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Juniors & Drama · Yips and Giggles

• speaker-0: What's up guys, welcome to our podcast. speaker-1: She finally realized that it was Omen you speaker-0: is up guys. It's been a while since it's been the two of us. ⁓ It's been great having all the guests on the podcast, but I'm excited to just chit chat with you today, Peyton. Yeah, exactly. Take us back through the good old days. ⁓ Guys, Peyton and I, played tennis together last week, or this week, guess, technically. ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah, it has. Have little giggle. We speaker-0: And wow, that took me back. It was so fun. And we kind of like got on the topic of just like reminiscing about the good old days of college and then even further back to the juniors of just how crazy that experience was. So we thought, what better way to get back together, just the two of us, and just reminisce about the junior tennis days. So that's what we're going to do today. speaker-1: You know, you can look back at it lovingly now, but then it was quite chaotic. Quite dramatic. speaker-0: I ⁓ wouldn't say that I look back at it lovingly now still. I look back at college tennis lovingly, but yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, know, I always found it interesting because we obviously grew up in very different circumstances with tennis. Like y'all probably don't know this, but so I'm from North Carolina and Anya is from New Jersey. And so how it kind of works in the U.S. is there's different sections because it's massive. So you can't just have one giant section, you know. Right. And so I was in the southern section. She was in the eastern section and. It's just funny like hearing all of the differences and we'll get into it a little bit of what happened in the Eastern section, what happened in the Southern section, because, you know, we really only came together when it was like at nationals or something. And you'd hear about things that would happen in an Eastern section versus the Southern section. You're like, whoa, like. speaker-0: I feel like you guys had a lot of crazy stories. Because you guys were also very, like probably the biggest section. speaker-1: Wildin'. Yeah, we were massive. Yeah, you're massive because it was. Yeah, pretty much all of the south. don't was Florida included in that or was Florida. Yeah, Florida's I mean, they're massive, like, mean, everyone plays tennis in Florida, so they had their own little thing going on. But ⁓ it was also so funny, You kind of grew up not really in an academy setting like I did. And so I would love to hear your perspective of like speaker-0: Florida was his own thing. speaker-1: how practice was for you versus me. Because for me, it was almost like we were on a team, kind of. And it was easy to, you you'd hit with different people every day. And you'd have different coaches kind of every day, which was nice. But I kind of want to hear your perspective of growing up on more of like the private tennis coaching side and, you know, growing up with clinics and things like that. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so basically my entire, like, yeah, I was never in an academy. So I would only do, like, private lessons with my, like, one coach, like, my main coach. ⁓ And then, you know, we would sometimes hit with, it was either, like, private lessons or you'd be hitting with, one or two other people during those lessons. So, like, semi-privates, things like that. And then to get hits with other people, you do clinics, right? So, like... a clinic once a week or something like that. it wasn't like like we had a couple of people who all had the same coach like as me. So in that aspect, it kind of felt like you were on a team, but it wasn't as much of like the Academy full grind. You guys are together 24 seven doing like basically the same thing together. Like we it was it was interesting because sometimes you just be alone on the court with the coach and like just be doing, you know, these these drills. ⁓ I felt like it was nice because you kind of got more of like a more almost more like attention dedicated to you and like 100 % you had specific like you were just working with this one person and you guys knew what you were working on every day and it was like you were able to build like that super close relationship with your coach which I'm sure you still were able to do in academies but I don't know it was just like different it was I liked it personally, but again, I never experienced the Academy life. So I'm sure like I missed out maybe a little bit on like that camaraderie, although we still had that again through the clinics and things like that. It's just, we weren't as like deeply ingrained and together with each other 24 seven. speaker-1: Yeah, I always felt like people were kind of fighting for attention in the academy because, know, there are quite a few of us and you could only stretch so far as a coach every day. And I felt like sometimes that was a bit of a not really like jealousy, but just a bit of a difficult time for some people that felt like they weren't getting enough attention and felt like they needed more help on certain things. And that was always kind of a point of contention, but you know, we're coming from all different age groups, different genders. And so it was was a bit of like a chaotic time for sure. But it was nice to have people go through the same things that you did, I guess, all the time. Like you'd work out together, you'd run together, get punished together. That was kind of we went