What can adult recreational players learn from the pros?  

Join us for a compelling conversation with Bill Oakes, a veteran in sports marketing with over three decades of experience. Discover how concentrating on minimizing unforced errors and focusing on strategy rather than hitting winners can revolutionize your performance, whether you’re a 2.5 or 3.5 USTA player.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

What We Can Learn from the Pros: Bill Oates

Carolyn 0:07
Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Erin, and we are excited to have Bill Oates 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 0:35
Well, some more than others. I’m going to start with something I heard from Ellis Ferreira. If you don’t know who Ellis Ferreira was, he was ranked number one in doubles for a long time and won many Grand Slam titles in men’s doubles and mixed. He’s a South African who played at the University of Alabama, and he’s just a really smart, good guy. I heard him say once: don’t hit winners against 90% of USTA players. Just keep the ball in play, because honestly, it’s a war of attrition. There are levels of USTA players, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, that can play that way, but the average USTA player, which is a 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, just needs to keep the ball in play. It was a really interesting conversation, because he said that half the time when he coaches, he notices that people try to do stuff they really don’t need to try. If you go to the 55s, 60s and 65s nationals, the 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. They may not hit it down the center every time, the guys and gals, but they’re not trying to hit lines. They’re not trying to go down the line, they’re not trying to do something crazy, because they know that the other player will make their own error. That’s why we have unforced errors. So keeping the ball in play is one thing I hear regularly from the top players: for most recreational players, keep the ball in play. And since most of us play doubles, I think the real issues are related to doubles. People who play singles, it’s a little bit of a different game, obviously. But when we’re talking about USTA players, let’s concentrate on doubles. The number one thing is communication: being able to communicate with your partner about 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. When you watch doubles players, and I will say this, watch them between every point. They talk. It’s not just a fist bump. They talk about what’s going on on the court, what they’re seeing. “Hey, this player can’t do this, this can, don’t worry about it.” Sometimes it’s a pep talk. I loved the mic’d-up players on changeovers. When coaching has occurred at the WTA and ATP level, they’ve mic’d up some coaches, and sometimes they’re talking about where to hit the ball, “keep the ball deep, hit to their backhand,” but sometimes they’re talking about where they’re going to have dinner. I remember on Tennis Channel watching two women players literally talking about where they were going to have dinner that night. That may not always be the best, but I always thought it was pretty funny, because they were trying to take their mind off a bad game. 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 on the outside covering the wide receiver, and a touchdown pass is thrown against you, they tell cornerbacks to have a short memory. Don’t remember the bad thing that just happened. I’d 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 it, because the short memory will go a long way toward your confidence. And that’s the other part: play with confidence. That doesn’t mean play with arrogance. If you go into it feeling like “I can’t do it,” that goes back to my first point: keep the ball in play. Everybody who plays can keep the ball in play. Have confidence that you can, so keep it in play. The other parts I would say are: focus on playing. Stay in the game, stay in the match. Don’t be thinking about picking up your kids.

Carolyn 4:50
That’s hard, though. That’s really hard.

Bill 4:52
It is hard, but that’s where you need to stay focused. And when you look at the top players, even the person ranked 150 in the world, some of the things you can take from them that I think are really important are footwork and what they do right after they’ve struck the ball. It’s not just leading up to the point, but what they do right after. 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 want to watch it instead of moving back into position. So footwork and positioning are so important. When you look at players on 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. The reason that’s important is that if you don’t start quickly, you’re going to get out of position quickly, especially if the ball is off to one side or the other, your forehand or your backhand, and you’re just not in a good position. The other thing I would say is that 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 in doubles. They don’t keep their water bottle in their bag. They’ve got it set. I don’t know that you need to be Rafa, but you need to be set up before. And even before your match starts, look at what players do after the warm-up. They’ll go sit in their chair for a second to get their mind right. It’s the mental part. We all recognize it’s the mental part of the game.

Erin 6:37
Yeah. I read recently, I don’t know where it was, and I don’t know what the exact statistic is, but at the levels you mentioned, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, it’s more of a mental game, because everyone has generally about the same skills. There are certainly some better than others, but like you said, people can keep the ball in play, and it’s such a mental game that I think the mental aspect comes in more at those lower levels.

Carolyn 7:04
Yeah, it’s also hard, because this is adult recreational tennis. People will start talking to you about where you’re going to eat, whether they’re getting a divorce, what’s going on in their life. And it’s really hard to say, “Oh, I need to focus,” because then you’re the mean one.

Erin 7:20
I think you’re the weirdo if you’re not engaging in conversation.

Bill 7:25
Recreational tennis is recreational tennis, and it should be about fun. There are many levels of this conversation. Maybe 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 situations as they relate to communication with your partner: using your opportunities at changeovers to communicate, understanding your footwork, not admiring your shot, keeping the ball in play. 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, I may not be talking about divorce. I mean, that sounds kind of sad.

Carolyn 8:11
Exactly. That’s what I did.

Erin 8:13
Someone felt comfortable enough with Carolyn, because she’s such a nice person. And I thought this was actually sweet: there was a woman who lost to Carolyn, and I think she apologized because she said, “I’m getting ready to have this huge interview for a job,” that she really wanted, right?

Carolyn 8:32
Yes.

Erin 8:33
And she didn’t play well, and Carolyn was better. It was a nice match. And then I think you saw her a few days later, and she was so excited to tell Carolyn that she had gotten that job.

Carolyn 8:41
I was like, “Was this strategy? Is she telling me she’s got this job interview to mess me up?” And then it was just like, no, she’s just a really nice person. She actually did have a job interview.

Bill 8:53
Yeah. I think one of the great things about tennis is that most people truly are nice and are doing it because of enjoyment. But when I talk to the players, when they do clinics, they don’t talk about whether you’re using an Eastern or Western grip, or whether you’re going to hit a kick serve to the corner, or whether someone’s creeping in too much in doubles to the center. You want to know whether the server is going to serve and volley or stay back, or whether you’re going to poach or whatever. Those are the simple communication components. People aren’t going, “Okay, this person leans in, you’ve got to go down the line.” Normally it’s, if you know they’re going to poach, maybe you lob. But keep it simple. The old acronym KISS, keep it simple, stupid, really does come into play, especially at the early levels and for your enjoyment of tennis. 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 thinking, “I can do this, I can keep the ball in play,” that’s half the battle.

Carolyn 10:18
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 secondservepodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and we hope to see you on the court soon.