# #100 - Ace the Mental Game: Elevating Tennis Performance with Coach Trudy Coler

An episode of [Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1487456967), 31 May 2023, 37 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/710091/episodes/12954324-100-ace-the-mental-game-elevating-tennis-performance-with-coach-trudy-coler.mp3

In this episode, we dive into the intricacies of building mental toughness within tennis teams, a factor often overlooked yet crucial to success on the court. We're joined by Trudy Coler, a seasoned coach who has tirelessly worked on developing her team's mental fortitude. Trudy shares her journey, challenges, and the remarkable transformation she's witnessed in her team's performance and dynamics through integrating the Focus Cycle and other skills and techniques she has brought to her program. The future is bright for Coach Coler's program! Whether you're a tennis coach, a player, or just a fan of the game, there's plenty to learn about improving mental strength and resilience. So, tune in and get ready to 'Serve Up Success' in your tennis game (sorry for the dad joke, that's so bad). For those grappling with the feasibility of hiring a professional to work with their team year-round, we developed the MTP Academy. The MTP Academy is a comprehensive resource for implementing a year-long mental training program through easy-to-use worksheets and videos, teaching skills and techniques used by Olympic and professional athletes to help boost mental strength. For more resources and information, visit our website at mentaltrainingplan.com or head straight over to MTP.academy to see if it is a good fit for your athletes! Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities: mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website: mentaltrainingplan.com/teams

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to today's episode.
[0:01] SPEAKER_00: We're going to have an incredible conversation with Trudy Kohler, a fantastic coach who I've had the opportunity to train her team alongside the Westfield High School boys team as well.
[0:14] SPEAKER_00: And Trudy values the mental side of the game.
[0:18] SPEAKER_00: She's constantly working to improve that side of the game for her girls.
[0:23] SPEAKER_00: And to be realistic, it's just not feasible for her to have someone there every single day.
[0:30] SPEAKER_00: day to be training her girls and the mental side of her game.
[0:34] SPEAKER_00: And that's something that she has to take on, on top of all of the other things that being a coach requires.
[0:41] SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're in that same boat.
[0:43] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're aware that your team needs to improve their mental strength, but hiring a professional to meet with them year round just isn't in the budget.
[0:53] SPEAKER_00: That's precisely the situation we had in mind when we developed the MTP Academy.
[0:58] SPEAKER_00: The MTP Academy is is your ideal resource if you're planning to structure a year-long mental training program.
[1:06] SPEAKER_00: It's as simple as printing off the worksheets and hitting play on the videos.
[1:10] SPEAKER_00: These resources have been designed to facilitate learning and application of the same mental skills and techniques that have been employed by Olympic and professional athletes for decades.
[1:22] SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to help the athletes that you work with, your entire team, your entire organization, or school.
[1:31] SPEAKER_00: If you want to help them enhance and improve the mental side of their game, you can find the link in the show notes, or please feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions through our website, mentaltrainingplan.com.
[1:44] SPEAKER_00: You might notice that today's episode sounds a little bit like it was recorded in the late winter, early spring, and that's because it was while I was redoing my office so that we could do video podcasts for the previous handful of episodes where we were talking about the mental training plan or the year-long program for various sports I partially tore my meniscus which basically brought all of that to a screeching halt so I apologize for the delay but we did want to make sure that this episode followed up our year-long mental training program for tennis episode so if you didn't listen to that one go back it's number 99 we think you'll really get a lot of benefit of it from that.
[2:31] SPEAKER_00: That being said, you know, Trudy's team didn't necessarily accomplish every single one of their goals that they set this season, but the resilience and fortitude that they showed while handling some tough adversity were incredible, and Trudy was very proud of that, as she should.
[2:51] SPEAKER_00: There are promising things on the horizon for Coach Kohler and her entire team, so sit back, relax, and let's get rolling.
[2:59] SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to Welcome to the Coaching Minds Podcast.
[3:01] SPEAKER_00: Joining us today, a very special guest, Trudy Kohler, the head coach at Westfield High School, the girls' tennis team.
[3:07] SPEAKER_00: Trudy, thanks so much for joining us today.
[3:09] SPEAKER_01: Good to be here.
[3:11] SPEAKER_00: So to kick things off, would you mind just telling us a little bit about yourself and what you've been up to recently?
[3:18] SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I've been playing some tennis myself.
[3:20] SPEAKER_01: Usually in the off-season, I like to get back out on the court and play some USTA League and keep myself, you know, playing tennis in my free time.
[3:28] SPEAKER_01: And I've been playing tennis for a long time.
