Hawaii Recap, Thoughts – Shubert Blog

Written by: Staff on 2nd November 2011

Hawaii Recap, Thoughts - Shubert Blog |

Hey! We’re all back and safe in California! The tournament ended yesterday and was good experience for everyone involved. For me, I personally learned of sacrifice when on business trip even if it’s in my hometown and I’m staying at my mom’s house! It was tough balancing my tennis responsibilities with those towards my mom and hawaii-based friends. I managed however and definitely only see the positives from this whole trip. Thomas Jefferson has a good quote: “I am a great believer in luck, I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” – I’m a believer of this because of all the luck I had this past October! But, it’s time to get back to grinding and working on my own game, hopefully I can work to make my own luck happen on the court.

As a spectator, I have a few general thoughts concerning the three players I traveled with to Hawaii. My coach Ben and I were constantly talking about each player throughout the trip, I’m glad he is such a good mentor and coach that I can learn from. Sometimes I think with Ben and I around, it makes the youngsters think they have to do “alot” on the court to impress us or play better. But it’s exactly the opposite of what we want to happen out there. We stress simple tactics, fighting spirit, and the mental drive to overcome opponents. There wasn’t a single time I can remember that we talked about stroke mechanics with any of our players.

@ Booie Grant – Booie lost his first round match to a slap-shot artist, it was tough at first because he completely walled himself up for hours, nobody could talk to the guy. He still had matches the rest of the day but couldn’t get over the disappointment very quickly. I can sympathize with this response because of the rigors college tennis provides where you play multiple matches in a day or tournament. He should always keep in mind that a tennis match is simply just another match, it’s not like it’s the Wimbledon final you know? His goal is to play at USC, however, Peter Smith is not going to play a guy in his line-up that can’t bounce back from a loss quickly. He also won’t put guys in his line-up that aren’t insatiable to win and compete or showcase a desire to get back on the horse and do what’s necessary to keep the team rolling. There was definitely a drop in energy that day amongst us all because we saw one of our own go down. As the tournament wore on, he settled down, stopped trying to do so much on the court, hit more forehands, and put up some solid Ws.

@ Nick Crystal – Nick upset the #1 seed in the scond round 6-3 6-0, but then lost in the quarterfinals 6-4 7-6 to a guy who ended up winning the tournament. Nick should’ve won that quarterfinal match however his ego and negative attitude/behavior on the court prevented him from going any farther. Nothing is a given in this life, you can’t count your chickens before they hatch – There’s always a wolf lurking around somewhere in this life waiting to snatch your lunch if you aren’t staying focused. If there was a trend at this tournament, it was the running bs conversations the players would have with themselves. Ben and I tried to address it with our guys but they still don’t get it. The only two players who weren’t constantly talking to themselves were the two kids in the final… Go figure? At BYU, it was a sign of weakness to whine and complain on the court. I remember one time my coach Brad Peace heard me complain about something very trivial during an actual dual match. He came up to me, boldly challenged me to not whine and complain or else I should just walk up and shake my opponent’s hand. As unheard of as that sounds, it trained me to become steel-willed and tough-skinned. His methods of discipline were/are the hardest I’ve ever come across, but under that stern hand I’m now a decent player with a strong mental capacity for the game.

@ Dylan Brown – Dylan surprised me this tournament. The last time I saw him play was at Yamasaki in Orange County a few weeks ago, he was the #3 seed and lost feebly in a match I watched. In Hawaii, it seems as if Dylan put on his hard hat and got to work every time he played. His movement was the best of all 3, scrambling for every point. He would have his conversations with himself which were quite hilarious (“I’m the nicest player in the world, wow!”) and didn’t help his tennis at all, but some of what he said: “It’s okay, you went for it, it’s okay” type of stuff probably helped him stay calm and realize he was playing in the moment and not focusing on past errors and mistakes. At the end of the day, Dylan played the most solid the whole weekend because he made the Semifinals of singles and won the Doubles title. Good stuff I’d have to say. The only problem with the semifinal loss was that he played a completely one dimensional opponent and couldn’t vary the tempo of the points enough to work his opponent over – Something the eventual champion easily accomplished with a slice and high heavy balls. All in all I’m excited to see Dylan improve areas of his game (we definitely need to see an improvement on volleys) and go forth to prepare for his next tournaments.

Lastly, I did manage to have a normal Halloween weekend where I met up with some friends and enjoyed a huge block party in Chinatown. It got pretty wild in downtown but we ended up back at the house where we all met up and ended the night with some truth or dare hilarity/fun. I have to say I’ve been asking myself lately what did I do to deserve this because I find myself in mansions or trespassing into the downtown Bank of America building but just having the most fun ever… On top of the Halloween festivities, I did manage to have a great meal with my mom and a friend of hers. I invited a girl I had recently ran into again who I’d met originally back in August during the Kailua Night Doubles stay. We had a great time and I had a lot of fun. I hope this can become a trend throughout my tennis career where I can start to take care of my family and provide for my friends when I can. That’s all for now, the track and practice courts are calling for my sleepy head and I don’t want to lose it to them tomorrow!

Back to the Cali grind,

Shubert