With matches having started the week of March 11, the tennis season is now in full swing. While of course, athletes and coaches have been hard at work, training for tennis is wildly different than training for other sports.
“To me, I find tennis a lot less stressful,” junior Ty Bransford said. Bransford is currently on Varsity and has been playing tennis since his freshman year. He told us he hopes to go undefeated this season, as he’s won four singles and three doubles matches as of March 22.
Bransford’s favorite prematch ritual is to chill on the bus to some music. “I’ll either talk to somebody or pop something in my headphones to relax.” When asked what his go-to hype artists are, he told us “any Lady Gaga for sure.”
Coaching tennis is also just as different as playing it.
“I think the thing that’s really unique about tennis is that it’s such an individual sport, but [everyone] needs to learn to play as a team together,” coach Martha Carucci stated. “Even if they’re playing singles, their match counts for the team. Doubles is a bit more team oriented, but it’s not like soccer or football or field hockey, where you’re one on a big team and have a position.”
This is Carucci’s second year coaching West Po girls’ tennis, having prior experience teaching at McLean’s Racket and Health Club and at a club in Western Massachusetts.
On the other end of the court, coach Michael Bechtold has a history with the sport, having played tennis for over 45 years, including playing for the All Army team and playing it in conjunction with soccer during his years at Blackburn College in Illinois. He previously coached at Edison before beginning to coach the guys’ team here this year.
Bechtold personally didn’t believe that tennis was all too different from other sports, noting that a lot of his tennis players also played volleyball or football.
“It boils down to athleticism,” Bechtold stated, comparing the similarities between tennis and other sports. “The same kinds of body position that you would use in different styles of running are absolutely in use on the tennis court”
If you’ve ever been curious about what it’s like to attend a tennis match, the coaches had their thoughts to give.
The [atmospheres of tennis matches and other games] are definitely converging. It used to be that tennis was a quiet, welcoming, gentleman and gentlewoman’s sport. Not so much anymore.
Now you get players, screaming trying to pump themselves up just like you’d see someone in lacrosse or football do,” Bechtold said.
“There’s usually six matches going on at the same time, so it’s very hard for me as a coach to cover all of them,” Carucci told us. “We’re allowed to coach [the athletes] after they switch sides, not during the first time, but any games after that when they switch.”
Carucci also made a note that cheering during a tennis game is completely fine, so long as you’re cheering for your team and not against the rival one.
The tennis season runs until around the end of the school year, and games are typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays in case you’re interested in checking one out.