[3:29] SPEAKER_01: We've been working off-season with the girls' team.
[3:33] SPEAKER_01: We meet a couple times a week, conditioning, you know, getting the girls ready for a season that starts here in just another month.
[3:42] SPEAKER_01: So that's been something that we've done, you know, for over 12 years.
[3:46] SPEAKER_01: I really like the pre-season regimen that we have, being in the weight room, you know, kind of concentrating on getting better at movement, footwork, and not really anything to do with tennis.
[3:59] SPEAKER_01: just, you know, teaching the girls how to love the weight room and get ready for a season.
[4:04] SPEAKER_00: For sure.
[4:05] SPEAKER_00: So you're the first tennis guest that we've had on the show, which I'm super excited about.
[4:11] SPEAKER_00: Would love to just kind of start off and ask in your experience, what kind of role does mindset and preparation play on the tennis court?
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: Because every single athlete, parent, coach I've ever talked to in my entire life has always said, well, you know, my sport is the tough Like no one's ever said, well, you know, baseball or golf or tennis is tougher than mine.
[4:35] SPEAKER_00: Like we all know deeply some of the challenges that come with our sport.
[4:42] SPEAKER_00: Could you tell us just a little bit about, you know, what you notice about the tennis game specifically and the role that the mental side plays in it?
[4:53] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think tennis, I was always brought up knowing that tennis and golf were really the mental aspect of the game was equal to the athletic ability of the game and the strategy of the game.
[5:08] SPEAKER_01: So for me as a player and as a coach, you see the mental aspect as it comes to confidence in a game and how somebody can play a match if they're confident versus if they are not.
[5:26] SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's very obvious in a lot of aspects of the way they play.
[5:31] SPEAKER_01: The other thing is that, you know, it's a lot of self-talk.
[5:35] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're out there, you know, we always said that tennis is, you know, it shows adversity because you are out there in singles specifically by yourself and you have to work through things.
[5:45] SPEAKER_01: And the mental aspect of that is how you respond to negative, how you respond to an opponent that's maybe not the nicest or a call that's not the greatest.
[5:58] SPEAKER_01: So I think with tennis, specifically I've always noticed that mental to me is such a huge part of the performance you know that you have on the court and if at any point and that can lag I mean there is a rhythm to tennis and you know you might be very confident in a match and then you might drop confidence and that just kind of happens within a match itself and if you come off a court not feeling confident that can lead into your next match easily whether that's the same day or you know the second day It just depends.
[6:30] SPEAKER_01: But I have noticed with specifically high school tennis, you know, trying to get these girls to realize that, you know, they can control that thought process while they're out there and not letting all those other outside influences affect how they think and how they, you know, how they're reacting.
[6:49] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[6:49] SPEAKER_00: And I want to get into, you know, specifically your team, your girls, kind of the story that you guys have been on, you know, the journey.
[6:59] SPEAKER_00: that you've been on specifically the past couple of years.
[7:02] SPEAKER_00: And to start out, I'd really love to take like a super high bird's eye view.
[7:08] SPEAKER_00: Could you kind of summarize in like five sentences?
[7:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to count, but like just a short, brief story or summary of here's where we were.
[7:20] SPEAKER_00: Here's what we did.
[7:22] SPEAKER_00: Here's where we got to kind of walk us through kind of the overview of the story of your team.
[7:29] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[7:30] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, it's been a lot of fun to watch this team change, you know, so overview is, you know, for, you know, 2015, 2016, we'll go back about that far.
[7:43] SPEAKER_01: I've been there a lot longer, but we'll go back around 2015, 2016, decent season, you know, eight, nine on the season.
[7:50] SPEAKER_01: That's good for us.
[7:51] SPEAKER_01: You know nothing, no big wins.
[7:54] SPEAKER_01: They're just kind of able to kind of pull out some matches.
[7:58] SPEAKER_01: And then we really, dropped off we did not have a good season in 2018 we were 4-12 you know if that gives you an idea get into 2019 and we're 5-10 and then you know we start to kind of have well then of course we have COVID so we don't even get a season right and that in 2020 was really tough that was tough mentally for the kids they didn't know they were going to lose their season so I think that was a huge you know disappointment We get into, you know, 2021 coming back and we have a strong group of girls.
[8:35] SPEAKER_01: We have strong players, players that are dedicating time in the offseason.
[8:39] SPEAKER_01: They're working hard.
[8:40] SPEAKER_01: They're playing all year round.
[8:43] SPEAKER_01: And that makes a big difference, obviously, to have that commitment, first of all, which changes your program.
