THE ART OF PICKING PLAYERS FOR TEAMS: Part #1

 


As I broke the news to the best player in the country that I was not selecting him to play in the Davis Cup tie the following week I expected a huge backlash.

One of the toughest tasks you perform as a tennis coach is selecting players for teams.

Sometimes you have the luxury of seeing the player compete under pressure in matches before you decide, as I did when selecting national teams, but often you don't. 

In the case of College coaches in the US, many times you have very little to go on and must make recruitment decisions that at Division 1 schools have repercussions lasting for the next 4 years. 

Once money has been committed to a new player, that money can't be used again on a better player later.

Picking players for teams is one of the most difficult
tasks you will do as a coach (Thai Davis Cup Team)

Selection mistakes made by college coaches have long-term repercussions.

Making informed selection choices comes down to three important factors, the candidates game, their "coach-ability", and their emotional make-up.


THEIR GAME

The form of each player in my team would often fluctuate from month to month. Time away through Injury would often mean the player needed more time to get back to their peak form.

In the example I gave earlier of the me not selecting the top player in the country for an up-coming Davis Cup tie, he was already expecting not to be selected.

Establish rules, and develop a team culture
around those rules

The reason was that he had been out of action for several weeks with an injured ankle and during that time his replacement had done really well, but most importantly, his replacement had followed my instructions 100% in each match. 

The players knew that was important to me. They knew I needed them to listen and follow instructions during the matches. I had also told them that following my instructions during matches got you selected again for the next match, while not following instructions (even if you won the match) got you replaced for the next match.

 Which leads us to the next important factor when selecting players for your team...


HOW "COACH-ABLE" ARE THEY

At certain times you need to be able to help your
player through difficult times in a match. 

Following my instructions during stressful moments in matches was the most important factor I looked for in my players. Although my coaching philosophy has always been that all the hard work is done on the practice court in the months before the match, in many team competitions such as Davis Cup and college coaching you are allowed to coach your player during the match. 

During the stressful moments of a match players can become confused, and even though they could have started with a solid strategy, they can lose their way mentally under the pressure. 

It's at times like this that a coach needs to be able to communicate easily with the player.

Ease of communication between you and your players sounds normal, but unfortunately it seldom ever is.

As a college coach you're working with players who have spent years under a different system of coaching somewhere else. They were almost certainly part of an academy, or working individually with their local coach back home. 

With both scenarios your player has developed their tennis in a different environment and has adopted a different tennis culture.

Whenever you're selecting players for your team take into account whether or not the player can be coached. Will they listen to you during the match and can they carry out the instructions you will be giving them.


THEIR EMOTIONAL MAKE-UP 

Competitive tennis is 90% mental.

A lot of selections are done based on a players form - how they look. This is the biggest mistake you can make when trying to decide whether a player will perform for you in matches later. It's just impossible for you to tell from watching their form on a video for example.

Without seeing inside their head you don't really know how well any player will perform for you in matches mentally unless you see them compete.

The UTR player ranking system has become incredibly helpful to college coaches because it's based on each players record in matches. 

Because competitive tennis is 90% mental, the UTR ranking system gives you an accurate way to know for sure how well each player performs mentally under the stresses of match-play.


Coming next in part two of The Art of Picking Players For Teams we will look at the different personalities present within a team and discuss how to deal with each of them individually.





Location: Blairsville, GA 30512, USA

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