Bill Oakes, tournament director on the ATP Tour, is back for a second episode 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.

Listen to part one of our discussion with Bill where he talks about what adult rec players can learn from the pros.

Transcript of our Conversation with Bill Oakes

Carolyn: 0:08
Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Erin, and this is part two of our conversation with Bill Oakes about what we can learn from the pros to help our adult recreational game. If you haven’t listened to part one, we hope you go back and listen. But here is part two. Bill, I really liked your point that the majority of the time we shouldn’t be going for winners.
Bill: 0:27
I mean I watched a singles college match where I think I saw three winners hit. This is a division one power five match. I saw three winners hit in a match. Every other point was an unforced or forced error.
Erin: 0:43
That’s my game, that’s me.
Bill: 0:46
Unforced errors. Unforced errors yeah, I mean, I think I set a record for the most. That’s what our podcast should have been called unforced errors.
Carolyn: 0:53
I tried to name it. I actually tried to name it, unforced error and somebody already had it.
Erin: 0:56
Yeah, I believe it.
Bill: 1:08
I think unforced errors. You know that’s what drives most points in USTA recreational play, it’s not winners. So if you cut down on your unforced errors, think of how many more points you’ll win. I haven’t talked about, well, set up a point. Yeah, if you’re a top player, you can set up a point, and it’s a game of chess.
Bill: 1:19
I think Rafael Nadal may be the greatest player ever at also learning how to set up a point. He plays two points. He plays two shots ahead. He knows that if he moves you to this particular point, you’re going to have choices, then you’re going to have, and then he’s going to do he’s already in his head this is what I’m going to do, and then Novak is great at it. Obviously, top players are great at it because they want to not only take care of the physical excellence they have, but the mental excellence and playing. They play chess when they’re out there, not playing checkers, and I think that we need, you know, top players. That’s a key factor. But I think most of them know that I’m really thinking more about the players that are 2-5, 3-0, 3-5, on how to small little things to make their game a little bit better. From what I’ve seen from the top players and heard from the top players.
Erin: 2:10
Yeah, I watch myself play tennis and it’s shocking that I can win matches, because I don’t feel like I’m that good either, but I have a lot of fun doing it.
Bill: 2:16
She’s great. I think your last statement’s the most important one. You have a lot of fun doing it, exactly, and the other part and the part that I think really I find great about both of you and so many others is that you have joy and and in the game and what you do and you get to have fun with it and you get to do things like this podcast, where you get to hopefully bring that joy to others and let them talk about the joy they have in playing tennis, the sport of a lifetime.
Erin: 2:46
Yeah, but again back to doubles too. If our two opponents are talking and they seem to be coming up with a plan, I’ll sometimes walk up to my partner and just say I don’t really have anything to say, but I want them to think that we’re coming up with a plan, whether we have one or not, because that gets in their head.
Bill: 3:01
Your communication with your partner does not need to be always hey, do this, it’s hey, we got this. Hey, do you have any thoughts? Take a split second You’ve got. At the pro tour there’s 30 seconds between points. Some people want to maximize that. Some people take advantage of it. I get that.
Bill: 3:24
But don’t feel like a point ends and you have to be in position right away. Play at the comfort and pace of your game, within the rules. So that doesn’t mean you can take two minutes between points, but take your few seconds between points, and sometimes you need it. Sometimes you need to clear your head on a bad shot or whatever it is. So take that time. The pros do and they do it.
Bill: 3:51
I mean, when you watch a professional player try to play fast, it’s because they feel like they’re on a roll and they’ve got their opponent in a bad spot. When you see players play slow, sometimes it’s because they play slow to just slow down their opponent or get in their head, but it’s all based on their comfort and their desire to keep a pace that they want. And the same thing can be for for regular players. Just do it within the rules and that’s the you know. Do it within your time. You’re a lot of time and don’t feel bad or pressured. And if you see them, you know eight seconds after the point’s over, standing and ready to serve and you need a break, just say, and you don’t even need to say sorry if you don’t want to. I mean, I think that’s a nice thing to say, but you know, take your few seconds. Hey, give me a sec.
Erin: 4:36
Yeah, I have a question for you. Are you still playing pretty often?
Bill: 4:40
I don’t play as much as I’d like to because I have a bad shoulder from a skiing accident and so I’ve never decided to. I don’t want to get surgery, so serving is really problematic for me. I like to hit, but I was playing with Dave Odom, the former Wake Forest and University of South Carolina basketball coach. We’re about the same level. We would hit pretty regularly, but he always wanted to play points and I always would say I’m not going to play with you if we’re going to play points Because I can’t serve. He’s like oh, no, no, and then you know, after we’d hit for five minutes, like let’s play some points.
Erin: 5:17
Right.
Carolyn: 5:19
That’s great. I do have one more question for you, bill, since you did used to play tennis a lot and you played in a fun league. What’s your most memorable moment on the court?
Bill: 5:27
it’s not a good one um that’s okay.
Bill: 5:30
So I was playing, I was playing in an 18s event. Uh, more than two days ago, uh, being that I’m now 57 I was playing in an 18s event and on clay and um I was getting, I drew the second seed in the tournament and he was crushing me I mean hammering, beating me, senseless. So I had lost the first set six love and I think I was down two love in the second and I was sure it was 40 30 and I was serving and I served and I served a volley and came up and he lobbed me and he hit a great lob, four inches inside the baseline, um, and I called it out, I hooked him and so I could win a game. And I went and rubbed out the mark After the match. After the match, we’re at the net and I said I just couldn’t lose double bagel. And he laughed, he goes, I don’t blame you.
Bill: 6:31
And he was a good player. He played divisional in college, but it was so much fun playing that and I mean I remember it to this day, I, but it was so much fun playing that and I mean I remember it to this day. I can tell you where I was, what court I was on. He was just a really good guy.
Bill: 6:47
I mean, I will say my favorite positive memory was the first time I got to play a match with my parents at St John’s College High School in Washington DC. We would go play there and I remember as a little kid going to play there and then playing match with my parents and that to me, is really what drove my love in the game. I became a ball boy at the Washington Star, which is now the City Open. I started working at tennis courts at Wintergreen in 1977. And tennis has been a good portion of my adult life and career and it’s so much fun and it’s it’s brought me so many friends and funny stories. And you know, whether it’s Brooke Shields or Martina Navratilova or Andre Agassi or Pete Sampras, I’ve got so many funny stories that I wish I could write a book, but many of these people would then try to run me over if I wrote the book.
Carolyn: 7:43
Exactly. We can’t thank Bill enough for being on the podcast. If you’d like to see a picture of Bill, please check out our website, which is SecondServePodcastcom. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you in the sports scene.