[8:48] SPEAKER_01: But then to, you know, get into 2021, we were eight and eight on the season, you know, and that season was one of the most difficult.
[8:59] SPEAKER_01: seasons to watch.
[9:01] SPEAKER_01: Um, we were very good.
[9:04] SPEAKER_01: We were good team.
[9:05] SPEAKER_01: We had high expectations, you know, going into, uh, you know, 2021.
[9:10] SPEAKER_01: Um, and what I saw across the board was we would get into matches, we would be up and we'd be serving for the set.
[9:20] SPEAKER_01: So we would go in and we'd be, you know, serving five, four for the first set with the serve and we would lose serve.
[9:27] SPEAKER_01: And it was happening all the time on every court.
[9:30] SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just a player.
[9:32] SPEAKER_01: It was across the board, doubles, singles, and we would lose that set.
[9:38] SPEAKER_01: If we lost that game, we would lose the set every single time.
[9:42] SPEAKER_01: And we would drop that first set and then we couldn't rebound.
[9:46] SPEAKER_01: It was really concerning from a coaching standpoint to sit there because we knew it.
[9:53] SPEAKER_01: And so we would have a talk at the fence before that service game, right?
[9:58] SPEAKER_01: We would talk about, you know, doing what you've been doing, what's been working.
[10:01] SPEAKER_01: Why did you win all those games before?
[10:03] SPEAKER_01: How did you break serve?
[10:04] SPEAKER_01: You know, all those things.
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: And we would just fold.
[10:08] SPEAKER_01: I mean, there was no other way to put it.
[10:09] SPEAKER_01: It was really difficult to watch.
[10:11] SPEAKER_01: And what I saw was girls tightening up.
[10:14] SPEAKER_01: I saw them pushing serves in.
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: I saw them not responding to returns.
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: I saw them doing things differently than they had done that whole set that was making them win the set.
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: You know, they were hitting the forehand instead of the backhand.
[10:29] SPEAKER_01: They were doing all the things wrong that they had been doing right.
[10:34] SPEAKER_01: And I just think it clicked to me that it was a mental lapse.
[10:39] SPEAKER_01: It was lack of focus, lack of having a game plan, not thinking about that point.
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: It was just playing the point.
[10:47] SPEAKER_01: They were just playing.
[10:48] SPEAKER_01: And especially the tight.
[10:51] SPEAKER_01: You could see bad serves.
[10:53] SPEAKER_01: You could see bad shots.
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: Or they would just hit shots out a ton that really– Didn't look like any other shots they'd hit the whole set.
[11:02] SPEAKER_01: So you can start to see it.
[11:03] SPEAKER_01: You can see it in the body.
[11:05] SPEAKER_01: And I just saw that all season long.
[11:07] SPEAKER_01: And it was, you know, from a coaching standpoint, we talked about it.
[11:09] SPEAKER_01: We talked about it after matches.
[11:11] SPEAKER_01: We talked about it in, you know, in practice.
[11:13] SPEAKER_01: We tried to put girls in situations in practice that would put that pressure back on them.
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: You know, give them the pressure points and play out those points and, you know, try to replicate those situations in practice.
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: And it just plagued us the whole season.
[11:28] SPEAKER_01: It really did.
[11:28] SPEAKER_01: It was It was a good season.
[11:30] SPEAKER_01: It was a learning opportunity for us, but I came away with the thought in my head that we need mental toughness.
[11:37] SPEAKER_01: We need to work on the mental game of tennis or we're never going to be able to break through to beat the teams that we should have been beating.
[11:45] SPEAKER_01: And that's when I called you.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: And I want to go back to, that was like, what, a year and a half ago now?
[11:54] SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: And we talked on the phone probably Probably for 45 minutes.
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: I remember I was sitting on my brother's back porch.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: It was freezing cold.
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: But there were way too many people inside the house.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: And we just talked for quite a while just about philosophies, what we believe about the mental side of the game.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: And there was a lot of agreement.
[12:21] SPEAKER_00: We just sort of started off kind of on the same page.
[12:25] SPEAKER_00: And then the question was, okay, so what do we do about it?
[12:28] SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, last winter, we started up team sessions, working with both the boys and the girls program together, but then also splitting up at the end to make sure that you guys had time with separate teams.
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: What were, as you think back to some of those team sessions, those initial learning times, what were some of the things that made a big impression on your girls or maybe the things that you could just see and tell that they were really buying into?
[12:58] SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I think just watching them, um, first of all, the commitment to, you know, coming to the sessions, working through the workflows that you were giving them and the collaboration that they were having.
