Contemplating The Future After Tough 2015 Season
Jean-Yves Aubone, Tennis Atlantic

Jean-Yves Aubone, Niceville

Jean-Yves Aubone, Niceville

Lake Jackson (Photo: Jean-Yves Aubone)
Contemplating The Future After Tough 2015 Season
Jean-Yves Aubone, Tennis Atlantic
Jean-Yves Aubone, Niceville
Jean-Yves Aubone, Niceville
Lake Jackson (Photo: Jean-Yves Aubone)
Lonely in Las Vegas: ATP Player @JYNole On Coaching Disparities In Pro Tennis
Jean-Yves Aubone, Tennis Atlantic
Sitting in the player’s lounge at the Las Vegas Open Challenger, I look to the other side of the room and see a coach gripping his players racquets before the match. I turn to my doubles partner and quietly say, “must be nice.”
It’s no secret that it’s impossible to turn a yearly profit playing in the minor leagues of tennis, due to the peanut-sized prize money and high expenses. Just to give you an idea, if a player wins the singles AND doubles event at the futures level, he’s unable to cover his expenses. At the challenger level, expenses can be covered, but only if a player wins the singles tournament or reaches the final.
With that being said, in the attempt to cut our losses, we rarely travel with a coach. This is because unlike in team sports, a player is required to cover his coach’s salary and expenses on the road. So by choosing to travel alone, a player saves a boatload of money.
Jean Yves Aubone (Photo: Steen Kirby)
While it’s great to save all that money, traveling alone means getting rid of the most important contributor to a player’s success. Coaches provide players with the information they need. They correct a player’s bad habits, techniques, and strategies that have prevented them from reaching the top. So when a player travels with a coach, he continues to receive the necessary information to improve daily.
For a player traveling alone, the probability of daily improvements decreases. A player might be smart enough to recognize some of his mistakes but he can’t recognize all of them. It is the job of the coach to first inform the player that he’s making a mistake. Then the player can begin to correct it.
When a player traveling without a coach does recognize a mistake, he then has to figure out how to correct it on his own. For example, if I finally figured out that I’m hitting low short forehands incorrectly – would I then ask a fellow competitor to feed me short balls for an hour so I can correct the issue? Probably not. He could be a potential opponent. I don’t want to expose a weakness to him.
Well what if I don’t care about exposing my weakness, and I just want to get better. Will a potential opponent be willing to spend an hour of their day, helping me for free, when they could be spending it improving their own game? Not likely. And I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to either. If I’ve practiced for two hours and have a match the following day, I’m not going to spend an extra hour preparing someone else for their match when I could be preparing for myself.
Because of these circumstances, the player traveling with his coach has a higher probability of success over the player who travels alone. And I’m referring to a player’s overall career, not just an individual tournament.
Think about how much time is lost for the player traveling to the average 27 tournaments a year alone. That’s more than half the year that he didn’t receive any coaching.
Compare that to the player always traveling with a coach.
A player traveling with a coach to those 27 tournaments, will receive coaching for an extra 189 days a year. Over 5 years that equates to 945 days of extra coaching received. Over 10 years that’s 1,890 days!
It’s easy to see how big of an advantage a player who has the ability to travel with a coach has over one who’s forced to make it on his own. The players I’ve seen make the quickest jumps from the minor leagues to the ATP level have had a coach with them all the way.
The question becomes, what does a player do if they don’t have the finances to travel with a coach? Does he stop playing, knowing that the odds of him making it as a top 100 singles player in the world are stacked against him? Lets not forget that tennis is already one of the most difficult sports in the world to make it in. Or does he try anyway, believing that he can be the exception and live his dream of playing in a grand slam?
It was a perfect day in College Park for the Junior Tennis Champions Center’s 11th annual Free Tennis Day. As a connoisseur of Kids Days, if there is such a thing, I particularly enjoyed this one. This was a Kids Day with a twist. There was no moon bounce and no face painting going on here. This was the real deal.