through it all, really. And you just bond over it. It was just a lot of bonding. And I feel like. Even in like middle school and high school, like yes, I had my friends at school, but I felt so close to the people that I trained with because we're going through the same things. So I always thought that that's why we were so close. We were just going through all the same things together. speaker-0: Well, it was also nice to have, I'm sure it was nice to have people to travel with to tournaments too, because I would just go by myself, know, me and my parents, right? And then you'd have to like, obviously as you go to more more tournaments, you like get to know people better, but you know, you go somewhere by yourself and you don't really know that many people in that tournament. You got to find people to warm up with. You got to find people to play doubles with like. If you don't know anyone there, like you're not really going out to dinner with anyone, it's just like you and your parents, which again is fine, but it's just different, you know? speaker-1: Yeah, I feel like it would be a little bit lonelier sometimes, maybe. ⁓ But yeah, I always enjoy traveling. know, it was always great to be able to have someone to hit with no matter what. Like you knew you would just have somebody there because I hated going up to people and asking like, ⁓ my gosh, do you want to warm up? It's like seven a.m. speaker-0: Yeah. You're like, God, please don't make me do this. Please don't make me do this. I can just go on the court without warming up. I promise I'll do a dynamic warm-up. speaker-1: Yeah, I would like tell my dad I'll just go hit on the wall like I don't need I'm pretty sure one time I literally Warmed up with my opponent because she was my friend and she was the only one that I knew and then we went and played each other like an hour later I was like, I don't know speaker-0: Yeah. Well, remember when we like both were committed to wake, I think we were at that South Carolina, like I T F playing doubles together. We were warming up to before we played each other. But at that point, kind of just like, eh, whatever. You're like the only person I knew there. So. speaker-1: No, literally. that's so funny. And it's also funny. You guys grew up in a totally different like playing environment as well, because like, obviously we have very different weather. And so when I grew up. It was you're worrying about, you know, ninety five degree weather and dying on the court of heat stroke, which I mean, the amount of ambulances that I saw at junior tournaments is a little bit concerning. Like we had like a heat rule, but it was like a crazy temperature for children. And I just remember being on a bench. My mom giving me my frog talk, which like shout out. speaker-0: the frog togs, I was obsessed with mine. speaker-1: That was such a thing. was like everyone had. Yes. speaker-0: I love a fraud talk. you're still around. I would honestly use it again. it's hot. I live in North Carolina now, so I know what you were going through. speaker-1: Yeah, but no like you'd come off the court and your shoes would be melted like legitimately melted ⁓ And so most of our tournaments were outside, you know, so I Think that's such a difference between you and me like you guys grew up in the awful bubble speaker-0: Yes. Yeah, I was thinking back to it. Like, most of our Eastern section tournaments were... inside, as far as I can remember. And then, obviously, in the summer, there'd be tournaments outside, but once you got to a certain level in the summer, you were only playing the Nationals, so were traveling to, whatever, Florida, California. Yeah, we grew up playing basically indoors. You know, it could be either an indoor actual building or... speaker-1: Great. speaker-0: A lot of the times it was the bubbles. So they just cover the outdoor courts with a bubble. know, most of the time it's either they can't get the temperature right. So it's either like they're blasting heat in there and you're just dying in a sauna or this other one was more common. It was cold in there, frigid, frigid, frigid, frigid, cold in there. So you're still wearing like leggings and stuff. Playing in these bubbles, the echoes are horrific. has just like... It's got this specific smell to it that like kind of just gives me PTSD and like whatever the bubbles with the hardcore bubbles like is fine. The worst were the indoor clay bubbles. They were so bad. Like it wasn't, I wouldn't even call it clay. So there's no, okay. For those who don't know there are different surfaces that you can play on in tennis. Hardcore is like. What, basically cement? It's not, but it's basically cement. And then clay is like this dirt almost, right? That the ball bounces completely differently. You move completely differently on it. And then there's also grass, which is very uncommon to play on, especially as a junior. And so clay is normally meant for outdoor type country club, you know? But obviously since the weather was cold, you know, people would just cover their clay courts in the winter with a bubble. I don't know what like happened when the bubble went on. I don't know if it was the same when the bubble was off. But most of the time that clay was like dust. I wouldn't even call it clay. It was like dust. There was this one place where I literally like had to swear off playing tournaments there for a while because I swear to God, every single time I went there and every single time one of my friends played there to. there was a high chance that one of us would twist our ankle because those