Blog - SCTA - Southern California Tennis Academy

18 Apr 2023

Young Americans on the Rise

Watching this year‘s Australian Open was more fun than it has been in several years: The Djokovic story, Tsitsipas coming into his own, the women absolutely crushing the ball, and the American men winning, winning and more winning. All of these storylines made the Aussie Open an overnight affair for me the last two weeks while I attempted to sleep at the right times to stave off exhaustion. While I am a vocal Djokovic fan, the pull for the American men was as strong as it has been in years. The young Americans, in droves, made such a huge statement in Melbourne that the perceived failure of American men’s tennis has once and for all been put to bed.

With no fewer than eight men in the round of 32, the US had its strongest showing in 28 years. And what’s surprising about this success is the fact that some notable American players, including Isner, Opelka and Nakashima, weren’t part of that eight. Three of those eight players made the quarterfinals. Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, and Sebastian Korda, who took out grand slam winner and former number one Medvedev, hung around well into the second week of the slam. Michael Mmoh, a player almost no one had heard of, beat Alex Zverev in round two, and now stands at #83 in the current ATP rankings. Many U.S. players took out seeds on their way to strong showings. It wasn’t a lucky tournament where the stars lined up just right. We are simply good again . . . and young!

An interesting question for the American audience is “Why are we strong again in the men’s top 100 ATP rankings?“ Our women have never left the stage of tennis greatness with the Williams sisters dominating the tour for the last 20 years and several other American women winning the biggest tournaments. The first reason for the rise of American men is athletic development. Our guys are world-class athletes now. The American model for tennis development has been to simply play more tennis. Up until 20 years ago this “play all day” model had worked well for us. Out work everybody on the court, and you can make it with your stroke production and shot tolerance was the typical line of thinking. Meanwhile, the foreign players, especially Europeans, were training and playing in other sports, including soccer, and they were coming out of national sports institutions with overall athletic training development as a main priority. Needless to say, we fell behind. Only when Federer and then Nadal became champions did the light go off in the American development model. Roger and Rafa were so obviously athletically trained and talented that our coaches and parents of young players could now visibly see that the best approach was to become a world class athlete who plays tennis. The bar had been raised so significantly that we all could now see it. These current American men have been training to be pro athletes since they were seven or eight years old. The focus now is on strength, flexibility, plyometrics, track work, cardio, speed, speed and more speed. There is no entrance to the top of ATP tennis unless you’re athletic enough. The only exception to this rule are giant players with huge serves who do not have to rely as much on athleticism.

Moreover, we now have the most players in the ATP top hundred because sports are so prevalent in the US. Many of our kids want to be professional athletes because we are inundated with professional sports figures in our daily lives and in our culture. Even though the sports figures are rarely tennis players, we are all inspired by our American superstar athletes that make up probably half of the worlds best sports heroes: LeBron James, Tom Brady, OBJ, Steph Curry, Serena Williams, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, and Mike Trout are a handful of names that are ubiquitous in our social consciousness. The US has the best sporting tradition in the world by far, which helps inspire our young athletes. ESPN “SportsCenter “is an American staple. Video games like FIFA 23 and Madden NFL 23 keep our star athletes in front of our young athletes and help inspire them to be great also.

We also have so many top 50 and top 100 ATP players because the US offers so many pro events. We have always had more than our share of top-level ATP tournaments, but we have now added more Futures ($15,000 and $25,000) and especially Challengers ($80,000 to $125,000) to the American schedule. This enhanced schedule allows our players to stay in the US almost exclusively during their rise up the rankings. Ben Shelton never left the US to crack the top 100. Players can be comfortable with time zones, cuisine, and culture on their ascent up the pro rankings. It also makes touring so much more affordable, so that family, coaches, and friends can participate in the process. None of these players want to go to Europe and around the world for the minor leagues, and now they don’t have to.

Young American success is most importantly a result of the team dynamic that has become quite common. They have all grown up together, and they like each other. They’re friends. They train together, and hang out together, which allows their social and their professional lives to interconnect. Like the Spaniards 20 years ago, our young men are buddies. And this ingredient is significant. They look forward to the trips together. They go to the European clay to battle it out as well as the grass of England and Germany together. Asia in the fall encourages another another group affair led by our core of Fritz, Tiafoe, Kudla, Shelton, Opelka, Korda, Wolfe, Nakashima, Brooksby, Mmoh, Paul, McDonald, Eubanks, Cressi, Giron, Johnson and Isner. Tennis for Americans has been a sport of isolation since the 1970s, but this has now radically changed to become more of a team sport for our guys. Without a doubt, they are reaching lofty levels of success because of it.

