Have you ever tried out for an adult rec tennis team? Did you know it was a tryout? Have you ever been cut from a team after a tryout?

In this episode we discuss trying out for teams and how ridiculous it is. If you aren’t sure whether it is a tryout or not Erin has a question you could ask (other than is this a tryout) =)

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Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Adult Recreational Tennis Team Tryouts

Carolyn 0:06
Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Erin, and we’re going to talk about trying out for an adult recreational team. Erin, have you ever had to try out for an adult recreational team?

Erin 0:18
No, I haven’t, but I do have a story about it. The reason we’re doing this is that it’s so ridiculous to do adult recreational tennis team tryouts.

Carolyn 0:30
Well, I have. And I also got cut from that tryout. So maybe it should be getting cut from an adult recreational team. I’m not sure. This was my first experience with adult recreational tennis. I took a lesson from a tennis pro, and after I’d taken a few lessons, he set me up with a lady he said I should go hit with. He said, “She’ll be great.” Well, I go to hit, and it’s with a team of 2.5 ladies. And I was terrible. I was hitting the ball over the fence. So I should have been cut. I mean, the captain wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t even know I was trying out. I just thought I was going to hit. I was trying to make new friends. You know, you’re an adult, you don’t have any friends, and I’m trying a new sport. Then after I practiced with these ladies, I got a text from the captain just saying, “Hey, I’m sorry, there’s not a spot for you. The team is full.”

Erin 1:40
Magically, we filled the spots today, right before this text. We filled all the spots.

Carolyn 1:46
Yeah. Before the practice, there was a possibility, but afterwards, there wasn’t. And I told somebody, and they were like, “You probably could have looked it up,” because where we live in North Carolina, on our spring teams, there’s a limit of 15 people. They told me I should go back and see if there were only 13 on that team, or not 15.

Erin 2:06
Right. That’s so funny. I didn’t have that experience that I know of. But I mean, we all could have gone through tryouts, right? That’s how crazy adult rec tennis can be. We probably all had a tryout and maybe didn’t know. And it’s funny that the pro set you up with this captain, but then it was a whole team of people. So you were probably not only being judged by her. It’s not like you were just going out for a friendly hit. All eyes were on you and you had no idea.

Carolyn 2:34
Nobody wanted to play with me. I played on different courts that night, I remember that. I guess nobody said yes.

Erin 2:42
That’s even better. Oh my gosh, I could just picture it. And here’s the funny thing about Carolyn: I know you got good really quickly. So they were probably kicking themselves. The best thing you could say is, “Big mistake,” because you went from a 2.5 to a 4.0. How many years did it take you to go from 2.5 to 4.0?

Carolyn 3:05
Six. I think it was six.

Erin 3:07
That’s pretty good. They just had no idea how good you were going to get. But did it motivate you, maybe? Or you just didn’t know? Because that would motivate me. I would be like, “I’m taking every lesson.” I would be so competitive if I got cut that it would make me better.

Carolyn 3:23
No, I think the captain was correct. I was pretty terrible. So it wasn’t really a motivation. Then someone else asked me to be on a singles team, and I realized I really enjoyed it and really enjoyed the people. But I definitely started off getting cut without even realizing it. So for anyone listening, if you get cut from your first team, do not give up.

Erin 3:47
Right. Dream big, people, dream big. So I didn’t have that experience that I know of, but I was on a team that was going to states, and I remember them wanting to all meet and do a team practice. But it really wasn’t just a team practice. The captains were looking at who they should put on court one, court two and court three. I think it was a combo state, so maybe there were three doubles, because there was no singles at the time. I remember my doubles partner and I, who were typically doubles one, were playing against the women who were typically doubles two, and they were making bad line calls. My own teammates, I was shocked. I did not want to play another season with them. They’re lovely people now, but we were so competitive at 2.5 that I was like, “My own teammates are cheating, making bad line calls so that they can get on doubles one.” Which now is probably not the case at all, because sometimes that doubles one spot is too much pressure anyway at states. But I remember leaving that practice thinking, “I cannot believe we just did this.” It was a team practice, but it was really challenge matches, deciding who was going to play on what court at states. I couldn’t believe we were being competitive with our own teammates. But that’s 2.5 tennis for you. The competition makes people nuts.

Carolyn 5:20
It does, it does. And I don’t know if my husband is even going to allow me to put this on here, but I’m going to tell it anyway. He tried out for a team that was a level up. I think it was a 4.5 team. It was really interesting how it happened. You know how it is, where a friend of a friend asks you if you can play on this team? That’s how it happened. My husband thought he was being asked to be on the team, but I think he was being asked to try out for the team. The captain contacts him and says, “Do you want to meet and hit?” My husband and I were laughing because we were like, “This is totally a tryout.” And he gets there, and the guy who’s the captain is probably in his 20s, and he takes out a ball hopper full of balls. They go to opposite sides of the court, and he starts feeding my husband balls to hit. Then I guess he passed that part of the tryout, because after he stopped feeding balls, they decided to play a match. But my husband did say, “Is he going to feed me balls for the next hour and a half?”

Erin 6:44
Is this like he’s a pro and this is a clinic?

Carolyn 6:48
Yes, that’s so crazy. Luckily, Mike did make that team, but that was definitely a tryout, because afterwards the captain said, “You’re on the team.”

Erin 7:02
Did he get an offer right there and then? Did he get a rose? Was he presented a rose right there and then?

Carolyn 7:08
I think he got the offer to play singles only. You know how those offers are.