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: Um, it was good to have the boys in there with us.
[13:14] SPEAKER_01: You know, we wanted that both teams to realize that this was, you know, this is equal for, you know, boys in sports, girls in sports, it's, it's, it's, you know, athletes.
[13:22] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[13:23] SPEAKER_01: So, um, so I think it was good, but I saw the girls really talking to each other.
[13:28] SPEAKER_01: And working through and then, you know, figuring out that you give a lot of different opportunities there to figure out what works, you know, the same thing doesn't work for everybody.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: And the girls were collaborating.
[13:40] SPEAKER_01: Some of the things that they went through, I think that they maybe had, you know, tried in the past, but not to the degree that you had, you know, kind of explained how to utilize it or when to utilize it.
[13:50] SPEAKER_01: But I really liked as we went through the sessions and we had three, you know, main training sessions over that winter, you know.
[13:58] SPEAKER_01: I think as we got closer to season, I started hearing girls talk about, you know, their go-to statement or their, you know, what they did in a tournament previous weekend where they tried to utilize one of those, you know, one of those techniques.
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I love the buy-in.
[14:16] SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason that they had the buy-in was because they had already gone through the season before and realized that they needed something, you know, in their game to help them at those moments.
[14:28] SPEAKER_01: So it was already sort of like they had the pain of losing those matches knowing they shouldn't have.
[14:34] SPEAKER_01: And they were really ready to find something that would help.
[14:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because there's a degree of humility that's needed to be able to say, you know what, you're right.
[14:45] SPEAKER_00: I'm not good enough in this area of my game.
[14:48] SPEAKER_00: I'm struggling with the mental side and I need some help.
[14:52] SPEAKER_00: And you almost have to be willing to admit first that you don't have it all figured out.
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: before you can really start to make progress.
[15:01] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[15:02] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[15:02] SPEAKER_01: And, and, you know, sometimes you don't get that, you know, with, with, uh, you know, with players who think that they've figured it all out, you know, but I think all of the girls really just were looking for opportunities to just, you know, get better.
[15:15] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, a big push for them is, you know, some of these schools we have in our conference, great conference, strongest conference in the state, right.
[15:24] SPEAKER_01: But wanting to beat, you know, a school that you've never beaten before and being so close and not being able to kind of you know capitalize on that was frustrating the season before
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: for sure so you know how do you as you think back to now you know the season gets ramped up and gets rolling and you had this these mental training sessions on the front end of your season how do you now balance the mental side of the game with the physical and technical aspects that you guys still have to work on I mean you know on one hand if you don't teach the mental And work on the mental side and practice the mental side.
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: Like you said, it doesn't matter how good you are in those other areas.
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: Once the pressure comes, if you can't access that muscle memory because you can't control your mind and body in high pressure situations, it doesn't matter.
[16:15] SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, just working on confidence and focus alone isn't going to make you a better tennis player.
[16:23] SPEAKER_00: There's got to be the technical and the physical side.
[16:25] SPEAKER_00: How did you guys balance that kind of thing?
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: of moving into the season?
[16:31] SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's a little bit of, you know, making sure that they are together there.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: It's not like one or the other.
[16:39] SPEAKER_01: You're not just working on mental.
[16:40] SPEAKER_01: You're not just working on the tennis game.
[16:41] SPEAKER_01: You have to be doing both of them at the same time at any point of when you're playing.
[16:47] SPEAKER_01: So one of the things we've talked with the girls about even, you know, coming up for this season is have you been working on those techniques during clinic?
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: Have you been working on those techniques during matches that you're playing now, you know, whether it's in clinic or in tournament, I don't think you can separate them.
[17:05] SPEAKER_01: I think that the only way to really learn how to get mentally, you know, focused and really be able to work through those, you know, tight spots are when it's happening.
[17:19] SPEAKER_01: You know, I do.
[17:20] SPEAKER_01: I think that you have to just keep doing it.
[17:22] SPEAKER_01: And it's never going to be perfect, right?
[17:24] SPEAKER_01: Like we all have those, you know, moments where, you know, we get that negative talk for a minute but then can you override it can you push it out can you use a different strategy instead of letting yourself go down that path of you know it's a bad day I just don't have it in my forehand you know all those those things we hear you know but I think you can't really separate them in my opinion you know I had training like this in high school and it wasn't as formal as what we've done with you know our team with you coming in but I really used it my whole life I still use it
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: For sure.
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: You know, I work with a young man at a different school just on an individual one-on-one basis who's a tennis player that he would start to implement some of these in a big tournament and it wouldn't go perfectly.