courts were so bad and you would just slip and fall. Like, I don't know if they weren't taken care of or what. speaker-1: This is a literal hazard. speaker-0: Yeah, so it's crazy because yeah, you guys played outside all the time. I feel like I played inside all the time, trained inside a lot. I mean, obviously in the summer you'd be outside again as well. even sometimes in the summer we'd play indoor tournaments. It was just crazy. And it was interesting because all of the nationals were outside, right? So I feel like that's why all of the Florida kids, the California kids, the Southern kids, like you'd see them do really well. at nationals a lot of the time compared to maybe a smaller percentage of Eastern kids did well. We still did well, like, ⁓ you know, we trained inside all the time versus outside. speaker-1: Do you feel like that affected your transition to college at all or did you get used to it pretty quickly? Because we played mostly outside. It depends on what school you go to, But we played mostly outside. speaker-0: Yeah, we played Yeah, I honestly, I don't think it personally affected me that much because I had gotten to the point where I was playing the Nationals in the summer. So I was getting a lot of outdoor time in the summer, starting, even like starting April with those outdoor Nationals, April through like August was basically outside the whole time. So thankfully I don't think it affected me that much, but I could see it affecting other people, especially if, you know, they go from either way like, playing outside all the time to a school where you play inside versus playing inside all the time to a school where you play outside. speaker-1: Right. And speaking of nationals, what was your favorite junior tournament? speaker-0: I think hmm, it's hard. Honestly, I think like Easter bowl out in Indian Wells was pretty fun just because it was you know at a location where there's a pro event and obviously super cool like area any of the California ones were honestly really fun San Diego, but the most I think my favorite was probably like the team ones so like Fed Cup or Intersectionals, yep zonals like those were super fun because for once in your life you weren't playing for just yourself. again, I wasn't in an academy, so I felt like I got that camaraderie on that team. was fun. speaker-1: Yeah, those were so fun. Like, I always remember when we were at zonals or intersectionals, we're like, is this what college tennis is like? So it kind of like prepares you for that, which was nice. They didn't have it. They didn't have enough of those, honestly, in my opinion. I know we could have added more to the calendar, but those are always fine. I agree. Like San Diego is always very cool and they've switched it now to Orlando. But winter nationals, I always loved going to Arizona. That was a really cool spot. and we'd always like have our full academy there. So that was fun. And I always loved the tournaments that like had all of like the age groups and like the guys and the girls who get to see all your friends. Like those were always really fun. So I enjoyed those. We've talked about this a little bit on the podcast with professionals having to play on holidays. And I was thinking about it. I was like, wait, we have to play on holidays when we were like 12 years old. speaker-0: I mean, there was always... speaker-1: Most important tournaments. speaker-0: On the holidays. Well, yeah, there was always a big national. There was always a super national over Christmas, Christmas and New Year's. I remember one year when I was in Arizona, we left, I think Christmas Day to go to Arizona and then ended up doing well in that tournament. So I ended up playing on New Year's Day. And so I remember New Year's Eve, my mom and I were like, all right, we're going to bed and not celebrating. Exactly. I got a match in the morning. speaker-1: Yeah, no, I remember there was one year of my parents and I were actually talking about this the other day. There was one year. I think it was Thanksgiving, but I can't remember what tournament it was. I think it was just like a maybe a high level southern tournament. And we went to like Ruby Tuesdays for Thanksgiving. was like, this is not we were just sitting there like, wow, is it really worth it? But it's crazy. It's kind of sad, especially when you're that young, like. I just wish they would find a way to not put the most important ones on, you know, time where you could be spending with your family and things like that. you know, here we are. speaker-0: I it. get I get why they do it though, because a lot of the times they do it over the long weekends. And so that's why, like, they put the bigger ones on long weekends so people don't have to go to school, you know. but hey, who you because of holidays? So yes, seriously. Yeah, guys. speaker-1: I also look back and I'm like, it wasn't the most glamorous time in the world, you know, like when I'm talking about playing with an academy, yes, there were definitely lots of pros to it, but there were also definitely a lot of cons to it as well. Like if I were traveling with my parents, just my parents, it would be great because, you know, we'd stay in a normal hotel and everything. ⁓ And we'd go like. explore wherever we were in that city and we go to different restaurants and things like that. But I felt like when I was traveling just with my academy ⁓ and my parents weren't there or something, it wasn't the greatest of conditions, I would say. Tell me more. Yeah. There was one time where I remember we stayed at this. I mean, this wasn't