No-Cut High School Tennis Coaching

In the interest of full disclosure: I have never cut a high school tennis player from my team. This, despite having an assistant only for my first two seasons.

But why is the tennis establishment (the USTA and the Tennis Industry Association) leaning on high school coaches to make them feel like bad people if they cut? Indeed, they claim that a no-cut policy is "the right thing to do."

Wrong. It is neither the right nor wrong thing to do. It isn't a moral issue.

But I'll tell you what is a moral issue. Morally bullying others by making them out to be sinning if they don't do what you want them to. That is very wrong.

High school coaches are not paid by the USTA or the TIA. They are therefore not working for the USTA or the TIA. They are therefore not here to serve the interests of the USTA or the TIA.

In other words, their job isn't to provide the USTA and the TIA with tons and tons of new young tennis players to sell stuff to. Get it?

Their job is to lead their players to victory in tennis meets.

Focus. To coaches I say, don't let them take your eyes off the ball. They aren't thinking of you OR the kids. This campaign of theirs is totally self-serving. They want to slide you into thinking that you are obligated to promote the sport. But that's their job, not yours. Know your job and who pays you.

I would encourage coaches to keep all players who show enough proficiency to prove they are serious about becoming the best tennis players they can be. That's just good coaching foresight, because these players are the pool from which your future teams are drawn. And often late bloomers become surprisingly good players by the time they are juniors.

I have always been fortunate to be able to keep everyone who came out. We always had enough courts. Like 2 - right across the street from 16, so rarely did we even have to wait for one. And there were never more kids out for tennis than I could handle. Or more than I could provide JV matches for against all the bigger schools we played.

Many coaches don't have that luxury. And they shouldn't be made to feel guilty about what they must do. Nor should they loose meets by having varsity players sitting around just so they can keep tennis beginners on the team = give them court time. The TEAM wins or loses, and it is a betrayal of the TEAM to do anything that hurts the TEAM's chances of winning.

We don't let the kids do stuff like that. So why should it be OK for the coach to?

Can you imagine the "important" teams at your school doing that? No, eh? Well, if you want tennis to be treated on a par with other high school sports, you have to treat it that way yourself.

I always tell kids on Day 1 that I rarely cut but that I would if I thought it necessary, within two weeks. I always told them that junior varsity players wouldn't get much one-on-one attention from me. Several times I was about to cut a kid who thought I was there to "teach" kids how to play tennis, but those kids cut themselves when they realized they had been mistaken.

Whew! I was always greatly relieved by that. As hard as it is to cut anyone, it doesn't hurt a kid. But melting just because they turn on the waterworks sure will.

That said, don't just post a list. That cowardly dodge WILL hurt them.

You are the adult: if you can't handle it, how do you expect the kid to? Go to the kids you're cutting and make sure they're the first to know. Listen to them.

See how doing this shows them that they are (still) important?

Help them to put it in perspective. (Sometimes you can make them a manager or give them some other important role to fulfill.) Indeed, if you handle it right, your cutting that kid from his or her high school tennis team could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It could very well teach him or her a very important lesson in life.

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