Hey everyone , this is Carolyn and I'm here with Erin and Erin on actually came up with this topic of tennis manners . Aaron , do you want to talk a little bit about a situation you had recently ? And then we started laughing and talking about different , strange or , I guess , interesting things that happened on the tennis court , Because adult tennis is a little , or just tennis in general , I guess is a little strange at all the protocols and the etiquette and the manners involved . So can you talk a little bit about it ?
ErinYeah , I was thinking about that column called Miss Manners . That was probably written year , I mean decades ago , but anyway . So I was thinking of , like I mean decades ago , but anyway . So I was thinking of , like you know , there's there's , like these , a lot of unwritten rules , and our friend Angela actually asked us some of those unwritten rules at one point right About like who does this and who does that .
ErinSo one of the things that happened um to me recently was I was playing a singles match at our club and , um , well , the first thing that happened was I was playing the captain of the team that we were facing and it was um singles court , so we had three singles courts and , um , she came onto the court where we were warming up right at match time . So to , in my mind , it's like we have to exchange lineups . You have your five to 15 minutes to warm up and then you're supposed to start within 15 minutes of actual match time , right , right ? So she was just walking on . So I approached her and I said Hi , I'm Erin , you know you're the captain , let's exchange lineup . And she did not look at me , did not ? I mean , she did , she was . I think she was on the phone or something . But I was like I just got this vibe that she wasn't didn't want to , you know , didn't want to talk to me .
ErinI kind of found out later , I think she was trying to figure out about her three teammates who was going to play on singles one , singles two , singles three . But anyway , it didn't matter , it was just a little bit , it was just a little bit odd , you know , and you know , maybe that's a manners thing and everybody thinks , you know , everybody has different manners . So you know , that was just her . But once we started , we started our warmup , she hit the ball into the net a few times and so she asked me if the net had been measured recently , and I didn't know the answer to it . But our pro was there and I said , oh , let me get our pro to go ahead and do that , because I don't have a measuring tape in my bag . I couldn't even tell you what the net is supposed to be at , I think it's three feet exactly , but I could be wrong .
ErinUm , so , before I even had time to like kind of glance around and look for our pro , she had gone to her bag , grabbed a measuring tape and started measuring it . But the problem was that she , she moved it Like she , she pulled the strap right away and like was going to correct it , but it had , it was actually correct in the first place . So then we had to take some time to like go through and pull the strap down and make sure it was separated . And so to me that was and I don't want to use the word rude , but manners wise we I was the home team , I was the home captain . Even I wasn't just like a player out there not knowing what to do , I was the captain .
ErinShe asked me a question , didn't let me even fix it , and she went ahead and just boom , started doing it and then kind of messed up the whole situation and it took like five or 10 minutes to kind of get it set . So I just thought that was a little odd . Um , yes , yes . So I don't know , were you there that day ? Did you see that ? You didn't see that happen ? I ?
Carolyndidn't see that happen . I can't remember . I watched some of the math , yeah , but I always know when someone's measuring the nets that my experience is . It's normally pretty intense after that or they're really into it .
ErinYou know enough to measure it and to have something to measure it , then you're not messing around . Yeah , I don't know , I don't even know what the right height is . I should , and there's actually like measuring devices specifically for tennis nets , but maybe I should get one as the captain . But and then the other thing that happened and again , this isn't a manners thing , it's just like everyone's personality is so different . But I had this woman show up and to a singles match and had her own chair . Again , like we had benches .
ErinWe have , you know , and I know it's a little odd maybe to sit next to your opponent , but you can sit on a bench and sip your water and not say anything if you don't want to talk . Um , but she like put a chair on , like a completely , I would say like eight feet away from me . Yes , which is fine , cause I know that's you like to not talk to people . So I totally understood her . But it does feel odd and awkward in an adult rec tennis match . I don't think that probably happens that often . Maybe it happens more in States where it's more intense or something . But this was like a casual summer league where I just thought I wasn't going to chit chat with her because I clearly knew I could read the room Like . Her personality was like don't chit chat with me , but it was just funny to have like . And you did show up later and you were like what's the chair ?
