Second Serve Tennis
Second Serve Podcast is the only tennis podcast created exclusively for adult recreational players by everyday tennis players. We are passionate about the game and our episodes are geared towards adults playing a sport in the later years of life (hence, the name “Second Serve”). This podcast discusses everything related to rec tennis. Topics include the following: advice for beginners; funny and crazy situations that happen on the court; the rules of adult tennis; and how it feels being an adult and getting your feelings hurt when you are not played in an important match. We know how it feels!
Second Serve Tennis
Weather And Shorts Sets (Don't Be A Jerk To Volunteers)
Have you ever felt like weather has impacted the outcome of a match?
Tom and Dave are back to give advice on playing short sets in important matches including being flexible and not being a jerk to the volunteers.
We are replaying a few of our most popular episodes and this was one of them!
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Hi, this is Carolyn and I'm here with Aaron, and this is part two of our episode with Dave and Tom. Dave and Tom lost the 6-5 state championship, but it came down to the number of games won, so both their team and another team were four and one, but the other team won more games. But it became even more interesting because they played short sets, so there was a conversion in the numbers. If you'd like to hear about that, please check out part one, but here is part two. So did you guys play ad with your short sets or was there no ad?
Speaker 2:So sometimes we do the no ad situation, but for the short set there is ad, which is interesting because you can get in one of those long games and one game takes longer than the whole set. The rest of the set, right, right yes, I like that there is ad I don't like it.
Speaker 1:When there's no ad, no matter what I want there to be at yeah, yeah, because that can go on for a while I need.
Speaker 4:I need all those um chances. I might need eight or nine deuces to to win a game. So no ad for me. I I almost think it's more mental like I already feel like I'm gonna lose when there's no ad. You know, I just feel like, oh, I don't have, I don't have a choice yeah, it is a mental game.
Speaker 4:I don't have you know I'm I'm never gonna get to the deuce point, so but the um, the flip side to that is, if you know that, going into it, maybe think about, don't even get to a deciding point, right, just trying to hunker down and get you know, win all your points. If you're the server or whatever it is, yeah, you know, this weather thing we played.
Speaker 3:this was years ago. We played the local frostbite tournament, I think it's in January or December and you know our climate here is like you know, it can be cold, it can be warm. This weekend, I think it's supposed to be 70 degrees 70 in December. Last weekend it was, you know, and so well, apparently they picked the wrong weekend because it was a three-day tournament and Friday and Saturday it snowed.
Speaker 4:Oh my goodness, it really was a frostbite tournament, they named it.
Speaker 2:It really was. It was rough. What did they do?
Speaker 4:Did you play in the indoor courts there?
Speaker 2:Literally. We showed up in the morning and had to wait for the ice to get cleared off the courts, but they kept everybody around and you realize that the indoor area of these tennis courts isn't very big when you're trying to put 100 people inside of there and stay warm.
Speaker 3:So it was, uh, it was interesting yeah, we, basically you sit around and wait for your turn to play. It was, uh, I forget which version of short sets that it was, but it happened really quick. But by that time, your whole lower back is so tense from the cold because you're standing around. You go out and you play, and I am happy to say, though, we were beat by the team that won the tournament all age levels.
Speaker 2:We were the best losers there we were the best losers there. No, because we were, we were, we maintained that's right, we were the 55 and over champ by the way, yes, that's awesome, we signed up for that level and there were no other teams, so we defaulted back down to play the young guys.
Speaker 3:No, it was 18 plus because we played the kids.
Speaker 2:Yes, the other interesting thing about the bad weather is you know we're talking about this team and ours, where we both ended up four and one, but that means there's a few other teams who ended up with very few points. Now they're being asked to stick around another day for a game. That means absolutely nothing to them. They're not going to advance any further, they don't have a chance to get into sectionals and we had some of the teams go we don't want to play, we're not going to do it.
Speaker 2:We're not going to stick around. Well then you find out that there's a hundred dollar per court fee that you get fined if you don't show up. So all of a sudden they're looking well, that's 300 bucks If we don't show up we'll stick around, yeah, but but the other thing too is they've, they've.
Speaker 4:Some of them may have traveled from far away and had they were paying for hotel rooms, to stay an extra day and all kinds of other stuff. So you probably have to do the math on that one too. Is it worth, just as a team pay 300 bucks, or everybody spend 200 a night, or whatever it is to stay in a hotel room?
Speaker 1:you know, yeah isn't it also that you get in trouble if you do that, if you default at States like you can get, you can get put in, I mean, which I guess is there's a good reason for it, because it really does mess everything up if people go home and like, especially when there's a round Robin and there's not a semifinal and final, when that stuff really matters.
