Life on Tour With Jean-Yves Aubone (@JYNole) April 2015 Update #5 Israel Trip Post-Mortem
Jean-Yves Aubone, Tennis Atlantic

No Excuses

There’s no way around it. My trip to Israel for three consecutive tournaments was probably the most gut-wrenching one I’ve ever had. I didn’t even win a set in any of my matches. I’m sure I can come up with a few logical excuses but I know I’d be lying. I had everything I needed to perform. I had a coach with me everyday. I improved at each practice. I ate as well as I could. The weather was impeccable. At night I slept as if I was in my own bed. Unfortunately, none of it mattered. As soon as the match started, my preparation went out the window.

The nerves that usually only exist in the first few games of the match lasted the entire match. I was never calm. I played very indecisive tennis. I couldn’t stick to a game plan. On big points I made way too many unforced errors. To sum it up, I played bad.

As I reflected on this trip I remembered what I learned when working in finance. When picking stocks, one can put all the work in. They could have studied all the fundamentals and technical charts. They could have followed their winning process exactly the same as before. Yet somehow the stock didn’t move in the direction their work indicated it would. That doesn’t mean the process is broken and they didn’t work hard enough. It just means this time they were wrong. But so long as they stick to the process, put the right amount of work in time after time, they will be right more often than not. So long as I keep putting the correct amount of work in, I know I will win more than I will lose.

While I know I’m doing everything I can to put myself in the best position to succeed, I still couldn’t help but feel sick to my stomach during my trip back to the United States. During a 12-hour flight to Newark, where I was stuck in the middle seat and could rarely stand up, I had more than enough time to watch 8 episodes of House of Cards, two movies, and still think about how I spent 3 weeks in the Middle East without even winning a set. I had no ranking points to defend from last year, so it was a great opportunity to move up in the rankings. Instead, I come back with none of my matches going over an hour and a half, and having made $208 in singles (not including expenses). As much as I can say I play for the love of the game, I also like winning and I didn’t even come close.

My original flight was set for way after the day I lost, so I could have stayed and enjoyed all the historical locations that Israel has to offer but I had to get out of there. The longer I was in Israel the more mental damage it would have done. I had to put the trip behind me and prepare for the challenger tournaments in Savannah, Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida

Before I end this blog I want to thank Gabriel Rujinsky for all his help coaching me in Israel. Though the results didn’t show it, my game improved each and everyday because of his help. I have no doubt that the work we put in will show at some point. I also want to thank his wife Manuska. She took care of me like I was part of her family. Finally, I want to thank their three daughters for treating me as their brother. I was so far away from home but I always felt like I was with family. Thank you all for making my trip to Israel as fun possible. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Life on Tour With Jean-Yves Aubone (@JYNole) March 2015 Update #4 On Tour In Israel
Jean-Yves Aubone, Tennis Atlantic

Losing Can Be A Good Thing But Jet Lag Sucks

Israeli Futures Action

I’ve been in Israel playing tournaments for only a week and this trip has already been absolutely invaluable. To begin with, I’m guilty of assuming things without actually knowing. I’d never traveled to this part of the world and the news coverage of the Middle East in America is always negative. The media only discusses warfare and the political side of things. Because of this I didn’t think the quality of life was going to be great. I couldn’t be happier to have been proven completely wrong. Israel is a first world country that is incredibly beautiful. The quality of life is high, the food is great, and the majority of people speak English. The beaches are stunningly gorgeous. I can unquestionably envision myself living in Israel one day.

On the Road in Israel

Here in Tel Aviv, I’ve been working with Gabriel Rujinsky, who used to coach me when I was younger. I first met him when he worked for my dad at Don Shula’s Athletic Club in Miami 12 years ago. He now lives in Tel Aviv. He’s been kind enough to let me stay at his house and coach me in Israel. Without him, this trip would be so much more difficult to continue improving everyday. Having him here gives me the option to have practices where I only drill and specifically work on parts of my game that need fine-tuning. Gabriel also communicates my mistakes immediately to me. If he wasn’t here I’d have to figure things out on my own. If I wasn’t able to figure them out on my own, then I’d have to wait to fix them back at Ginepri Performance Tennis in Atlanta.

Because I lost in the first round of the first event that I played on this trip to Israel, I’ve had a lot of extra time to work on my game. If I didn’t have a coach here a lot of time would have been spent simply practicing with other players. The only bad part about that is practices have to be compromised so that both the other player and I can do a little bit of what we want to work on. I’m not part of a team out here so I want to spend as much time as I can working on my game. Having Gabriel has allowed that to happen because for some practice sessions it’s just he and I.

One of the best things that could have happened to me was losing in the first round. It was my first hard court match in 8 months (I wanted to save the pounding on my achilles) and it clearly showed. I had a hard time trusting the strategy I wanted to execute on important points. On clay I didn’t even have to think so much about strategy. It was pure instinct. But the strategy to win on clay is different than the one used on hard courts. In that first match I found myself thinking too much and not hitting shots with enough conviction. If I would have won the first round then I wouldn’t have taken such a hard look at what I needed to fix. Also, losing early gave me more days to practice and improve. As much as I wanted to win, winning now at a 10k future’s event isn’t the main goal. Putting myself in the best position to make a run at the challenger in two weeks is. Losing early has given me more time to work with Gabriel, improve my game, and adjust to the time change. .

The most important thing I’ve learned on this trip so far is to not underestimate the power of jet lag. My first match was five days after my arrival and I still didn’t feel normal. The level of exhaustion was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It’s 6 hours later than the east coast so when I’m awake and playing tennis, I’m usually sleeping or waking up. The first two days in Israel I had to have extremely limited practices because I would get tired so quickly. I also couldn’t recover as well so sometimes I couldn’t even practice twice in a day. At night I would fall into such a deep sleep that it was extremely hard to wake up in the mornings. Next time I make a trip to a massively different time zone I will go with more time to prepare.

With only one week of this trip completed it’s already been such an amazing and humbling experience. I’m beyond excited to see what these next two weeks will bring.

Beaches in Israel