Carolynlike 20 feet away . So that's really interesting , erin , because I saw that match also where someone was , had a chair and put it really far away from everyone else and in my mind I thought that's really smart . And then I started doing it for my singles matches , well , because of COVID . Part of it was because of COVID , but also kind of just to be away from everyone else is better for me . But I think that's interesting how you took it . It's strange to see for a fun match to see someone take a chair and put it away from everyone , but mine specifically , I'm like oh , that's really smart , especially with COVID , to put all your stuff away from everyone .
ErinThat I agree with . The COVID thing I absolutely agree with and maybe that was it . It definitely could have been that .
CarolynOh , I had one for you . I remember this and I don't know what to do in this situation . Who changes the scoreboard ? I always find it very awkward , like it's like we both walk up , then there's like we stare at each other , then I do it and then I don't know if they don't like that that I'm doing it . Is it the home team ?
ErinYeah , and some people like to change it every single time , like you know , even on an like , not even on a changeover , and especially in , and I don't disagree with this and frankly I don't care if someone wants to change it every time and that's their quirk , I have no problem with that . You know , change the scoreboard every time , um , but um , especially in match tie breaks , I'm actually not against that , except it does sometimes mess with the flow . If you're changing it every single time , every single point , because at least in a game you know you could go four points , or maybe it's eight points or 12 points , depending on how many deuces you go to , then it doesn't mess up the flow . If you change it , you know , between games . But if you change it every single time , like during a set or a match tie break , that to me is um distracting because you're doing it after every single point .
ErinBut who does it is a very good question . Here's my philosophy . Let's hear it . I don't personally care . I try . If I am the away opponent , if I'm at someone else's courts , I certainly try to establish some sort of like . Who wants to do this ? You know , like it's your home courts , it's you know you're , it's up to you , it's your job .
ErinI don't personally care if anybody does it at ours or not .
ErinAnd part of that is two things for me . Number one I tend to focus on tennis , and not not that I don't focus on the score , but sometimes , like there's so much to think about that , I will oftentimes either call the score wrong , like sometimes , like if I'm up 40 , 30 , I might say 30 , 40 , and then go oh no , sorry , sorry , 43 , knowing the numbers are right but I have them in the wrong order . So I might do that with a scoreboard too . So I personally don't care if somebody else does the scoreboard and I just like check them . Or if I do it every single time , I literally say to my opponents or my team or my partner Um , so . And then here's the other thing too . This is the weird part of my personality and it comes down to superstition If I've changed it and I'm winning , then I would prefer to keep changing it . If I've changed it and I've lost , like , I might want to switch it up and have someone else touch it or do it Right .
CarolynYes that . So that's really interesting , cause I play doubles with someone who , um refuses to change the scoreboard . She doesn't want to do it . She says that it's bad luck . So she doesn't want to change the scoreboard . I don't care , I'm fine changing it , but I just didn't know . I just think it's kind of interesting that some people don't want to change it .
ErinSome people do .
CarolynIs there someone that should ? And it's always this awkward . Did you change it ? A lot of times , as I noticed , we switch sides and then nobody's changed it , and so I'm always like running up to change it because I don't want to forget games .
ErinBut is it normally the home team that you let do it , and if they don't , then you do it I would think if we were talking , I would think , if we're talking about it in a manner situation , it's probably best to defer to the home team to do it . Okay , Same with . Oh , we should talk about spinning the racket , right .
