We were thrilled to welcome Eric back to the podcast! Eric won the USTA Men’s 55+ 4.5 singles National Championship at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, FL. Returning to tennis and competing at age 59 has profoundly changed his life. If you didn’t listen to last week’s episode, you should do that now. It’s a good one!

Eric is from Long Island New York. He currently plays in leagues, and trains in Naples, FL for most of the year, while living in Northern NJ during late Spring/Summer. He returned to competitive recreational tennis after a 35-year hiatus.

A Transcript of our Conversation with Eric about Playing Tournaments Versus Leagues

Carolyn: 0:22
Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Aaron, and this is part two of our episode with Eric, who is the 55 plus four five singles national champion. He took a 35 year break from tennis and credits tennis with helping to save his life. If you want to learn more about that, please check out part one, but here is part two.

Erin: 0:41
So tell us what’s the difference between playing individually or doubles tournaments versus a league, in your opinion?

Eric: 0:48
You know.

Eric: 0:48
So, in addition to playing tournaments, which has been my focus, I’m a captain of a team in four or five men’s league in the Naples area and I’m also on a mixed doubles league and I love to play both formats. I find that they’re very different experiences for me, league versus tournaments, and you know when the logistics work out. I think leagues can be like very social, and the teaming aspects is what I really really love. I mean like to what we were talking about, erin is that when you’re playing a singles tournament, you’re kind of out there on your own, yeah, and when you’re playing a singles tournament you’re kind of out there on your own, and when you’re in a league it’s very, very team-oriented and social. It’s wonderful and it’s just got a different level of intensity. So it depends on what you’re looking for. Some people love the doubles and the teaming aspects and some people love the singles aspects.

Eric: 1:36
For me, the leagues are a little challenging sometimes with the logistics and the scheduling. Is that, hey, you’re trying to get a match going, you say you’re going to play, and then things change a lot More often than I expected. You know, being a captain or coordinating league matches, it can be kind of a little frustrating scheduling wise. What I like about tournaments the other way is that when you sign up for a tournament it becomes like a priority. You’re saying that’s the date the tournament is going to be, you’ve signed up for it, you’ve kind of scheduled around the tournament, both everything you have to do to get ready for the tournament, be in the tournament and even like the recovery during the tournament and everything. So it has a different context than my experience in leagues and it’s just. You know, what you’re looking for is an experience and for me I find the intensity of a singles match for me is just. I grew up as a singles player. I’m a singles player who loves playing doubles.

Eric: 2:32
Usually you know what I mean. So I just I kind of like being out there and I said it’s when I get into my flow, it’s great when I have doubles. It depends on the doubles partner I’m with when you get to the point where you’re just starting to just know what’s going on, the flow between the two. So it’s just different experiences. But it’s really about making a commitment. Some things are leagues are. I think the value of them is that they can be very flexible, which is great for a lot of folks. But with tournaments they are far more. And then if you play a tournament that then says, hey, I know I need to go for travel, I need to go someplace else, well, that’s also another commitment, whether it be regional or nationally. Not only the time but the expense. Not everyone wants to kind of like, do a tournament all the time.

Carolyn: 3:23
Are you lonely playing tournaments like singles tournaments? Because to me a singles tournament sounds miserable by myself Never. Because that’s why I love team. If I’m going to play singles, I want to be there with my team.

Eric: 3:36
Right, well, you say that, well, I suppose I don’t. Well, no, I don’t ever feel I’ve been on tournaments where I go, and sometimes people are supporting me and sometimes I go on my own, like right now I’m actually competing in the USTA Red Court National Championships. But to your point on being lonely out there, I never, never feel more.

Carolyn: 3:56
No. So the answer is no, he’s not a woman.

Erin: 3:59
That’s why it’s so good to have you on, because we do have so many. I mean, we have so many. Carolyn and I have talked about this for years. We love having a man’s perspective because it is so different than our experience, just personality-wise. But do you find that, even though you’re in a very competitive situation and signing up for tournaments, people are paying good money to, like you said, travel and train and recover and do all these other things? So it’s no small feat to get there and do all that. But do you also feel like they’re still pretty social, like are people, even though you’re competing against people? It must be a fun experience, totally, yeah, I mean you definitely meet people.

Eric: 4:38
That’s one of the things about league versus tournament. Sometimes when you’re playing a league, you know everybody and if the local it is, you’re playing the same people and that’s kind of cool. But sometimes it’s like, hey, this is my local crew, and that’s when you’re playing tournaments. I find you’re always meeting newer people all the time. And sometimes when you’re playing the value of going to regional or national tournaments and you meet people from like all over the country and hey, you start experiencing and you find like, for example, I was down in Florida playing a tournament and I realized I started playing with people who also have a college background and like, oh, wow, when did you go to nationals? It turns out we were actually in nationals at the same time.

Erin: 5:18
Oh, cool yeah.

Eric: 5:19
Yeah, and actually in the same tournament in 1987. That’s crazy. You know like. Wow, you know it was like. So it’s great meeting new people, it’s very social and it’s great meeting folks and learning about their backgrounds and where they’re from.

Carolyn: 5:34
What are the line calls like?

Erin: 5:36
It’s always, Carolyn, I love you.

Carolyn: 5:41
She’s always like. It’s always Carolyn, I love you. She’s always like what are the line calls? Like who are the people? I’m thinking like? I’m thinking like USTA singles national championship everybody’s paying to go to Florida. I’m thinking very intense.

Eric: 5:49
Yeah, I mean it is. I mean there’s no question about that. Um, uh, caroline, it is. It is intense. I think you have it’s.

