Discipline in a COVID World Can Help in the Tennis World

December 7, 2020 | By Lonnie Mitchel
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I often write about what most coaches talk about to their students and teams. Discipline is just an important component to all successful athletes. Even those that test themselves to progress and are not accomplished athletes in whatever sport requires sacrifice and discipline, and usually results in some incremental improvement.

To my core I am a tennis player. I grew up on a tennis court and my father pushed and encouraged me. At times I wanted to play baseball and basketball with my friends, but even at 14-years-old I realized that in order to be good, I had to make a sacrifice and I ultimately did. I knew I had it in me! My mother had a love of music and she pushed me to play the piano (I hated it) and I did not have much talent either. She made me practice and with some hard work I was able to play some songs and even performed in a recital. However, the lure of sports was too much and tennis was always my direction and calling. The piano experience did teach me something which helped my tennis. Even with limited talent if you were disciplined enough, you could improve. My mother had aspirations of me being some sort of concert pianist, but I was not motivated in that way, but she had the wherewithal to impose her discipline on me. I finally stopped playing because my mother could not stand the arguing any longer that I probably made her miserable with. I wish she was alive now, because I think of her and that piano experience and I want to let her know it was certainly not a waste of time. I learned something! I just moved onto another instrument and that instrument was a tennis racquet. I was armed to understand that if I could play the piano with little talent that I could be really be good at tennis where I had some gifts to be a good player.

So let’s fast forward to 2020 and the world of COVID-19. The sports world has changed. I’m watching the NHL and NBA in empty arenas, and its great being able to watch tennis again and having the U.S. Open back, but it is just not the same without the real crowd noise in the background. Even the sport of golf is playing in front of empty galleries. Our local tennis environment has changed drastically and so too did the world of collegiate tennis.

As the head coach of the men’s and women’s tennis teams at SUNY Oneonta, last week I welcomed back a group of men and women who just want to play tennis and compete. We put on our schedule that we could start official practices as early as September 14. I said to them often, “try to prepare independently for the 14th of September so we can hit the ground running and workout in a safe social distancing atmosphere”. I also said to them, “expect changes and discipline yourself to handle it the new practice environment”. At that moment I heard my mother and father in my ear and say, “see I told you! Discipline yourself because you just do not know what life throws at you”.

I am going to use this time away from the tennis courts to constantly talk about discipline and relate it to the environment we are living in. By the way, the September 14 date I mentioned for practice is not going to happen because of the outbreak in Upstate New York and nationwide. The date will come and go, and there will be no tennis for the collegians.

However, I have done a lot of soul searching as it relates to coaching college tennis or any tennis in an environment when you cannot hold a practice, and how I can use this situation to our benefit. How can I make them better tennis players? While being sensitive to this environment I challenged them to understand that COVID is like playing tennis in a metaphoric way. Some people are very sick; others are asymptomatic while most people, thank goodness, do not get exposed at all. The tennis metaphor is this: some opponents hit hard, others hit soft with slice, and others come to the net more. I could go on and make a list of style of tennis players and there would not be enough room in this magazine to list them all. So let’s understand that the one thing that can get us to be better players is to use the discipline we have within us and make those good decisions on how we handle COVID and apply that to tennis.

We can handle COVID and be disciplined if we wear masks and do what the medical experts say. That gives us the best chance for success. Practicing discipline and overall putting the work ethic to a good workout and doing what coaches and experts say is a recipe for success, beginning with discipline to protect your health and the control to improve in the game of tennis. I did not reinvent the wheel with these comments, I am only pointing out that in a tennis environment if you can overcome the pandemic and utilize those tools that help, you can use the same tools to improve in the game we love so much. My players are being challenged to improve even when I have to coach them virtually. Let’s put ourselves in a position to succeed and now, when we need it most, let’s use some old-fashioned intelligence and discipline so when we can get back to tennis the way we used to, we’ll be better in mind and spirit.’

 


Lonnie Mitchel
Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach at SUNY Oneonta

Lonnie Mitchel is head men’s and women’s tennis coach at SUNY Oneonta. Lonnie was named an assistant coach to Team USA for the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel for the Grand Master Tennis Division. Lonnie may be reached by phone at (516) 414-7202 or e-mail lonniemitchel@yahoo.com.

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