College Prep Yale Showcase 2011 Tour - Day 8 at Yale

Benny Lin

Founder & Academy Director

College Prep Yale Showcase 2011 Tour - Day 8 at Yale

Our team woke up very early this morning. We had our breakfast at 6:15 as we wanted to arrive before 7:00 so we could get enough courts for warm up and practice before everyone else arrives. Today Yasodara and Rachel took the court and I must say they gave their very best and fought like gladiators fighting for their life. Yaso won her first doubles match, but Rachel and her partner did not click and lost their doubles match rather easily. In singles both Yaso and Rachel lost both of their matches, but both girls played really well considering they both (especially Yaso) were very nervous last night and this morning before the match. At one point Yaso just told herself to forget everything and just go for her shot, and sometime this is what we need – forget everything and just go for it.

In my observation the two girls that our girls played were just better than our girls in almost every aspect of the game. Better tactical application, stronger fitness and smother technique execution. However I must praise our girls’ effort and fighting spirit today and because of that our girls were able to play above their usual standard, which was great to see. Although the score does not look too close but many games went to deuces and our girls were just lack of “that” much of experience to win those big points. Nevertheless, I am pleased and proud of their results today because they had given their very last breath to every single match they played (and trust me it was tough to play 2 singles and 1 doubles match under relatively tough weather condition).

Today I invited John Hopkins coach to watch Yasodara and Mt. Holyoke coach to watch Rachel. Mt Holyoke is one of the Seven Sisters schools. I also saw many other coaches watching Rachel and Yasodara.

Tomorrow the girls will take the courts again while the boys will be starting their first match. During our daily meeting I reminded the kids again about the importance of giving 100% effort and how and why everything else should be considered a bonus (win or play good tennis). Win or play good tennis will take care of itself if we could put up 100%
effort. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be “do or die” moments for our raising senior players. I know our raising senior players will give their very best in the next 2 days.

As doubles is a big part of college tennis, the showcase will start with a doubles match and the kids will be partnered with a player they have never met before (most likely). I was worried that some of our players may feel more pressure because they will be partnered with a player they have never met before and they will try too hard to “play well” for their partner. This feeling could subconsciously add unnecessary pressure for our kids who are by nature nice kids who don’t want or afraid to disappoint others. The combination of pressure from the showcase added with pressure of not wanting to disappoint your doubles partner could be very fatal and go on for the rest of the day. Therefore, I told the kids clearly that they should not play for their partners or worry if they would disappoint their partner, instead they must play for themselves and ALWAYS give 100% effort no matter what happens during the doubles match.

The kids must to get to know their partner before the match thus instead of feeling more pressure, they can share the pressure. I also told the kids to introduce themselves to their partner and ask questions about their partners and try to break the ice. If you and your partner become friends you guys can therefore communicate better and share most of the pressure.

Good luck to the boys and girls today.

On another note I was told that Shirlene Luk who joined our College Prep and Yale Showcase last year got admitted to Grinnell College. Grinnell is a highly academic school ranked 18 for Liberal Arts schools in the US and is a member of "Eight of the Best Colleges". Besides Grinnel, actually Shirlene was also accepted to Mt. Holyoke, one of the Seven Sisters schools.

Congratulation Shirlene. We are proud of you!