[18:14] SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, he would have to like almost remind himself, you know, 500 times to say his go-to statement because he kept forgetting or, you know, the pressure moment would come and he wouldn't automatically automatically go to that you know fill in the blank whether that's the statement whether that's the breathing what you know his focus cues but you know I asked him in one of the sessions it was like how many what's what's one of the things that you're hitting instructor tells you I gotta get my racket up on my backhand okay well how many times has he told you that Probably hundreds.
[18:52] SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you know, this is we're trying to break some bad habits.
[18:56] SPEAKER_00: We're trying to do things in a new way.
[18:58] SPEAKER_00: It's going to be uncomfortable.
[19:00] SPEAKER_00: It's not natural.
[19:02] SPEAKER_00: Talk to us a little bit about some of those maybe old bad habits or the things that it was difficult for your girls to let go of and maybe how they implemented or how they helped each other even, you know, overcome some of those old bad habits.
[19:19] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think you're right.
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: with tennis I think you develop bad habits from a very young age you know I think that they they become part of your game you know so obviously the ones that we we have to get rid of very quickly are the smacking of the racket or the you know anything that's going to give you a point penalty is something that's got to go fairly quickly uh once you get into you know middle school high school tennis or or above but um but I think you know the girls still had bad habits I mean it's not like they're just automatically gone right after you do training they don't just But what I did see was, you know, them trying to grab it at that moment, trying to make sure that, you know what, no, I'm not going to do that.
[20:01] SPEAKER_01: I'm going to do this instead.
[20:03] SPEAKER_01: I had a girl who was a constant racket hitter, you know, just hit the top of the racket to the ground.
[20:10] SPEAKER_01: And I saw her using that, you know, kind of tense and release, you know, physical reaction instead.
[20:17] SPEAKER_01: And that worked.
[20:20] SPEAKER_01: It worked.
[20:20] SPEAKER_01: perfectly for her.
[20:22] SPEAKER_01: You know, it really did.
[20:23] SPEAKER_01: It got her out of that momentum.
[20:25] SPEAKER_01: It took her, you know, a third of the season to get it completely under control, but she was a senior.
[20:31] SPEAKER_01: So imagine somebody who had already had that in their game for so long.
[20:34] SPEAKER_00: For sure.
[20:35] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[20:35] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, and I think all the girls, you know, each player, little different, each player has their own, you know, but I saw a lot of them, the go-to statement seems to be what they really cling to because a lot of them are not physically showing any language Which we've always talked about as being, you know, something that if you're going to bang your racket or if you're going to, you know, do something physical, your opponent sees that.
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: So that's a given that they've got you and that you're frustrated.
[21:03] SPEAKER_01: So we've tried to learn from the beginning not to do something like that.
[21:06] SPEAKER_01: So the go to statement is all in that, you know, all in your head.
[21:10] SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not something that you're giving away to your opponent.
[21:14] SPEAKER_01: And and I can tell you that a majority of the girls, that is what they like.
[21:18] SPEAKER_01: That is what they go to.
[21:20] SPEAKER_01: And it settles them down.
[21:21] SPEAKER_01: It gets them out of negative thought patterns, which is really probably the worst thing for a tennis player to go down that path of negative, negative thoughts about your game, about your stroke, about you can't serve, whatever it is.
[21:39] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[21:40] SPEAKER_00: As you kind of think back, and we can leave names out of this, obviously, but is there maybe an example or two of one girl that maybe showed the the biggest growth, you know, like where she started out and where she got to that comes to mind?
[21:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[21:57] SPEAKER_01: You know, first of all, I'll say everybody on the team improved.
[22:00] SPEAKER_01: I mean, from, you know, and I'm talking varsity, I'm talking JV, everybody who really, you know, uh, took, uh, the planning of, you know, to use the techniques to figure out where it works in their game, all those things, they really, you know, took time to kind of learn what worked for them.
[22:20] SPEAKER_01: And it helped everybody across the board.
[22:22] SPEAKER_01: But I will tell you, there was definitely one of my singles players that, you know, I think just Yeah, absolutely.
[22:59] SPEAKER_01: But she played full out great tennis.
[23:01] SPEAKER_01: She didn't get tight.
[23:02] SPEAKER_01: She didn't, you know, push the ball.
[23:03] SPEAKER_01: She didn't do all those things that happen physically when you start to get nervous, you know, and you're not doing well.
[23:09] SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, I mean, you know, I think I saw that in a lot of the varsity players.
[23:15] SPEAKER_01: But specifically, I just feel like she excelled her season because of it, you know.