With much stronger athletes, a larger offering of lower level, professional tournaments opportunities, and the friendship/team atmosphere of our young Americans, we are on our way to continued success on the ATP Tour. In order to continue the success, our players results will have to continue to improve. It will be exciting to see who will crack the ATP Top 5 first, and which players will make the Top 20 together. And the all-important question remains: “Which American will win the first grand slam tournament since Roddick in 2003?” Fritz, Tiafoe, Shelton, Brooksby and Korda are several of the names that we are going to be talking about for the next 5 to 10 years. The pressure is on, but our young guns can handle it.

Mitch Bridge
Owner/Director
Bridge the Gap Tennis
SCTennisAcademy.com
949-439-6810

27 May 2021

Forget the Rankings

Facing and dealing with pressure seems to have hit an all-time peak in today’s world. Parents and students can look up their “live” grades 24 hours per day. Everyone seems to know their body weight at all times, how many followers they have on Instagram, and how much money they have left on their debit card. Players and parents also can search for UTR, USTA, ITF and Tennis Recruiting rankings any hour of any day. While this constant scorekeeping is an exciting dopamine fix for all of us, it also creates a tremendous amount of pressure in our daily lives; this is especially true for strong academic students as well as tennis juniors.

Navigating stress can be an excellent motivator for schoolwork, as students regularly need a jolt to stay up to complete their homework. However, school is a “try harder”system where the harder you try, the better your grades will be. Tennis does not work this way. In this sport, the general rule is “the harder you try, the more you fail.” When I use this saying, I am referring to tournament play and performance. When you use the school adage of “try harder “in tennis, you begin to become a bumbling mess of nerves, which on court leads to mishits and doubt. You have to flow when you play while shutting off your critical mind. When you are constantly thinking of rankings and results, you disrupt your ability to concentrate on “playing” the game. You judge yourself, your parents criticize your performance, and your coach critiques your play when you allow rankings to determine your ability to execute what you practice during actual match play. These unwanted variants all interfere with the process of development and performance.

It is vital to set boundaries in looking up your rankings in all aspects of your life. I wish UTR only allowed one day per month for players to ascertain their rankings, but that will never happen because all of those hits bring marketing dollars. USTA and Tennis Recruiting only change once per week, but again looking only once per month would suffice. Conversely, school grading, however unhealthy it may seem, can be a strong motivator to study more, so both positive and negative aspects to “live” grading exist. In tennis, I see very little positives coming out of “live” rankings; in fact, this data only leads to stress and the wrong kind of practice. Practice and training should be about the process of game development for long-term growth. A player should go on the practice or tournament match court trying to improve and become a better overall player that day instead of wondering whether the number of wins or taking a certain amount of games will increase or decrease a UTR. It’s not whether you are focused or unfocused. Rather, it’s whether you are focused in the right mindset to enhance your game and your life.

Play the long game in your life. Focus on the process of game improvement to keep the wrong kind of pressure off, and the right type of pressure – to be good at your craft – on, while you’re training or competing. This mindset will lead to a much healthier approach where the development of a more well-rounded game and better long-term potential will be possible. Look up your rankings once per month to have a healthier outlook on these numbers. The first Wednesday afternoon each month is the best option. Tennis Recruiting is refreshed on Tuesdays for boys and Wednesdays for girls each week. USTA is updated on Wednesdays weekly. UTR is constantly updated. Parents, let’s encourage our kids to create a new ritual in tennis to look up their rankings only on the first Wednesday of the month to ensure a better development outlook that will ultimately improve their ability to perform at their best regardless of the numbers associated with their record. If you are successful in motivating them to adopt this new approach, you will soon see a level of tennis from them that you have not witnessed before.

Mitch Bridge
Owner/Director
Bridge the Gap Tennis
SCTennisAcademy.com
949-439-6810

11 May 2021

It’s Not What You Think

Young American tennis players grow up with college sports running concurrently with professional sports at the forefront of the US athletic landscape. College football and basketball are hugely successful and compete with the NFL and NBA for top viewership ratings. Because of this large audience and the undeniable popularity of these two sports, football and basketball teams usually have high level management and coaching in their programming at the youth, high school and college levels. Tennis mentorship at these levels is often a different story.

Tennis players grow up expecting high school and college tennis programs to be similar to what they know about their favorite football and basketball programs. These popular team sport programs are run professionally as paying audiences and money generated from television contracts allows them to afford well-paid coaches and staffs as well as management teams that facilitate the production of their games. In most cases, however, tennis operates on a paltry budget, which typically only covers compensation for a head coach and often a volunteer assistant. This unfortunate reality is played out not only at the high school level but also at the collegiate level. A part-time coach on a flimsy budget has to put together a program for his university that in theory should look like his school’s football and basketball programs. The goal to have equitable resources for all sports including tennis is simply not possible. These coaches, restricted by the limits of time and the bottom line usually are forced to work other part-time jobs in the sport; given the circumstances, they nevertheless often do a commendable job keeping the programs afloat.