the norm, but it did happen a couple of times. We stayed at this motel, not a hotel, motel. It didn't like have locks on it on our door. I was staying with like one other friend of mine who was also playing the tournament and we were just like absolutely petrified. We were like, well, we're not sleeping because we might get murdered. And also, I remember one time we were trying to fit like three people in a bed because we like didn't book the hotel far enough in advance. I was like, guys, like, how have we done this again? Like, how have we done this again? So just no sleep. speaker-0: Huh? speaker-1: Just no sleep once-over. speaker-0: Oh my gosh. Yeah, see that's the pros of I was always traveling either like with my parents or my coach. And it was like smooth sailing, hotels, rental cars, like don't have to worry about, cause how would you guys do it when you have, I don't know, five, six, seven people with different match times? How do you get food? What time do you get to the courts? know, when I was younger. Yeah. speaker-1: That was. That was always a sore subject because it would be like, right, who's getting up early to warm up, you know, the earliest match, because I mean, earliest is probably eight a.m. And so it would kind of suck if you had an 11 a.m. and you still had to get up at like six thirty to go over because, you know, your coach, we're in one van. It was not like he's going to go back and forth from the hotel. He's got to stay and watch that person play. So a lot of the time we would just get stuck going there super early and most of the time warming up super early and then having to warm up again because we have a later match. So you're basically just getting like two warmups and you're just dead by the time you go off and play a match. But it was if if we were with different coaches and they drove separately, then we try to like work around it. But again, it was like, okay, who's going to be the unlucky one? It's going to get a, going to have to go warm up this person that's playing early, but. speaker-0: And then you gotta stay late too for like, you gotta stay there all day basically, right? speaker-1: We were literally there all day long. Literally there all day long. it was like getting lunch. Yeah, see, that's just... I can't even picture that. That's the funniest thing. That wasn't even in my mind. That wasn't an option. And so I feel like ⁓ for lunch and stuff, if we had to go grab something in between matches, it was either you ride with your doubles partner who might not be in the academy. speaker-0: gonna do my thing and then leave. speaker-1: or just go really quickly somewhere and your coach takes you and they got to get back because they got to watch somebody else. I don't know how my coach did it. Like I don't know how they do it now. Like that is a lot to handle if it's just you as well. ⁓ speaker-0: How many people would you typically have traveling from the academy with you? How many players and then one to two coaches, I'm assuming? speaker-1: If it's one of those tournaments where it's like a lot of age groups and like guys and girls, ⁓ it'd probably be at least 10 of us. And we definitely have, most of time it'd be one or two coaches. ⁓ And sometimes we'd all just be in one van. it wasn't, like sometimes it wouldn't be like a separate car coming. ⁓ So that was always interesting traveling in the van. This van was like notorious in our academy. Like it was called the silver bullet ⁓ because my coach would drive so fast. speaker-0: Cause that's safe. Yep. speaker-1: But also because this is a little gross, like trigger warning. ⁓ One of the guys that trained in my academy when he was really young, they were traveling in a van. He was in the back with one of my friends and he got sick in the back, just everywhere. And it just was not cleaned properly. Like it should have been professionally cleaned and it was not. So there's always just kind of a gross. ⁓ speaker-0: People are like fighting to not sit in the back. speaker-1: That's exactly correct. Like I said, it was still fun because it was almost like you were traveling with a team, but it was really chaotic. And, you know, I also remember because again, we'd all have to travel together for the most part, like during the tournament. And I remember we would all, you know, get in the van to go to lunch or go to dinner and somebody had just finished playing. I forget who it was. And so there's 10 of us in this van. Right. Like we're we're pretty packed and There was one time my friend finished match did not play well, lost. think she might've had a bad attitude. I cannot remember. And my coach just starts going absolutely off on her. I was sitting next to her. was like, and we were all just sitting there in like complete silence. And he is just like raging and she's like bawling her eyes out next to me. I was like, it's speaker-0: In front of everyone. speaker-1: So it's not a very private life. Pretty much everyone knows everyone's business and what's going on. So you gotta kind of get used to that. Wow, that's crazy. speaker-0: ⁓ poor girl. But yeah, I guess it's hard to have like those one on one conversation. speaker-1: Yeah, but it was also just right after the match and it was just so raw and we like immediately had to get in the car to go get something to eat. I just remember it and I was like, ⁓ this is this is not going to go well. Everyone's just so quiet. We were like, speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, again, with the private lessons in the clinic's life, you would just be in the car with your