the players and when I talk to them and when they do clinics and um, you know they don’t talk about whether you’re using an eastern or western grip, whether you’re going to hit a kick serve to the corner, whether you’re going to. You know someone’s creeping in, you know too much on it and doubles to the center. So you should, you know, yeah, you want to know whether you’re going to come up and you know that. You know whether the serve is going to serve and volley or whether they’re going to stay back or whether you’re going to poach or whatever. Those are the simple communication components. But people aren’t going. Ok, well, this person leans in, you’ve got to go down the line. Normally it’s if you know that they’re going to poach, yeah, maybe you lob or you know whatever or whatever. But keeping it simple I mean the old McDonald’s acronym of KISS, keep it simple stupid really does come into play, especially at the early levels, and your enjoyment in tennis.

Bill: 10:11
And yeah, you may not get it right the first time or the second time, but you need to experience the opportunities and see what other people are doing and what your capability is. And if you go in with thinking I can do this, I can keep the ball in play. That’s half the battle.

Carolyn: 10:24
We really appreciate Bill being on the podcast. We have one more episode with Bill where he will give us more tips to help our adult recreational game and he’ll discuss his most memorable moment on the court, and it involves calling the ball out when he knew it was in. We hope you check out our website, which is SecondServePodcastcom. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.