Eric: 5:57
I don’t know I mean as a singles player. I think you have. I don’t know I mean as a singles player. I think I mean I grew up as a singles player for one. That’s what I my whole. When I started playing tennis I didn’t really doubles was kind of a thing that was fun to do, but I always liked my.

Eric: 6:09
I would evaluate my progression as a tennis player as a singles player, and you get to learn how to play in all sorts of conditions, in all sorts of bad situations, and you have to stay with your flow and sometimes you get bad, you know, I’d say bad calls or opponents that are really not fun to play with, and then you get quite the opposite. There’s sometimes when you play people that it’s just like this is the most fun I’m having. I might even be losing, but we’re just pulling out the best in each other. I love that and we’re like in some places, like and this is maybe more of a mental thing Like a lot of times people don’t want to say good shot to each other. You know, hey, you just hit a great shot and I think what I’m playing now I find it’s far more like, if you hit a really good shot, people acknowledge it to each other.

Carolyn: 6:59
Yes.

Eric: 6:59
And that kind of sets the tone of like hey, you know we’re out here both doing our thing Only jerks don’t. You know, and there’s always situations where it can get a little difficult. But you know, you kind of work it through and I’ve never had a situation and to the point about like being in a national tournament, you’d think that there would be an official.

Carolyn: 7:21
Right, right. There’s no officials. There’s no officials.

Eric: 7:23
No officials and maybe that’s going to change with Swing Vision or something like that and AI scoring and all that stuff. But sometimes I really think that for players who are competing at a national level, and you talk about just adult recreational, or even the fact that there’s no officiating at college level games is kind of amazing. Okay, and it takes a little bit of the. You’ve got to focus on your flow, you’ve got to focus on what you know and you’ve also got to be an official.

Carolyn: 7:49
Yes.

Eric: 7:50
Which no other sport really has that kind of context.

Carolyn: 7:52
So it’s so hard.

Eric: 7:54
Yeah, and you know, sometimes you know I’d say, look, nine times out of 10, you’re going to get the calls right on both sides and then if there’s that one that you don’t know, then you kind of work it through with the other person and it’s just, you just work it through, just like anything else.

Carolyn: 8:09
He’s such a man.

Erin: 8:10
I know Well, I think. But he has such a good mental state too, I think, staying in that flow, like if we can remember that, then like I, just I I always tell myself I don’t have I have as much energy to play a match, I don’t have extra energy to be irritated with people, or it just takes too much, right so, but but, but some people are looking for a fight Right.

Erin: 8:33
You know, that’s just how they are. They’re just looking, they’re looking, they, they, they think they go into it, think they’re going to be cheated, and so they’re looking for a fight. But those are usually the people that you can beat too, because they’re the first ones to implode, because they’re so hung up on you know being treated a hundred percent, you know making a hundred percent correct calls and nobody cheating them that, um, they’re easier to beat.

Eric: 8:53
I feel like yeah Well, I mean, listen, I kind of feel like when I was a kid on Long Island or whatever you know, between high school and all the terms, I felt like I was playing street ball.

Erin: 9:04
You know, I mean like you know I mean it’s like you’re built to fight.

Eric: 9:08
Well, I mean and there’s a part of it which is physical, but it’s the mental part Like, okay, well, all right, Look if, if, if you’re going to call bad lines on me, right, then you know, when I was a kid, Stan Smith was like one of my idols.

Eric: 9:20
Okay, I mean. And so I’d heard about the story where, you know, they’re in a Davis Cup match and they’re getting, and with professionals and everything around, they’re getting bad line calls in a Davis Cup match against Elon Nastassi and all this sort of stuff. And I’m like, so what do you do? And he’s like, okay, well, I’m not going to hit the ball close to the line, I’m just going to do other things to win. And if that’s what you’re going to have to pull, this is the line calls. Well, I’m going to take that out of the equation, I’m just going to start working in another way. And okay, and then you get to the point where, and then when they to your point on just the tipping point of an opponent, and at that point, if they still can’t win or can’t get through that stuff, then you’re just, you know, you’re just kind of just have to stay consistent and be in your moment and let them fall apart.

Carolyn: 10:05
So, eric, can you tell us the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you playing tennis?

Eric: 10:10
Sure, well, it has to do with the tournament. And I show up and I said do with the tournament. And I show up and I said I had a noon match, okay. So I go into the tournament check-in place I say hi, I’m Eric, I’m here for my noon match. Okay, I’m thinking nothing of it. She says, great, she’s got it on there, go good. And she comes over and says all right, go off on court five or whatever and start your match. Great, I’m playing. The match played, it won it. Come back, check in the score and then realize there was another Eric and there were two Erics at noon. And I thought I kind of naively thought I’m the only Eric in the world who’s playing in this tournament at noon. And so then I came back and then the other Eric was playing for me and had started a little late and they were in the first set somewhere and I asked the tournament director to say please stop the match. And they did, and then we restarted the real match. Did you win the second?

Erin: 11:10
one, I didn’t.

Eric: 11:11
Oh, bummer, I didn’t, oh, bummer, I didn’t. So you know, and maybe, look, I don’t know if this guy would have gotten a better result than I did, but it was just funny, it was just an awkward thing. And so now I’m like, oh, it’s like all these things you have to think about, like, okay, well, I have to be there at 12 o’clock, well, I got to travel. You know all these different things you got to deal with now. Now I have to go and think about, well, I have to say my first name, my last name, the match number, who my opponent is to make sure that you know I’m on the right court.

Erin: 11:46
That’s funny. You’re like I need to channel the other, Eric.

Carolyn: 11:50
Thanks again to Eric. We have one more episode where he tells us what he does to stay in flow on the tennis court and his opinion on sandbagging at 4-5. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.