1. Hit the serve up enough.
2. Learn a good backhand underspin one hander.
3. The service grip is the most functional grip in tennis.
4. “No man’s land” is a myth. You have to learn many shots from mid-
   court. These are “shortened” shots (service returns, approach shots,
   etc.). They are most often hit with underspin. Particularly in doubles.
5. Basic tennis strategy (singles) says: Down the line, come in. Cross
   court to stay back.
6. Hitting on the rise takes court and time away from your opponent.
   It’s harder, but essential. We played “21,” restricting all rallies to be
   made from within the court, i.e., you step behind the baseline or out
   side the side line, and you lose the point. You can go to the net any
   time after the first rally.
7. Add one shot each fall. You don’t have time in the spring. In the
   spring you play. Examples:
   • A one-handed backhand chip
   • Backhand service return
   • Forehand service return (underspin, too)
   • Backhand approach (often a weakness)
8. The game is the best teacher. If you play enough tough matches
   (practice-challenge-varsity) you will get better. It’s not high school
   and every match is tough. You have to rebound from yesterday’s 7–6
   in the third loss to play again today. Tough-minded players survive
   and learn from these matches.
9. Learn to acclimatize to early morning play. Lots of important
   matches occur early. College kids have different “clocks,” and they wil
   resist this suggestion.
10. Beer and idle dorm conversations cause the most “causalities.”

• To warm up properly
• To drill on their weaknesses
• To get up early enough to be ready
• To warm up for doubles properly on match day
• To complete and turn in academic work ahead of time when
missing class

After open heart surgery, two back surgeries, and a hip replacement, I
was beginning to get straightened out (2001).
My good friend Athletic Director Alan White called me into his office,“Tom, you’re looking much better, and by the way you’re adding the
women’s team to your job next fall.”
Good friend, did I say? Actually I’ve taught women or girls all my career.
The tennis boom (late ’60s) hit when I first started teaching and in Wilson,
North Carolina, alone I taught three generations of girls, women, mammas,
and grandmas. But I’d never coached the college women’s team.
Thirty-seven years of men’s tennis, now they let me coach the girls. What
bothered me wasn’t all I’d observed about the women. (There are some
“horror” stories out there). It was coaching two teams at once. I later said
you had to have a M.W.A. degree to do it (Management While
Wandering Around).

I had watched our previous four women’s coaches enough to know they
were good coaches; two were men, two women. Very good people and
coaches, and I worked easily with all four. The job just didn’t pay much. So, I
was somewhat surprised by the initial response at the returning girls team
meeting. Before I said anything, one young lady offered, “we are so glad we
now have a man coach.” They all shook their heads in agreement. I didn’t
agree and told them so, in my first “coaching” of women. I offered, “You
wouldn’t mind a good woman coach. What you don’t want is a poor coach,
man or woman.” Many times I’ve heard women say, “I don’t want to work
for a woman boss.” I’ve seen too many good women in leadership positions
not to object to this logic. Elon University itself has several fine women
leaders and two-thirds of its students are women.

It was tough to find adequate coaches in 1960 when there were no
women’s collegiate sports. You have to remember women’s collegiate
sports as we now know them began, really, only in the ’70s. How could
women have the experience men coaches had? They had been denied
the formal opportunity of learning by playing. Another overlooked factor
were the backyard games boys played in childhood. It irked me to hear
“girls can’t serve because they can’t throw.” They couldn’t throw as well
as teenaged boys, who’d grown up with baseball and football free play
experience. If you think women are anatomically limited in throwing,
watch modern women’s tennis, or better still, collegiate women’s softball.
Zing!

Perhaps a problem harder than experience for women coaches was
society itself. Title IX may rule the gym but not the home. Women who
coached early on now had three jobs: Teaching, coaching, and running the
home. Unless you had a husband willing to help at home it was extremely
difficult for these young, often very capable, wives and mothers to coach
long. There was a period of time we lost a lot of potentially great women
coaches. Many survived. Many men saw the light and began to share the
load. All things being equal, women should coach women’s tennis. Until
we get to “equal,” I’d rather my granddaughter play for a competent coach,
male or female.

The next “myth” about women tennis players (often posed by men) was,
“they should go to the net more.” The men coaches would corner me and
tell me “about girls and the net.”
Once, during practice, I brought the women over to observe the men in a
drill designed for aggressive approaching and volleying. The women were
very courteous.
I then asked the men, “What would you change if this court were five feet
wider and five feet longer?”
Immediately one of the guys said, “We couldn’t go to the net as much.”
I ushered the women back to the “girls’ side” and explained, “If you are a
little smaller, not quite as quick and maybe not quite as strong, then the
court is bigger for you, or for most women. It makes sense not to want to
go in as much and that’s okay.”
Later I asked the guys if they’d still go in on a larger court? “Yes, but with
more caution.”
There is a situation where you can take a “percentage advantage,” by
going to the net and pressuring the other player. You have to design your
skills at attacking and learn to identify the proper ball to go in on.

Men are from Mars; women are from Venus. How do you identify these
differences as far as coaching goes? The best source for a “crash course”
on the subject would be to consult Anson Dorrance’s book on the subject.
Dorrance, legendary women’s soccer coach at UNC-Chapel Hill, does a
clinical job sharing his discoveries. I found one of his first suggestions to hold truth immediately. You’ve got to give the girls about 20 minutes prior
to when practices start to discuss the day. Seriously. This is actually part of
practice. And if you view this as a waste of time, you’ll probably witness a
lousy practice. Once they “air the day” they’re ready to go. Try it.

One personal idea that I tried was the theme: “Be your own choreogra-
pher.” I tried to encourage our women to design their own practices based on their needs. For some reason they have trouble with this. Once my
assistant Bob Owens had just been hitting ground strokes to one girl after
another, corner to corner. Imre Kwast, a Dutch player, came close to me
and said, “That’s what the ‘gulls like!’” And it’s true, they like to be directed.
I banged my head against the wall, trying to encourage them to design
their own practices, but “they are different” this way.

One day I asked Imre, “Do you have Easter in Holland?
“Why certainly,” she said, surprised.
“Do you have the Easter Bunny?” I asked.
“Sure,” she giggled, “We have the bunny too.”
I asked the team, “What’s the best thing that could happen to you in an
Easter egg hunt?”
Where was this going was the look on their faces.
Finally one girl answered: “If you know where the eggs were hidden it
would surely help!”
“Exactly,” I replied. “I’ve watched teams for 40 years, I know where the
points are, and I’ll tell you.”
From then on they called me the Easter Bunny. When I’d see them
execute a point I’d advised them on, I’d whisper “bunny point.” Other men
coaches contended: “They’ll practice all week on something I’ve taught
them but come to match time they forget it.” I’d smile to myself every time I
got to say “bunny point.”
This test was given to all team members. Richard Dutton always won.