parents or a coach, singularly getting ripped a new one instead of being by other people. speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. It was so funny. And tournaments are so funny because they had such a system set up, right? Like you had your check in, like you had to check in by a certain time or else they wouldn't be too happy with you. And there's all those kind of like unsaid rules, I guess, that that we kind of had to deal with. But I remember one time this is like a vivid, vivid memory because it was like Loki, a little bit traumatic. But so for those that don't know, they're like checking desks at tournaments and you check in for your match before they actually call your name just so they know that you're there basically, right? And so, and you'll go there to like report your score after the match and then you find out your next match time that they tell you. And so there was this one time I was at a tournament in Georgia. I forget what city it was. There were so many that we had in Georgia. And they after the match, I went up to the desk and they gave me my match time and they're like, OK, 11 a.m. tomorrow, the next, you know, the next day. And for some reason, I don't know why, but I didn't double check my time online, which didn't ever make that mistake ever again. And we got a call. in our hotel room sleeping like passed out. And my mom gets a call like eight a.m. from the tournament. And they're like, where are you? And my mom's like, what do you mean? Excuse me. And she's like. speaker-0: ... speaker-1: Um, we were told it was 11 AM and they were like, no, no, your daughter's at 8 AM, like right now. And I was like, Oh, I'm probably like 13. I don't know. No 12 maybe. So I immediately I'm freaking out. I'm ball. I am bawling my eyes out on you. Like bawling my eyes out. And my mom's like trying to calm me down. It's just heard me. I think at this tournament, my mom's trying to calm me down. We finally get, I'm still crying in the car. like fully up to the front desk. I'm crying. So I get there and they're like, yeah, you have to start down 03 because you're late. You know, they take away. have the anyone doesn't know they take away. They take away games based on how late you are. And then you eventually just get forfeited. speaker-0: So I think it was, yeah, so if you're up to five minutes late, it's one game, up to ten, it's two, up to fifteen, it's three, and then after fifteen you just get defaulted, right? speaker-1: I believe so, yeah. speaker-0: You guys got there in 15 minutes. That's great. speaker-1: Yeah, I don't know how he did that surprisingly I somehow end up winning this match and After the match they were like I go up to the desk and they're like, ⁓ we're so sorry We definitely told you the wrong time. I was like speaker-0: Well then why did you guys penalize me? speaker-1: My mom was like, are you serious right now? Like it was their fault. ⁓ And I think my grandma was there as well. She's like, no, I 100 % heard them say 11 a.m. to you. Like this was not your fault. I mean, I was like traumatized from then on out. I checked my match time probably a hundred times every match after that. I was like. speaker-0: Yeah, lesson for everyone. Don't trust what people tell you. Double check everything. speaker-1: Please. It's a big tip, big tip. speaker-0: Yeah, and then also it was bizarre because what was the rule of like when you had two or three matches in a day and like you just finished your match, really long match or whatever and you're scheduled, you were scheduled to play, you you finished your match at 1.15, you were scheduled to play at 1.30. They're supposed to give you at least I think it was only 30 minutes or something unless your match went over like three hours and then they gave you an hour. speaker-1: Yeah, no, it was something ridiculous something crazy because and a lot of the times it really depended on the person like they were like Do you need an do you need an hour? Do you need to like it's fine? I understand so speaker-0: never offered two. Most I was ever offered was one. speaker-1: Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds right. I feel like some people were really like strict with the rules. They're like, no, 30 minutes. But some people were like, I'll give you an hour. speaker-0: Food in 30 minutes. You can't even recover. Literally, guys, imagine this. You're 12 years old in Florida. Just got off of a match where you guys were moonballing the whole time. You were pushing the whole time. So the match was about three and a half hours long. For those who don't know what moonballing is, it's literally think of hitting the ball as high as you can in the air. long as you the power whatsoever. You just don't want to miss. speaker-1: No power whatsoever. speaker-0: Just finished, it's like 90 degrees outside, know, 99 % humidity. And they're like, ⁓ yeah, next match is in 30 minutes. As a 12-year-old, you got to eat something. You know the next match you're going to play is going to be the same thing because you're moonballing. It's bizarre again when you look back at it and then you'd have another, then you have one or two doubles matches later that day too. Yeah. If you're still in doubles. speaker-1: You're like, all right, let me just go die. speaker-0: And also most of the time you're like in consolation. speaker-1: but I thought it would be also helpful for anyone listening. Like we do have some tips if you're traveling to tournaments that, you know, are pretty simple, but they could make a huge difference. And I think a big one with me, you know, I