The Court Room

This week, tennis fans will be treated to the inaugural ATP Next Generation Finals in Milan, Italy. The Next Gen organizers have introduced some interesting rule changes this week and this caught my eye big time! Some of the rules include player coaching via headsets, no lets, a 25-second shot clock between points, no doubles alley, a movement-free policy for fans, shorter sets, no-ad scoring and hawk-eye on all line calls. Now THIS is what I’m talking about! In 2015, the NCAA approved some ‘major’ changes to the college tennis format, including no-ad scoring, no warm-ups and a set of doubles instead of a pro-set to 8 games 1 . The intention here was to make college tennis matches, which can last more than 4 hours, more fan-friendly. I say these ‘major’ changes to college tennis to enhance fan engagement are totally missing the mark.  To make college tennis as engaging as possible, we need to be bolder. Fans attend games to take in the social scene. 3  They also wa...

The best leaders are the ones who help others up instead of tearing them down. My driving passion is to help make a difference in the lives of student-athlete – this is why I chose to pursue a career in college coaching. As a coach, my job is not only to prepare these young women to win tennis matches, but also to help build the next generation of leaders. There are countless leadership skills that student-athletes will get to learn once in college, but there is one critical skill that is overlooked, and that is Process.  If more college athletes were exposed to the Law of Process, I believe they would be given a great competitive advantage. The Law of Process says that nothing happens overnight. 1 Instead, we must commit to a process to achieve our goals. If we know this to be true and obvious, why do so many of us continue to pursue instant gratification, the path of least resistance? We want results now, but often we aren’t willing to put in the hard work that is req...