Why Being A Tennis Captain Is Hard

Why is being the captain difficult? If you are a new captain this episode is for you!

Both Erin and Aileen have captained multiple teams for more than a decade! Erin made a list of why being the captain is so hard or why it sucks and Aileen discusses her experiences as captain. Erin and Aileen give great advice and Carolyn listens and laughs and feels very appreciative of people willing to step up and captain!

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Transcript

Challenges of Being a Tennis Captain

Carolyn 0:08

Hi, this is Carolyn, and I'm here with Erin, and we really appreciate Aileen being here. This was Erin's idea because she made a list of why being the captain is hard. Or we were actually laughing before the episode as why captaining sucks. Both Aaron and Leen have captained multiple teams each year for over a decade. So, Aaron, do you want to start with your list?

Erin 0:31

So I wrote some notes down and I'm just gonna ask you a couple questions, what you think. So I think one of the worst parts of captaining is picking the team. Do you agree with that?

Aileen 0:43

Yeah. For me personally, we're working out of a country club setting, and the first part of the team is pretty easy because we don't even have 15 people at our club that are at that level, and our roster limitations are at 15. Right. So everybody at that rating gets a spot. Um it I think it really gets complicated when you have 25 people that want to play on one team, and then you have to divide up and how do you go and how all that works, which you've had to deal with that before. But as far as that goes, for me personally, I look at it then and then see what I need. Right. Um, for instance, at the 4-0 level, we don't have singles players or people that want to play singles more than a couple times during the season. And so when I look to fill, again, I don't have a huge pole of 4-0s to go after. I go to the three fives and I have to look for singles players.

Erin 1:39

So that's actually one of the things that I was thinking of. So um I now play, I played at the same club as Aileen and Carolyn forever and ever. It's my my soft spot, it will always be my home. But I'm at another club now where we have a bigger pool of people to choose from. But sometimes it seems unfair to put a 3-5 on a 4-0 team when a 4-0 might need a spot, but it is sort of one of those things. Like, I might have a 3-5 that's a better singles player or wants to play singles every week or is dedicated. And I think, you know, generally the reason why I wanted to do this episode was just to let people know, like, you know, there are a lot of people that just pick their friends or pick who they like or, you know, whatever. But it is very strategic. And I think some people that have never captained before don't realize that there is a lot of thought that goes into it. And it's not just like I'm just a jerk of a captain because I put a 3-5 on a team and I just didn't want that 4-0. That might not necessarily be the case.

Aileen 2:35

No, not at all. Especially because you also don't want to take the four-os who you obviously can't play three five and put them on singles courts when they really don't want to be there. I mean, this is for fun. That's what it all amounts to. I mean, this is recreational. So you don't like, would you even sign up if you had to play singles when you didn't want anything to do with singles? Right. Or your body wouldn't take singles anymore, or whatever the reason. Um, then yeah.

Erin 3:01

So yeah, and that's a good point. Like, captaining sucks because you also are, you have to remember exactly what you said, which is it is for fun. And so you don't want to make it not fun for you don't want to make a someone else's experience not fun when they're paying to be there, they're paying to be part of a club, or you know, even part of their city courts or whatever. So it's just not an easy job.

Aileen 3:23

That's why Yeah, no, I even stopped captaining for I think just a year or two at 40 Plus when it had two singles courts because I had I didn't have the singles players, and I had to put somebody who didn't want to be there all the time. And it's like, uh, and then they were miserable and it made me miserable. And it's just you hated to send out those lineups knowing someone's gonna be upset and you try to pass it around. But some people, I mean, they had double knee replacement. Okay, now you can't put them on a singles court. I'm sorry, right? Right.

Erin 3:54

Right.

Aileen 3:54

You'd love to pass it around, but yeah.

Erin 3:57

So we're just getting into spring, coming up into spring, and I'm uh I am gonna captain a team reluctantly. Normally I only captain summer singles because I only need three people each week. But this week, this this year I'm gonna do a spring team. But so I'm starting to pull my players to find out who they like to play with, who they feel comfortable on a court with, who they feel like they could win with. Cause, you know, you want to win. I mean, the whole point is to have fun, but also winning is fun. It makes for fun. Um, so I'm trying to pull my players um to ask them who they play well with and who they feel like they don't play well with. And I was at a practice the other day and I walked out with these two women and I said, Hey, have you emailed us yet your preferences? And they said, Well, I feel bad saying who, like you just put me wherever. And I said, No, if we're gonna go for wins, we need to know from you. And we won't won't necessarily share that information, but um, you know, that's another part that just kind of sucks about being a captain because you need to have people be honest with you about who they feel comfortable with and who they they might be the best of friends, but they might not play well together, you know?

Aileen 5:03

And I think people, yes, and I think people say, Oh, you can put me with anybody, and they genuinely want to just be a team player and are happy with that, and that's great. But for all those out there, when you do that, it actually kind of makes it harder. Um, and usually the people that are so easygoing and easy to captain are those people, and yet you don't want to put them maybe with a weaker player or somebody that's more difficult to pair or things like that, because you really need them to say, I would love to play with these people. These would be my top three choices, not just one. I'll only play with this person. We have those people too, don't get me wrong. Yeah, but I would love to play with like and name three or four names, right? But I'm happy to play with anybody. Don't hesitate to put me with anybody on the team, and I'm good. That's a better way to say it that at least gives us some guidance on where you're thinking.

