Joe Korn May
17, 2015
There’s no “I” in
team, or is there?
The
saying “There’s no “I” in team” is the key motivation behind many sports teams’
success. Sports like baseball, basketball, or football require everybody on the
team to work as one. They can’t afford to have just one player try to be the
star. You can certainly have one great player but that one player has to work
with everyone else on the team in order to win the game. This isn’t the case
for tennis though. You try to win as a team every time you go out on the court
but tennis is also about trying to win as individual. Sometimes it’s alright to
look after yourself because it’s only
you that’s out on that court. If all five of those “I’s” look after themselves
and make sure they win, then the team as a whole will too. Tennis is a sport
that blurs the lines between a team sport and solo sport.
In high
school tennis, you have a “top seven” who make up your starting lineup followed
by the rest of the Junior Varsity team. There are 1st, 2nd,
and 3rd singles, with two more doubles teams. In order to win the
overall match, you need to win at least three of the five individual matches. So
even though you have a whole team full of players, the only thing that matters
is getting three of those five players to win their matches. Now teamwork
mainly comes into play with the doubles teams, because they need to communicate
constantly with each other regarding who gets the ball, if they have to move
back or move up, or just to support each other after they hit a bad shot. They
keep each other playing, so good teamwork and good chemistry is essential at
these spots. When you play singles, it’s a whole different matter. The only encouragement
you get is from your coach or team. Other than that, it’s just you and your
racket.
There is no team in singles, that’s
why it’s called singles. You have to focus on your match only, not on how the
other singles are doing, not on how the doubles are doing, not about how you
had a horrible day. That’s why I like it so much; it’s up to you and you alone
to win the match. In doubles, you can have a great day but ultimately lose
because your partner didn’t perform to the best of his ability. In singles, you
win or lose because of how you
played, not how someone else did. It can be nerve wracking, stepping out onto
the court and having no one to offer any type of moral support, but it’s one of
the challenges you will face when you play. Once you get that under control,
all you have to do is play your game. And the great part is that even if you
don’t win personally, you can still
win as a team.
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