Can cutting down on unforced errors really transform your tennis game? Discover the strategies and mental tactics used by the pros, as Bill Oakes enlightens us on how even a slight shift in focus can elevate your recreational play. 

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.  

Transcript of our Conversation with Bill Oakes

Carolyn 0:07
Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Erin. This is part two of our conversation with Bill Oates 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’ll 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 was a Division I Power Five match. I saw three winners hit in the match. Every other point was an unforced or forced error.

Erin 0:44
That’s my game. That’s me.

Carolyn 0:45
Yeah.

Bill 0:46
Unforced Errors. I think I said last time that your podcast should have been called Unforced Errors.

Carolyn 0:52
I actually tried to name it Unforced Error, and somebody already had it.

Bill 0:57
I believe it. Unforced errors are what drive 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. And if you’re a top player, you can set up a point. It’s a game of chess. I think Rafael Nadal may be the greatest player ever at learning how to set up a point. He plays two shots ahead. He knows that if he moves you to this particular spot, you’re going to have choices, and then he’s already got in his head what he’s going to do next. Novak is great at that too. Top players are great at it because they want to take care of not only the physical excellence they have, but the mental excellence. They play chess when they’re out there, not checkers. That’s a key factor for top players, but I think most of them know that. I’m really thinking more about the players who are 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and the small little things that can make their game a little better, from what I’ve seen 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. But I have a lot of fun doing it. She’s great.

Bill 2:17
I think your last statement is the most important one: you have a lot of fun doing it. And the part I find great about both of you, and so many others, is that you have joy in the game and in what you do. You get to do things like this podcast, where you hopefully bring that joy to others and let them talk about the joy they have in playing tennis, the sport of a lifetime.

Erin 2:45
Yeah. But again, back to doubles. 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 we’re coming up with a plan.” Whether we have one or not, that gets in their head.

Bill 3:00
Your communication with your partner does not need to always be “Hey, do this.” It can be “Hey, we’ve got this,” or “Do you have any thoughts?” Take a split second. On the pro tour, there are 30 seconds between points. Some people want to maximize that, some people take advantage of it. I get that. 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. That doesn’t mean you can take two minutes between points, but take your few seconds. Sometimes you need it, to clear your head after a bad shot or whatever it is. So take that time. The pros do. 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 to slow down their opponent or get in their head. But it’s all based on their comfort and their desire to keep the pace they want. The same thing can be true for regular players, just do it within the rules, within your allotted time, and don’t feel bad or pressured. If you see them eight seconds after the point’s over, standing and ready to serve, and you need a break, say, “Hey, give me a sec.” You don’t even need to say sorry if you don’t want to, though I think that’s a nice thing to say. Take your few seconds.

Erin 4:35
Yeah. I have a question for you. Are you still playing pretty often?

Bill 4:39
I don’t play as much as I’d like to, because I have a bad shoulder from a skiing accident. I don’t want to get surgery, so serving is really problematic for me. I like to hit. I was playing with Dave Odom, the former Wake Forest and University of South Carolina basketball coach. We’re about the same level, and we would hit pretty regularly, but he always wanted to play points. I 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, after we’d hit for five minutes, he’s like, “Let’s play some points.”

Carolyn 5:16
Right. That’s great. I do have one more question for you, Bill. Since you used to play tennis a lot and you played in a fun league, what’s your most memorable moment on the court?

Bill 5:26
It’s not a good one.

Carolyn 5:28
Okay.

Bill 5:29
So I was playing in an 18s event more than two decades ago, meaning that I’m now 57. It was on clay, and I drew the second seed in the tournament, and he was crushing me. I mean, hammering me, beating me senseless. I had lost the first set 6-love, and I think I was down 2-love in the second. It was 40-30 and I was serving, and I serve-and-volleyed and came up, and he lobbed me. He hit a great lob, four inches inside the baseline, and I called it out. I hooked him, so I could win a game. I went and rubbed out the mark after the match. After the match, at the net, I said, “I just couldn’t lose a double bagel.” And he laughed, and he goes, “No, I don’t blame you.” He was a good player, he played Division I college, and it was so much fun playing that. I remember it to this day. I can tell you where I was and what court I was on. He was just a really good guy. 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, D.C. We would go play there, and I remember as a little kid going to play there and then playing a match with my parents. To me, that is really what drove my love of the game. I became a ball boy at the Washington Star, which is now the Citi Open. I started working at tennis courts at Wintergreen in 1977. Tennis has been a good portion of my adult life and career, and it’s so much fun, and it’s brought me so many friends and funny stories. 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 it.

Erin 7:34
Exactly.

Carolyn 7:36
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 secondservepodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and we hope to see you on the court soon.