ErinAnyone can do it , but it's almost always in my mind , come down to the home team spins . Yes , it doesn't have to be that way , but it's your . You are the host of the match . You know , even if you're at a city , you don't have to be at a country club or a you know , or tennis club . Um , you know , if you're city courts , you're . Someone has always assigned the home team or the away team . So I typically let and I will say to people like you're the home team , why don't you ? I might initiate the spin , but I would say you're the home team , you know , why don't you spin ? Some people don't have like the bottom of the racket has like a weird symbol , or they don't want to spin the racket , and so they might go like , oh you know who has the best racket to spin with . But I think , in just like prompting the home team to at least start that process somehow , whether they want to have somebody else do it or that , that to me would be the right thing to do .
CarolynYes , I agree with that . And then you're the captain , so you enter scores a lot . Who ?
Erinenters the score . Oh , that's a good one , that's a really good question . So the USTA says anybody can enter the scores . I think that they say that because , yeah , I think they say that because they want scores entered quickly
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ErinI used to play on a team when I first started out where I had a captain . She was a great captain , but she would constantly forget after the match , if we won , to enter the scores , and so I would like obsessively watch for like a couple days to see if they had been entered . And there was a lot of times where I wanted to enter them because I knew , you know , I knew all three courts or five courts or whatever . I knew who played on what , but I might've even been the co-captain , but I didn't feel like it was my place to do it . But it really is . Anyone can do it . But typically , I think the unwritten you know rule , manners , whatever you want to call it is the winning team is supposed to enter . Now I do think it comes down to like now I've captained for so long , I feel like even if I was the losing captain I have all the scores and know who's played on what courts I would probably just enter them . But it's supposed I mean manners , wise protocol , whatever you want to call it it should be the winning team , but if they don't enter it for a while , really anybody can do it Right .
ErinTwo other things that come to mind , and I know we've done previous episodes on them , but as a captain , the courtesy slash nice , miss Manners , thing to do as the host , whether , again , if you're at a city court , you could be the home or away captain , whatever , but it should fall under the person , the captain that is hosting the match . As the home team should contact the other captain and just confirm , just say , looks like weather's good , you know , for tomorrow or next week or whenever you're confirming it . You know , sometimes I'll say like you know , don't forget where we're playing . There's no water on the courts , or you know the bathrooms are far away , or we have ice and water and towels , you know whatever , just kind of give them . Or if you know your court numbers , that's a really nice thing to do ahead of time , for the opposing team is just to say here's where we're playing , here's what it looks like , here's what we you know , here's what's going on . So that's a good manners thing to do .
ErinWhat was the other one that we just talked about . Oh , we also talked about before what courts to play on . Yeah , yes , like who ?
Carolynplays on what court ?
ErinYes , yeah , so several , several years , many , many years ago we were the home team and we had a club show up and we only had a singles court . I mean , I'm sorry , we only had a hard court available for the singles match and then we were waiting for other courts to open up for the doubles or something , but singles had to get started . So our captain it was not me at the time my captain said to the other team we're going to put the singles one player on hardcore one or whatever , right ? And the other team the woman that was playing singles almost outright refused because we have clay courts and hard courts at our club . And the fact is it was bad manners for her to refuse because you can't .
ErinYou play where you are assigned to . You can obviously negotiate . I mean , maybe our captain didn't even want to play there either and maybe she could have said hey , you know , we would rather wait and put singles on a clay court or whatever . But we did not have a choice at that time and the rule , the deal was that was the court that she and the other singles player were assigned to . She almost outright refused to play . It took about 15 minutes to convince her that that was where she was playing or she was going to forfeit the match and that's again . That's super awkward in adult rec tennis . But the the that's the rule , like the home team gets to choose where , what court you're playing , whatever match on . There's certainly a lot of courtesy given if certain people don't like to play on hard courts . Maybe they have bad knees , maybe they're older , maybe you know they have an injury , you know whatever it is . But the nice mismanners thing to do is to play where you are assigned .
CarolynThe right Right .
ErinThat's all I have to say .
CarolynThanks very much to Erin for discussing this . We hope you'll check out our website , which is SecondServePodcastcom . You can listen to all of our episodes directly from the website by searching the topic you're interested in . We also have information about ratings , rules , tennis gear and more on our resources page . Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon . You .