You’re not just having fun, kids.
You’re being watched. And timed. And measured.
If you’re a tennis parent who even once fantasized about your 4 year old playing college tennis someday, this was your kind of Kids and Parents Day. Mine slept on the ride from Baltimore to the JTCC and woke up on the wrong side of the car seat. She was #48 and she defaulted when she demanded to be carried in from the car. Annabel settled on hitting solo against the wall.
There were over 350 people on hand for the event and at least 125 kids participating. Over the next two weeks, the JTCC’s coaching staff will deliberate over the participant’s performances. 20 of the entrants will receive offers for summer camp scholarships and one will receive a scholarship into the Junior Tennis Champions Center. Remember, this is the same event where today’s Tallahassee Champion Denis Kudla was ‘discovered’ 10 years ago ‘on this very night’, and you begin to understand the allure of this free-for-all event. It’s democracy in action in tennis.
The most unusual part of the day occurred when Slice, the Ms. Pac-Man of the Washington Kastles, was spontaneously attacked by children in an impromptu and slightly-frightening display. By the time the cameras (camera) got there, the little ones had switched to fists from racquets. Slice took it in all stride and has a bright future in elected office. Anyone who can take that kind of feedback at a Town Hall meeting and shake it all off is a lock for Congress.
—Steve Fogleman
2012 CitiOpen Interview: Irina Falconi and Coach Jeff Wilson
Steve Fogleman, TennisEastCoast.com
Jeff Wilson is an accomplished coach who has done a lot for former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket and Tennis East Coast favorite Irina Falconi. Less than a week ago, he took veteran South African player Chanelle Scheepers under his wing as well.
The most striking part of the interview is how much Irina has changed over the last year. Though she may sound ebulliently youthful on her WTA blog, The Eyes of Irina, she has grown so much since last summer at the Inaugural CitiOpen at College Park. The eyes of the world were on her at the US Open and she’s become an all-around veteran at managing media. Here’s Jeff and Irina on focus, training and Scheepers.
It seems like you learn so much in the first two sets with your new doubles partner that by the time you get to the superbreaker, it’s already over.
My partner and I definitely come out aggressive and know what our intention is. We know our game plan in the third set. We like to play under pressure a little bit, when it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty.
What about that crazy scoreline against Melanie Oudin where you two got bageled in the first set, then went on to win 10-1 in the breaker?
Honestly, I think they came out firing and we weren’t full gear and ready to go just yet. Once we got Jeff out there, he told us the game plan. It was just a matter of executing.
Have you learned a thing or two from your veteran partner Scheepers?
Very much so. Not only on the court but off the court, what she does with her food, fitness and stretching, she’s taught me all that.
Jeff, you’ve been coaching Chanelle Scheepers for how long now?
(checks watch) Since Sunday. Five days now.
What’s your summer itinerary, Irina?
I’m going to Montreal, hopefully take a week off, then Dallas and the US Open.
What changes have you made since I last saw you in Charleston, Coach?
Irina’s been on the road straight since mid-April. She was in Europe for 11 weeks with out a break, so we haven’t had much time to invest. We’re looking for some pockets in the schedule so we can rest her body. It will be a good opportunity to give her body a break. She’s extremely healthy because of the way she takes care of her body. The way she stretches, the way she prepares, the way she eats. We haven’t been able to invest in changes per se, other than the usual clay court to grass, and grass to hard court mentality. We’re looking forward to giving her a bit of a breather from having to wake up and doing all that.
Irina, All that blogging. How do you do it?
On my Ipad…
Your blogging has proved that you have a future in communications. Do you see yourself as a commentator some day?
For sure. I could definitely do that.
I’ve definitely experienced the heat. We”re staying at an absolutely great hotel. It’s difficult with the time being so late with the matches, but I’ve loved it so far.
How’d you like that rooftop bar at the old Hotel Washington downtown?
It was awesome.
Isn’t the summer heat just as bad in Washington as it is in Atlanta?
JW: Hotlanta is called Hotlanta for a reason.