Was your USTA tournament experience a success?

I was more impressed than normal by the West Ottawa players in this week's tournament.  We've had good participation in USTA's for a year or two now, so a 15 player turnout is not a new thing for us.  What I was really impressed by, was the growing maturity of our players.  You are starting to understand WHY you play USTA tournaments, and it was a lot of fun to sit and listen to many of you.  

The main reason you play these tournaments is to figure out what you need to improve at.  Maybe you realized there is a stroke that you need to improve.  Maybe you learned there is a strategy you need to get better at.  Maybe you realized that you simply need to be putting in more hours on the tennis court.  Maybe you realized that you need to be training more intensely.  If any of these things happened to you, then the tournament was a success, EVEN IF YOU LOST EVERY MATCH.  If none of these things happened for you, then this tournament was not a success, EVEN IF YOU LEFT WITH A TROPHY.  

I've been receiving some texts from players over the last day or two.  Here are some comments that came my way:

• Text #1 I received: 
  
  • Me: "How did the Tournament go?"
  • Direct quote from player: "It showed me what I need to work on during an actual match, so I think it was beneficial to me."
    • ​Yep, I think this Freshman has the right idea!  
• Conversation #2:  
  
  • Me: I'm sorry I missed your match, how did it go?
  • Player: "I'm doing everything correctly, but in an actual match, my new stroke is breaking down before the other person's is".  
    
  • Me: "Sounds like the best thing for you, in addition to what you're already doing, would be to find a player to spar with for a couple hours a week, and do nothing except groundstroke games up to 10."  
  • Player: "Yeah, I've actually already called ____, and we are doing exactly that.
    • Yep, I think this person is using Tournaments correctly!

These players barely talked about whether they won or lost.  They talked about their game...where there game is at, and where it needs to be headed.  I highlighted these conversations, not because they were the exception, but because it's the kind of thing I was hearing from a many of you.  If we have 15 kids doing tournaments with THIS kind of mindset every month or two, the improvement in this program is going to be insane.  GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!!