We entered our eighth match facing a school that had a lot of good athletes as well as 4 really strong players. If we were playing them 1-14, I would have felt good, but we were playing our top 7 versus their top 7. This was going to be a coin flip of a dual…
Tag: High School Tennis
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 3: Seventh Heaven
I approached my second season as head coach with guarded optimism that we could finish with a winning record. We returned every player from our 5-7 team. We also had a good amount of interest from 9th and 10th-grade players who had not been on the team last year. I subbed for a class in…
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 2: Season 1’s Emerging Road Warriors
As our first dual match got closer, I had no idea what to expect from our opponents but felt good about our team. The week of our first match, one of the players in my line-up failed to measure up to our weekly academic eligibility standards. I was down to 5 players I trusted to…
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 1: Head Coach?
With the Kentucky high school tennis season having just begun, I am looking back on my coaching start. I became a teacher in August 2002. I mentioned to my co-worker and athletic director that I would like to help both the boys and girls’ tennis teams. He said that would be fine because each team…
Dan Martin: Assistant Tennis Coach at Saint Xavier High School in Kentucky
I am sorry that I did not get any Australian Open predictions posted for this evening/morning’s matches. I did want to share that for the third time in my life that I will be helping to coach a high school tennis team. I will continue to write for Tennis Abides of course and will hopefully…
Saint Xavier High School (Louisville) Wins 9th Consecutive State Title by Logan Flynn
Reprinted from the Xavier News September 2017 issue with the permission of the author. I am hoping to have Tennis Abides focus on both college, junior, and high school tennis in the coming months. For full disclosure, I have been teaching at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, KY since August 2017. The Streak Continues For…
Rob Hardin Tennis Interview: Lessons from 30 Years of College and High School Coaching
Rob Hardin has given to the tennis world for nearly 30 years. Here is a look at his coaching background before we get into our interview: 1987-1990 Assistant Coach for Men’s and Women’s tennis at NKU, 1987 GLVCWomen’s Champions, 1989 GLVC Men’s Champions 1991-1995 Head Coach for the Women’s team at NKU 1991-1996 Head Coach…
Madie Cook Interview: 4 Year NCAA Division 1 Player
I will hopefully be doing more interviews as part of this site. Madie Cook was kind enough to answer some questions about tennis. 1. You won a Kentucky High School state title in singles in 12th grade. What was that like? Did it help you entering college tennis? It was one of the best memories…
Tennis & Nerves – My Perspective from Playing & Coaching Part 2
Coaching Take 1 – Avoid Information Overload My first stint as a high school coach came when I took over a team of young men at a school with little tradition of success in tennis. I noticed that my players were good athletes so I felt I had a lot to mould as a coach…
Tennis & Nerves – My Perspective from Playing & Coaching Part 1
Mental Tennis Tennis being an individual sport with minimal to no in-competition coaching has always put pressure on a player’s mental fortitude. Anyone who has played tennis also knows that at times one’s mental fortitude falters. Singles is particularly tricky because a loss means either the opponent was better or one failed to play well….
Tennis Abides: Dan Martin on Tennis and Life 