[23:19] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[23:21] SPEAKER_00: You know, talk us through kind of the, because I know, you know, you guys started out, you weren't real happy with record, some of the measurable some of the things like that.
[23:30] SPEAKER_00: Why did you feel like this past season was as much of a success as you did?
[23:36] SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I think, you know, comparing, you know, going back to what I was talking about, which happened in 2021, you know, just the frustration of being kind of right there, able to possibly do some things we hadn't done before and not being able to kind of get through that finish line, right?
[23:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, and, you know, so we get into last season, 2022, and, you know, It just looked like a different team.
[24:02] SPEAKER_01: Instead of when we were up, we stayed up.
[24:05] SPEAKER_01: We weren't dropping important games.
[24:08] SPEAKER_01: We were finishing.
[24:08] SPEAKER_01: We were staying on serve.
[24:11] SPEAKER_01: We were closing out sets.
[24:13] SPEAKER_01: When we had opportunities, we took them.
[24:15] SPEAKER_01: And that really changed our season around.
[24:19] SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's as simple as that.
[24:20] SPEAKER_01: If you can play big at the big moments of a game, you can finish out what you need to do which is to win that set.
[24:30] SPEAKER_01: And in tennis, you know, there is that momentum, you know, you take that first set, it's a big, you know, it's a big push for the person to come back and, you know, get the second and take it to a third set.
[24:41] SPEAKER_01: But I will say, you know, we finished our season last year, 14 and four.
[24:44] SPEAKER_01: And the only change we had was the mental toughness training that we did with you.
[24:50] SPEAKER_01: And of course, another year of experience for the girls, you know, you never discredit, they worked hard, they, you know, they played a lot more.
[24:56] SPEAKER_01: But I saw these girls and the exact same points that we were at.
[25:01] SPEAKER_01: And instead of dropping their match, they were winning them.
[25:05] SPEAKER_01: And that's a huge change.
[25:07] SPEAKER_01: I mean, in a year, that is a huge change.
[25:10] SPEAKER_01: And I can pinpoint moments of just watching each one of them when they were, you know, serving for that game or they were, you know, if they had dropped the first set, they weren't out, we were coming back and we were winning in a third set.
[25:24] SPEAKER_01: Again, typically, you know, high percentage, we dropped the first set, we're done.
[25:28] SPEAKER_01: And so that wasn't even an ability for us to come back a lot of times and win the second set and push it to a third.
[25:36] SPEAKER_01: So last season was just a breakthrough for us.
[25:40] SPEAKER_01: It really was.
[25:40] SPEAKER_01: It's also a belief, the team belief that they can beat teams they had never beaten before.
[25:47] SPEAKER_01: And I think they felt like they had a few more tools that they could use in their matches to complete those wins that they didn't have before.
[25:57] SPEAKER_01: I think there was just that gap of how do I handle that?
[26:01] SPEAKER_01: And don't, you know, instead of getting nervous and hoping that the other person makes a mistake, I'm going to go out and win the point and play to win, not to lose.
[26:10] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[26:12] SPEAKER_00: The, the, the new culture, right.
[26:15] SPEAKER_00: That you're talking about this, this belief that we can beat teams.
[26:19] SPEAKER_00: We have tools.
[26:20] SPEAKER_00: Here's how we're going to react to adversity and, you know, going back to the, the collaboration and the talking to each other.
[26:27] SPEAKER_00: Um, I, I, I would say I was impressed with the leadership of your girls when this fall you reached out, wanted to have your seniors teach the new incoming freshmen the focus cycle.
[26:40] SPEAKER_00: And the very first session that I always do, whether it's individuals or teams, get them to be aware of what are they focused on?
[26:49] SPEAKER_00: What's that voice in the back of the mind saying?
[26:51] SPEAKER_00: What's their body's reaction, that fight or flight response?
[26:55] SPEAKER_00: And then what are we going to focus on?
[26:58] SPEAKER_00: How are we going to talk to ourselves and what are we going to do physically to kind of create the emotions that that we need to perform at our best right and your girls you you could just see they they were ready like they were bought in and they were excited to give these new freshmen these tools um you know tell us tell us just a little bit about uh the the motivation behind wanting to have your seniors lead that and also how it went?
[27:33] SPEAKER_01: So I really want to make sure that we don't just do training for the girls that were in the room on the day that you were there, the three sessions.
[27:42] SPEAKER_01: And then the training helped those players, and then it's gone.
[27:48] SPEAKER_01: In three years, four years, they graduate, and they're gone, and then the training's gone.
[27:54] SPEAKER_01: I think that that's not how you keep your program developing.