Speaker 4:Especially if they had. If you were going to play a team that wanted to go home, let's say, they went home and defaulted all their courts and you got all the points that could have bumped. That would have bumped you ahead of other teams, had they already played them and, you know, lost even you know a game here, here or there. So, yeah, that stinks. To get all the way to the state tournament, though, and have to, but I think it's that way in every tournament. I don't even think it's just states, but like any tournament like you said, even Frostbite tournament or weekend tournaments that juniors do, you just have to show up and know that you have to wait to figure out how they can get it played.
Speaker 2:Well, the one thing I'm glad about is the tiebreaker went to the point where they found one, where they beat us, because if we would have tied there also, it would have gone to a coin flip, and I don't want to win or lose on a coin toss.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would have been awesome. That's a whole other episode.
Speaker 4:Could you imagine whether you win states or not?
Speaker 1:it's a coin flip, and then who chooses, who calls it? Does one team throw?
Speaker 4:it? I'm sure it's totally up to the officials. Who chooses who calls it? Does one team throw it? I'm sure it's totally up to the officials. We're going to seek someone out, Carolyn, that has won or lost states on a coin toss.
Speaker 2:We're going to seek that.
Speaker 4:There's somebody out there that that has happened to?
Speaker 3:And to think that you wouldn't even have to go through all that bother. You could just stay at home and do a coin flip, right.
Speaker 4:And do you celebrate that? Do you celebrate that win?
Speaker 2:You never talk about how you won, you just won.
Speaker 4:You just won, so you do. You're saying you're in the camp of yes, you celebrate that win, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just like the ugly shot right, you frame one and it goes in, still went in.
Speaker 4:Hey, that's like 80% of adult rec tennis.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is true, that is true.
Speaker 2:Saves a lot of money on strings too, yeah.
Speaker 3:I always say ugly counts, yes. The other thing I, since we're talking about tournaments, is these tournament directors, coordinators, volunteers, local pros they're all doing this. Nobody's making money on this.
Speaker 3:They're not okay. We get real frustrated because we think this means the world and all this stuff. But be courteous to those people they've worked hard um for really for us so that we can do this. Yeah, the other thing I was very surprised at any of these local tournaments there are more games played than like at the us open. I mean. So another way that you coordinate a tournament that has men's and women's and it has 3-0 and 3-5 and 4-5 and 4-0 and all these different levels and every combination of everything. It's like a thousand matches or something like that right, we had a number on that, carolyn.
Speaker 4:Do you remember? They told us at Nationals. They told us it was like somewhere over a thousand. It's a ridiculous amount. It's nationals. They told us it was like somewhere over a thousand, over a thousand. It's a ridiculous amount. It's a lot of matches. Yeah, it's a. That's a huge undertaking.
Speaker 3:And these are not professional tournament coordinators, right, you know. Hopefully they've done it before and they've dealt with some of the issues, which helps, but they're not the right people to be yelling at.
Speaker 2:No, and it's amazing, I'd say the majority of the people are really. You know they understand how hard their job is, but there are those few people who somehow think they have control of the weather or when we're going to be able to play on the courts, that they're just guests like the rest of us on these courts and to watch these people argue with them and complain that you know why can't we play, why won't they let us go on the courts? They look dry. To me it was just amazing to see and we went the extra mile and trying to be really nice to them, and you know, hey, you want some hot chocolate, or you know, can we do that kind of thing?
Speaker 3:Because they have a tough job, Even in good weather. They have a tough job and they're standing around in that cold At least we get to run around for 20 minutes.
Speaker 4:That's true. They're doing it for the love of the game, really Like they. Just they love tennis enough to volunteer to run tournaments. The rest of us.
Speaker 2:And to watch that.
Speaker 4:Really good Quality, quality tennis Don't wreck tennis Players.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4:When they could be at home watching the US Open. They're out there watching us play tennis.
Speaker 1:They chose us. Thanks very much to Tom and Dave for discussing this. I really like their advice that we should all try to be flexible when short sets or weather is involved. I also like their advice that we should be kind to the people working at the tournaments, because I'm sure it is not easy to deal with a bunch of adult recreational tennis players. We hope you check out our website, which is SecondServePodcastcom. I'm sure it is not easy to deal with a bunch of adult recreational tennis players. We hope you check out our website, which is SecondServePodcastcom. We've added a new section called Resources, where you can look at the websites we look at for ratings and rules. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon. Thank you.