Carolyn 0:08

Hi , this is Carolyn and I'm here with Erin and this is part two of our episode with Aileen discussing why captaining is so hard . Both Aaron and Aileen have captained teams for more than a decade . If you haven't listened to part one , we hope you go back and listen . But here's part two .

Erin 0:25

Let's talk about flipping courts a little bit , and everybody calls this different . What was the other term , carolyn , that someone used ?

Carolyn 0:30

Not rolling Rolling . Are you going to roll courts ?

Erin 0:33

Rolling courts . I don't even know what that means , but that sounds like bowling or you know , bocce to me or something . But anyway , we call it flipping .

Carolyn 0:39

Yes , that's because she said did you roll ?

Erin 0:41

Yes , are they going to roll ?

Carolyn 0:42

on you yeah .

Erin 0:43

We call it flipping . So I was asking Aileen , before we started recording as a captain , if you're going into a match . So at our 4-0 level and at 3-5 , I think everything except 2-5 , I think 2-5 plays three courts only . So they play one singles and two at least in our area I don't know about every area In our area two fives play one court of singles , two courts of doubles and everything above that plays five courts . So two court with a caveat two courts of singles and three courts of doubles , except for now the 40 over , which is only one singles Nonetheless .

Erin 1:15

Do you quote flip ? Would you consider flipping , like if you have a really strong singles player and maybe a weaker one , would you maybe flip those two courts and put your stronger one on , let's say , singles two , hoping that the team you're playing against is playing straight up to win a singles court , to kind of guarantee nothing's guaranteed but to hopefully win a singles court , and then maybe , you know , flip your doubles courts to just try to get two of your doubles courts so that you get three out of the five . And I know other areas count points . I don't think they do it exactly like us . We're literally just win the majority of the courts right . So we have to win three out of five courts each week for a team win . So what's your philosophy on doing that ?

Erin 1:57

For the most part , I play straight up and the reason being I feel like it would be that one time that they decided to switch for some reason because odds are , if they're scared of us , we're scared of them , kind of thing , or it's getting tight , you know , in the rankings and it comes down to this match , or for whatever reason . Having said that , I do , especially for playoffs and things like that I will look at every team and I will put every person and what court they played and when and I think that happened this last spring for playoffs or no , we didn't make playoffs For some team I captained that made it to playoffs at some point this last year . I went through there and did that and it's like , yes , and somebody was telling me you need to switch , you need to flip , you need to flip , you need to flip . And I'm like , yeah , but look , they flip . This time they flip that Honestly any , and when playoffs come , people could do things that they've never done before .

Erin 2:53

So I think if you just play straight up , then your conscious is clear yeah , and not only that , but I have . Sometimes there's a big disparity in my one and my two , or my one and my three on doubles courts and I don't want anybody to feel like I'm throwing them under the bus . You know , now , having said that , if it is a tight match and I had a team that realized they were a weaker team and came to me and said this is what I think you should do , put us there , then I would probably do that Right . But I think it would have to come to them and I've heard of that done to other captains , you know , and things like that are teams . I've been available , I've been on . People have come up and said I think you need to switch .

Erin 3:37

Aileen and I also talked about , if you like there are some . So what you have to think of as a captain . There are some players that just mentally don't want to be on certain courts , right , some players think they're really good and they get mad if you put them on three . Some people think they're really bad and if you put them on one , they just mentally break down and you might think they're a court one doubles player , you know whatever . So you have to again , as a captain , you have to constantly also think about people's mentality and what they think of their own play and where they feel like they should be . And I'm sure you've had people say just don't put me on one , yeah , and they might be like your . You know your best player . So , anyway , that's . That is a really good point . I am one of those people , carolyn , that likes to play on one because number one , I feel like I'm going to get the best tennis . Whether I win or lose , I'm going to get .

Erin 4:24

you know , if someone's playing straight up , you're probably going to face their toughest play , your opponent's toughest players , and two it takes the pressure off me because I think if I win my court , yay me , and if I lose my court , I'm like well , I just played the best person , so y'all need to clean it up on the rest of the court .

Carolyn 4:45

So , and people don't realize their strengths necessarily . Oh okay , I have a quick question what's your number one pet peeve as a captain , from a player's perspective ? Just so that I know what's your number one pet peeve that people do . Is it not responding ? Is it telling you after the fact how you should have done the lineup ?

Erin 4:57

Oh , I have one for this .

Erin 4:58

You go .

Erin 5:00

It's saying , when you're in a group or something , oh , we really want to play together , we really want to play together . And then getting the text or the call right afterwards Okay , I know I said that , but I'd rather not play with her , I'd rather play with somebody else . Again , Multiple times , again , different people , multiple times , again , different people , multiple times , doesn't ?

Erin 5:18

happen in men's tennis . Oh , I don't know what would be my biggest pet peeve , I think , just feeling like when I have made lineups and thought them all through and people give me their availability and then I put out a lineup and then they go oh no , I'm not available that day .

Erin 5:34

And I'm like yes , and that happens more in makeup matches . Regular season is like but you'll get if you do a makeup match . Let's say you know you get a rain out , and then you say , okay , give me three or four dates that I can then go to the other team , and then you take half of your day it seems like four hours out of your day or something . You're working with the other captain and you've you've scheduled the match , and then you go back to your team and you're like okay , you're playing , you know these two players at this location on this day and then someone goes oh , I can't actually play that day . I'm like , I feel like I'm being punked , like my head , literally , like emoji , explodes . So that is definitely my number one .

Erin 6:11

But having said that , on that , which that's a whole nother podcast in itself , is dealing with rain makeups . But sometimes it takes a long time . It's like , okay , you've got your lineup , you think you can play these courts , and you go to the other team and you tell them and then it's crickets for a little while and 24 hours later you hear from them and by that time you know it's rained for three days straight . So another team that this person's playing on has already booked a match and so now you're out . It's kind of like , okay , you got to take it off , but you don't know it's tough yeah .

Erin 6:41

Yeah .

Erin 6:42

That's why captaining sucks yeah , that part's tough . Yep Checking courts that's yeah , you do the best you can .

Erin 6:50

Exactly , we do the best we can .

Erin 6:55

For the pay grade . For the pay grade .

Carolyn 6:57

Thank you to all the captains out there . Listening to Erin and Eileen discuss this has made me very appreciative for all my captains . If any other captains listening have any other pet peeves , please let us know . You can message us on our website , which is SecondSurfPodcastcom . Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon . You .