Erin 6:00

Yeah, yeah. That's that's the best team player right there. Yeah. Um, okay, so another point is as a captain, I think you should not be the keeper keeper of all people's tennis. And what I mean by that is as a captain, you're then the one in charge of lineups and communication with other teams. And so you you kind of have this busy role throughout your season. But then sometimes you want to set up like a team clinic or a team practice. And then people sort of, you know, it might be like, oh, I'm gonna captain in the spring. So let's set up a clinic and just kind of see who good partnerships are and this, that, and the other. And then people rely on you to do that week after week. So I don't know. Then I then that's when I'm like, I'm not your personal secretary, your tennis secretary.

Aileen 6:42

You you get that a lot, and that gets it gets old. It gets old, and then people don't come. It's like, do you want this? Do you not want this? Um, I don't know. I tend to organize, like we've done some trips and so to for the team and things like that. And I do kind of a kickoff event. Yeah, and that's I'm gonna do that again this year. We did that last year just for team bonding. We had a lot of new people last year, and so it was like get to know you type stuff. Yeah, but as far as the clinic, somebody else was doing clinics, and that was all fun. But as far as inviting people to play, they do look to you to organize practices, and you know, then it's like if you play on your own, then they get the offended if they weren't invited to play on there with you. And it's like, this is what I have to say. They they have a phone and they can reserve a court too, right? They can ask me to play, they don't organize anything. Is that my fault? I mean, everybody can organize fun tennis, right? Um, and some people just don't want to, they want to be asked all the time. All the time.

Erin 7:48

I'm sure you've gotten someone that said, You never asked me to practice. And you're like, Well, you could ask me to practice.

Aileen 7:53

Right, exactly. Well, that's just it. I'm happy if I'm available.

Erin 7:57

Phone goes both ways.

Aileen 7:58

Yeah, exactly.

Erin 7:59

I'm giggling because as soon as you said that, I was thinking, you know, when this doesn't happen is men's death. Right? No. Too bad Mike's not on.

Aileen 8:10

Yeah, have you guys captained men? Oh, I've worked in mixed doubles. Well, I know that's drama.

Erin 8:15

Can you talk about that, Carolyn?

Carolyn 8:17

I think from Mike's perspective. I think the only thing that Mike said, and I'd like to hear your pet peeves from captaining, just real quick, some of the ones that you guys have, is that men don't respond.

Erin 8:26

Yes.

Carolyn 8:27

Yeah, not at all. So you don't know if they're gonna show up. They, you know, it's not that they they're not gonna get mad at you for what court they're on, it's that you don't know if they're actually gonna show up to play on a court. Right. Yeah.

Aileen 8:38

Oh, yeah. I have for my mixed teams, I have to call one guy and then he asks another guy on the team because he's gonna run into it. He'll respond to him, but he won't respond to me. Because they kind of work together somewhat. And so it's like, okay, you won't pick up for me, but you'll pick up for them. You let me know.

Erin 8:56

And I'm like, hey, pull you in, but we should do a whole nother podcast on the differences between men's captain, captaining men's teams and women's teams. I think we should do that for sure. Yeah. And just to reiterate all those other points that I said, and this is why it's hard to captain, is at some point, someone, at least one person will hate you at some point for being the captain, even though you've thought about the lineups and you've thought about their feelings and you've thought about what courts you should put them on, and you thought about how to get best get them a win and how to get them to practice. And they will eventually, at least one person will absolutely think that you're the worst.

Aileen 9:33

Completely all the time. And it's like those people you mentioned it before. It's the I don't want to play one, I don't want to play one because okay, they're mental about one, no problem. And then so I keep them on three, they're getting wins, they're not killing people, right? They might lose a couple, but they're getting some wins, so they're successful. We're good there. That's kind of how I think about it. Okay. Let's you always try to get people to have a successful season. Yes, that's what you want. Yeah, and um, but then they come, I had somebody come up to me and is like, you know, we can play a higher court, right? We can play one. Like, why aren't you putting me on one? Because you specifically said not to, and you're barely pulling out three. But you know, that kind of thing.

Erin 10:12

Yep, it's why captaining sucks. You do the best you can. And you don't get paid, yeah. Like exactly. Yeah, there's no glory in it unless you take a team to playoffs, and then you take them to states, and then, but even in that, there's gonna be someone's, you know, someone's gonna be upset at some point.

Aileen 10:30

Honestly, my two cents on that is third place is a beautiful place to be where you don't have to go to states, you don't have to go to playoffs, but you had a winning season. But you've had a winning season, everybody's successful because people change when they go to when it gets competitive, more and more competitive agreement.

Erin 10:49

Yes, yeah.

Carolyn 10:51

There is one more episode where Aaron and Aileen discuss why captaining is hard or why it sucks. And they also tell us their number one pet peeve as a captain. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the courts soon.