[27:58] SPEAKER_01: It's Definitely tax my seniors to be leaders.
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of them this year.
[28:08] SPEAKER_01: We have, we've had a couple of years of a lot of seniors and they are great kids, smart kids.
[28:15] SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the great things about being a coach is you kind of get the best kids.
[28:19] SPEAKER_01: You know, you do, you get the hardworking kids that are good in school and really excel.
[28:25] SPEAKER_01: And I've got some great seniors this year and they, you know, when we talked about the mental training and how we wanted to make sure that we kept the training going within the team, you know, I asked them, do you think, you know, you could, you know, actually present this material that we went through last year to the freshmen?
[28:46] SPEAKER_01: And as a reminder to the whole team, you know, could you go back?
[28:50] SPEAKER_01: And they definitely, you know, were all on board.
[28:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, I was so thankful that you were willing to come in and just kind of do that refresher with them because again, you know, they listened to me a lot.
[29:01] SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, you know, a different voice and a different person.
[29:04] SPEAKER_01: And the person who brought them the training, I think it was important for them to meet with you and to kind of revise that.
[29:12] SPEAKER_01: But I think that it also gives them the ability to have that kind of leadership on the team where if a freshman is coming in and really needs help, they're comfortable with going to one of the seniors and saying, hey, can you talk through a little bit more of that with me?
[29:29] SPEAKER_01: Since that, the girls went through the presentations did an excellent job.
[29:34] SPEAKER_01: I mean, really good job of explaining, um, kind of all of the opportunities, you know, that you've given them, um, for how to deal with things.
[29:44] SPEAKER_01: Um, and, you know, they also gave examples of during the season, you know, they talked about personally how this helped them or what they did in this situation.
[29:54] SPEAKER_01: And I think that that really helps the new players coming in, see that, you know, you need to buy into this early, you know, this is not just a, Oh, I I might use it or I might not.
[30:04] SPEAKER_01: It's a really, you, you need this, this is a tool and you need to use it.
[30:08] SPEAKER_01: Um, and here is your senior captains telling you that it worked for them, you know?
[30:13] SPEAKER_01: So, uh, they did a great job and you know, I, we've been talking about it.
[30:17] SPEAKER_01: Obviously we haven't started season yet, so we've been in conditioning, but every, uh, week we go into conditioning, we talk about this and I've asked the freshmen on the team if they're utilizing, um, any of these things in what they're playing right now in clinic, in competition, Cause there are some tournaments going on and, and several of them have told me that they are, that they're trying to develop those patterns and those statements in their games.
[30:42] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[30:43] SPEAKER_00: Good.
[30:43] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[30:44] SPEAKER_00: I, I assigned them a little bit of homework before our meeting.
[30:47] SPEAKER_00: It was like, Hey, go back and listen to episode number 69, talking about the focus cycle.
[30:52] SPEAKER_00: And you know, they all had their sheets from last year and you could see where they had filled it out.
[30:57] SPEAKER_00: But then even on top of that, they'd gone back and made their own notes of like, how am I going to teach this?
[31:02] SPEAKER_00: How am I, What examples am I going to use?
[31:05] SPEAKER_00: When did I see this pop up throughout the season?
[31:07] SPEAKER_00: How do our opponents struggle with these things?
[31:11] SPEAKER_00: It was impressive for teenagers to not only buy in like that, but then be willing to put in the extra effort to teach it to the younger players.
[31:24] SPEAKER_00: So well done on your part, just cultivating that leadership within your program and really growing that culture the right way.
[31:31] SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
[31:32] SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
[31:33] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[31:33] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, that's, I think one of the things about a program like ours, you know, we've been trying to grow this program, you know, for the 16 years that I've been coaching.
[31:42] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the only way to do that is to let, you know, is to really have the team work with each other.
[31:49] SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not a silo.
[31:51] SPEAKER_01: It's not just the coach telling you what to do.
[31:53] SPEAKER_01: You know, it's really having the team work together.
[31:55] SPEAKER_01: And I think that they can do that.
[31:57] SPEAKER_01: I mean, tennis is a different sport than basketball or, you know, or baseball, but it but it is a team sport in high school and, you know, you can't win without each other.
[32:07] SPEAKER_01: You know, you, you know, you can win on a court, but you can't win the match.
[32:10] SPEAKER_01: And so I love that, you know, the girls and the girls really told me that they felt that the training was important and that needed to continue.
[32:20] SPEAKER_01: And that was the other thing.
[32:21] SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just me, you know, you know, asking them to do it.
[32:24] SPEAKER_01: They really thought that it was something that would help the team.