Erin 7:12
I get those offers a lot. “We would love you to be on this team, but we’ll be playing singles, and we need a warm body on a singles court, and you’re our girl.” Exactly. That’s so funny. I could see girls doing that, but I think we’d be a little more secretive about it. I thought guys were just straight up: “Hey, dude, this is a tryout. This is what we’re going to do.” But the fact that it was, I mean, that sounds so awkward. Could you imagine, as a woman, showing up and having a captain say, “All right, for the first 30 minutes I’m going to feed balls and you’re going to work on…” It’s like you paid a pro to do that and you’re like, “This is a lesson.” Not, “Okay, I’m going to check out your forehand and your backhand.” That’s so crazy.

Carolyn 8:02
Yes. What would you do, Erin, if someone asked you to be on a team, and you were going to hit with the captain, and they started feeding you balls from a hopper?

Erin 8:15
I have no idea what I would do. I would probably go through with it like Mike did and think, “This is super awkward.” I’m surprised he didn’t say, “What are we doing here?” They’re usually much more straightforward. I’d be like, “Okay, this is weird, but I’ll go along with it.” I don’t know. What would you do?

Carolyn 8:34
I would hit the balls. I would love it if someone would feed me balls.

Erin 8:39
And not pay them. Is this a free lesson? Yes, exactly. That’s crazy. Have you heard of anyone else having tryouts? I’m sure teams do it all the time. I did hear from someone recently that you should do challenge matches. Take your best deuce and ad players and play them against your second team or whatever. And I’m like, “Do you know that this is a women’s rec team? This is not going to go over well.”

Carolyn 9:12
Right.

Erin 9:14
I mean, they do that for juniors all the time, or for JTT. I think in high school and college, they always rank you on a court, but we don’t do that in adult rec. Maybe we should. Maybe we should start implementing new things, Carolyn.

Carolyn 9:31
That’s right. But be very clear from the beginning: this is a tryout, or this is to put you in the order we think for a match. I think if people’s expectations are set, they know what’s going to happen. What was so shocking for Mike is that he didn’t realize it was a tryout until he was in the tryout.

Erin 9:51
Well, same with you, except yours was a little less obvious. So the team that you didn’t make, was that a 2.5 team? Were they trying to build a super 2.5 team to go to states and beyond? Do you have any idea? Were they just looking for people and you didn’t make the cut? You weren’t the person they were looking for.

Carolyn 10:12
Yeah, I think they were just looking for people, and I was not very good, so I did not make the cut. I don’t know.

Erin 10:19
And Mike’s was truly, “We’re building a super team, we’re taking this as far as we can.”

Carolyn 10:26
I don’t even think it was.

Erin 10:32
That answer is worse. Because when you get to the 4.0 or 4.5 level, if you’re having tryouts, you think you’re having people try out to be on a super team. My husband hasn’t played, I think he played one season of league ever and doesn’t play at all anymore, but he captained a team, and literally guys are like, “Eh, I can’t play tonight. Let’s just forfeit that court.” And women are like, “That’s ridiculous. We paid to be in this league and we should make it up at all costs.” And guys are just like, “Eh, whatever.” So I’m surprised they would have tryouts for a team that they weren’t trying to build into a super team, to go on to playoffs and states and maybe beyond.

Carolyn 11:17
Yeah.

Erin 11:18
It seems like a lot of effort.

Carolyn 11:20
I think it was the captain deciding whether or not this person is good enough even to be on the team. Maybe it was to make a good team, but Mike, I don’t know if he’ll want me to say this, Mike is not a 4.5. He’s not a high-level 4.5. So I think it was just whether or not the captain was willing to have this person on his team.

Erin 11:43
Did he have any other 4.0s on that team? Did the captain have any other 4.0s?

Carolyn 11:48
I don’t know if he did. So maybe it was a level below: can you make it on this team? Maybe that’s the reason.

Erin 11:56
Yeah, I was going to say, if he had other ones, I hope that they had a tryout as well.

Carolyn 12:00
Yes. But Mike has tried out for a super team before and he didn’t make it. He probably should be on this podcast right now. I mean, he’s probably going to be like, “What are you talking about?” But he thought again that he was being invited to be on a super team, but it was a Tri-Level team, and he showed up for a tryout. With Tri-Level, they only take four at that level, and the other people trying out with him were self-rates and appeals. Mike was very honest: they were better than him, so they should make it. But again, let’s make everything clear. This is a tryout. Everybody should be very honest. When I went to try out for my 2.5 team, I didn’t know I was trying out. I was like, “Oh, I made some new friends,” and then all of a sudden I get a message saying I did not make it.

Erin 13:10
Not only are you not on our team, we are not going to be your friend.

Carolyn 13:14
I think the text actually said that I could come to practice when people couldn’t make it.

Erin 13:21
You were a sub. Yeah, you were a sub. Well, nowadays, if Mike thought, or you thought, or I thought that we were being invited onto a team, like someone has contacted us and said, “Hey, come out and hit tonight, I have this team,” I guess you should watch the language, like, “I have a spot for you on the team, but let’s hit to make sure.” Or I would just say, “Can you send me the team number?”

Carolyn 13:52
And I’m not stepping onto the court until you give me that team number.

Erin 13:56
And if they say no, then you know it’s a tryout. There you go, we solved the problem. If somebody asks you to play tennis because they have a team they’re putting together, but they say, “Come out and meet me to hit first,” and you say, “Can I have the team number so I can get registered?” and they say, “No, not yet,” you are going for a tryout.

Carolyn 14:17
Yes, that’s right.

Erin 14:19
There we go.

Carolyn 14:20
Please let us know if you’ve ever had to try out for an adult recreational team, and if you knew it was a tryout. You can message us on our website, which is secondservepodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and we hope to see you on the courts soon.