So, the message here is to do your homework! As the college search begins, is it crucial that you research tennis programs so that you know that you will be attending a good one. Most college recruiters cannot do this homework for you. And don’t be fooled by the belief that a Division 1 program is necessarily a strong program. The bottom D-1 programs are inferior to the top D-2 and D-3 schools. They are run less professionally with lower-level coaching and management than these smaller schools. To be sure, many players are enamored with “the D-1 dream”, and as a result, they often ignore some obvious signs of neglect and dysfunction just so they can say they played D-1 tennis.

Junior players looking to play at the collegiate level need to donate hours of diligent research into their college choices. The coach and culture are of utmost importance as are the majors offered, the costs, the location, the size of the college/university and the level of play/conference. Put the hours in on learning about the coach and the team. Message players on the current roster and befriend them. Find out if they are happy and listen to what they recommend as a possible pathway. They are often more than willing to share their feelings on their current programs, especially if they are unhappy. So, prospective college players, it is up to you to look beyond the school colors, the mascots, and the name on the front of the hoody you plan on purchasing. Dive deep into the process of educating yourselves; it is called due diligence. Hundreds of dysfunctional programs in college tennis exist, so try your best to choose a university where your academics and your tennis can thrive.

Mitch Bridge
Owner/Director
Bridge the Gap Tennis
SCTennisAcademy.com
949-439-6810

27 Jul 2021

Only Five Guys Can Win This Wimbledon

Grass court tennis is a fickle master. It takes years of experience to cultivate the skills and learn the subtleties to compete well and win on this fast and slick surface. For several years, Wimbledon changed the type of grass, and therefore, the speed of the ball in order to enhance the length of rallies; however, the current surface leads to the speed and traction of old. Because of the specialized skill sets needed to excel on grass, and the amount of offense needed to win on fast surfaces, only five ATP players have a decent chance of winning the big W.

Tied at “most likely to win the grass slam” are the obvious choices of Novak and Rafa. With his well-documented Covid saga, his ongoing fitness issues, his leading role in the creation of a professional players group that is a threat to the ATP, and the year-long gap since he won his last major with Wimbledon 2021, Djokovic’s chances are tenuous at best. Nadal’s confidence is high with his Australian and French open victories and his ascent up the ATP rankings in 2022. He has his list of issues including the foot problem, the short time period between the clay and grass season, and his three-year absence from Wimbledon, a tournament he has not won since 2010. Moreover, his two Wimbledon titles were on the slower, more experimental grass. These two GOATS are nevertheless still obvious favorites because they are simply better than everyone else; they have been through the wars, fighting off all up and comers despite their advanced age.

The other three guys with a solid chance of holding up the cup are Matteo Berrettini, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Hubert Hurkacz. Berrettini who made the Wimbledon final last year, has fared well this grass court season winning Queens and Stuttgart; his huge serve and big forehand can allow him to move deep through the draw if the big two falter. Tsitsipas competes well, comes forward extremely well, and has world class inner-belief in his game. Hurkacz, who is certainly fit enough, just won the Halle Open, demolishing Medvedev, a co-favorite to win at Wimbledon if not for the puzzling ban on Russian players. These three contenders have a near equal chance of winning their first majors, but to do so, they will need early exits from Novak and Rafa.

Other notable players that have the best chance among “the others” are Alcaraz, Čilić and Sinner. Carlos does not have enough experience on grass to win . . . yet. Čilić has the game but not the big match winning experience of late. He, too, comes to the fortnight at an advanced age, so fitness in the best of five matches is a real factor. Sinner is young, hungry, talented and good on fast courts, but up to this point he has not yet shown grand slam-winning skills.

We all want a Rafa vs Novak showdown in the 2022 Wimbledon final for another historical event in ATP tennis history. Will Djokovic win his 21st and move closer in slams while taking the lead in their head-to-head rivalry? Will Nadal further cement his status as the GOAT while also chasing the same year Grand Slam and the number one year-end ranking? The likely scenario is that both guys will not come through all the way to the final with all of the fire power they will have to face on the grass in the early rounds of the tournament. In the end though, we can all hope to be so fortunate to witness this magical final during Breakfast at Wimbledon on the final Sunday.

Mitch Bridge
Owner/Director
Bridge the Gap Tennis
SCTennisAcademy.com
949-439-6810