[32:27] SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
[32:28] SPEAKER_00: As you, you think about the season that you guys have coming up, what do you, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges ahead for your team?
[32:36] SPEAKER_01: You know, I think making sure that we don't take a step backwards, right?
[32:42] SPEAKER_01: You know, we finished this season last year, ranked ninth in the state.
[32:47] SPEAKER_01: And that was a huge, you know, huge jump for us.
[32:50] SPEAKER_01: We had a great season.
[32:52] SPEAKER_01: We won two invites.
[32:54] SPEAKER_01: You know, we finished third in the conference, which is the highest we've ever finished.
[32:58] SPEAKER_01: And I personally think we're just getting started.
[33:02] SPEAKER_01: I think that we have, you know, definitely, you know, turned a corner here where we've got the talent, we've got the drive, and that the players want to, you know, compete and be the best in the conference.
[33:16] SPEAKER_01: You know, they want to, they want to really, they want to win conference.
[33:19] SPEAKER_01: That's, that's the goal, right?
[33:20] SPEAKER_01: So, so really for, for me, I think it's keeping them focused on one match at a time, you know, one, one win at a time, you know, not looking ahead too far.
[33:32] SPEAKER_01: Also, you know, having some fun, don't put the pressure on yourself to, you know, you know, I think we've always been the underdog.
[33:39] SPEAKER_01: So when you're not the underdog, then, you know, you start to have different pressure, right, than before.
[33:45] SPEAKER_01: So, and, you know, it's not to say that, you know, our, I mean, our conference is tough, we know it is.
[33:51] SPEAKER_01: And so we always have the best competition in the state, really.
[33:54] SPEAKER_01: And, and we have a tough schedule.
[33:57] SPEAKER_01: So it's not like our schedules, you know, in any way easy from match to match.
[34:02] SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward forward to seeing you know growth in the players because they play a lot in the offseason they add things to their games you know they develop more you know all-around court game they might you know I'm excited to see our doubles players we have we have new doubles teams this year because we lost some seniors last year which is always exciting to see who kind of comes in and how they're playing but you know for us it's just take one match at a time you know have that confidence don't lose the confidence that we should should be winning these matches and we should be there.
[34:34] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, continue to work through the hard points and the hard moments in your matches in a positive way.
[34:44] SPEAKER_01: You know, any way that you can to play your best tennis.
[34:47] SPEAKER_01: And if you play your best tennis, you know, you really, nothing can really stop you from winning a match.
[34:54] SPEAKER_00: As we start to wrap up our time here together, one of the things I always like to ask my guests is knowing what you know now, if you could go back and tell a younger version of yourself who was just starting playing the game, what advice would you have?
[35:12] SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I have to say I'm kind of lucky.
[35:14] SPEAKER_01: I had, my dad was my tennis coach and he was a very good tennis coach.
[35:19] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I was raised to really know, you know, what tennis meant in our family.
[35:29] SPEAKER_01: It was important.
[35:31] SPEAKER_01: It was special to be coach by your own father, you know, and to win and lose and do all those things together.
[35:37] SPEAKER_01: And I was always really, he was a very positive coach.
[35:42] SPEAKER_01: He was very positive all the time, win or lose, you know, same coach.
[35:46] SPEAKER_01: And I loved that about him.
[35:47] SPEAKER_01: And I try to bring that into who I am as a coach.
[35:50] SPEAKER_01: Win or lose, I'm, you know, it's the same thing.
[35:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, I really think that the advice is, you know, just be true to yourself and know that this is a sport you're playing for fun but as competitive as we all are, as much as we want to win, um, you know, sometimes winning isn't everything.
[36:09] SPEAKER_01: You know, I think sometimes losing and learning from it is super important.
[36:13] SPEAKER_01: I don't know that as a high school player, I bought into that.
[36:16] SPEAKER_01: I think when I lost, I was not exactly thinking that I should be learning from it, but now I definitely see that as a tennis player, you know, you learn from your losses.
[36:27] SPEAKER_01: And, uh, and I try to explain that to the girls when they do get off the court from a tough match, maybe they lost a third set in a tiebreaker, you know, that's okay.
[36:35] SPEAKER_01: That's a great match.
[36:37] SPEAKER_01: You know, that's just a great match to play.
[36:39] SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing wrong with losing a match like that.
[36:42] SPEAKER_00: Love it.
[36:42] SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much, Trudy, for your time today, for joining us on the show.
[36:46] SPEAKER_00: Loved having you on here.
[36:47] SPEAKER_01: Thanks very much.

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