had a lot of like back issues growing up and things like that. Like a lot of time you are traveling a long way. You have long car rides, long plane rides. And my biggest piece of advice is do not go straight into hitting. after being in a car or a plane for hours. That is just horrible for your body contributes to more injuries and that is the opposite of what we want. I yes, please, please warm up like focus more on your warm up, you know, your stretches, your movement patterns before you even try to hit. Do if you're in like, you know, if you had PT for an injury or something, please, please, please do those first. Get that out of the way, you know. speaker-0: Are you warm up? speaker-1: I'd rather you have an extended warm-up and make that longer and have a shorter hit rather than a long hit and no warm-up at all. I feel like we were really, really bad at that. Because we're like, ⁓ we only have this court for a certain amount of time. We need to go. And it's like, no, no, that's not our priority. We need to get our bodies right before we start hitting. speaker-0: Yeah, I remember, like, especially after flying to whatever, California, Florida, for those big tournaments, my dad would always make me go, like, into the gym and, like, do stretches and then run on the treadmill for, 15, 20 minutes. And I would get so mad when he would make me do that. And I hated it. And that was the last thing I wanted to do. But now looking back, like, I was thankful because it was, like, de-stiffening my body. speaker-1: Right. Yeah, I know. That's a great idea. And I also think from a more logistical side, I think is a great idea to make a travel list, especially for like younger players. I mean, even older players, because someone someone's bound to forget something. And, you know, if you're traveling with an academy, that's messing other people up as well. And so that's kind of a lot of pressure. Like, I mean, even in college, people would forget things. speaker-0: People would forget their, like, when we would be flying somewhere, people would forget their, like, license, like, their identification to be able to go through security. How do you forget your identification? speaker-1: Like guys, this is and what you have to turn around like you can't just not have it speaker-0: Yeah, I remember one time in the juniors. We were just driving. It was literally like a tournament 40 minutes from my house. Like we were just driving there. And I think I realized about 20 minutes into the drive that I didn't put my tennis bag in the car. So I didn't have my rackets with me. So we had to turn around and go get them. Thankfully, I think we made it back in time. But like, how do you forget your tennis bag when you're going to the speaker-1: But it happens like you're in such a rush sometimes. And same thing happened to well, sort of the same thing happened to one of the younger kids in my academy. He was probably 10 years old at this time. And he had his tennis bag in back. Like it was all good, all good. And they get to the tournament or whatever. mean, it was a long way away and they take his tennis bag out. I'll never forget this. And it was full of Legos. speaker-0: you speaker-1: It's full of Legos, no rackets, just Legos. I think my coach was like, well, you can build yourself a racket. speaker-0: Why? speaker-1: ⁓ no! speaker-0: How did that even happen? speaker-1: I don't know. That was the best thing ever, genuinely. It was the best thing ever. speaker-0: ⁓ my God. That is freaking hilarious. So obviously tennis is an interesting sport because you kind of like referee yourself a lot of the times when, especially when you're younger, like there aren't like umpires and line judges and things like that. ⁓ And I kind of feel like the Eastern section had a bad reputation for having a lot of cheaters. speaker-1: I % did. speaker-0: Why? Like, I think people are just like freaking crazy from Eastern section. But anyways, we had a bad reputation for having a lot of cheaters. ⁓ And by cheating, mean, you you would call your own lines a lot of the time. So again, a ball would go in and you'd really want to win the point. So you'd call it out, you know, you'd hook them. We talked about this in a previous episode. You'd hook them. Or another form of cheating is, you know, the score could be five for me and they'd be like, no, I'm up five four, know, switching the score. ⁓ Even in a game like 40 15. No, like I'm up 40 15 things like that. ⁓ Did you guys have like cheating problems in the South too? Because I have some, a lot of cheating stories, not me, but other people cheating. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. I mean, would just have those players that were just known for it. You know what I mean? And if you're getting that reputation, even as like a young kid, like that is not, that's not what you want. But yeah, there's, there's so many stories that I can think of, but one that particularly stands out to me is there was a player that would literally completely change the score to the point where she would take away sets from people. So this was probably in like the 14s, maybe. I think I was in like Arkansas. I don't know. I'm trying to remember. They all blend together at this point. But so a friend of mine was playing this girl and she won the first set. But then the other girl claimed that she had won the set like she just straight up like went to the scorecard. She was like, no, like I want it. She was like, wait, what? ⁓ And so basically it all just went downhill. Everyone was getting into it, you know, the parents, the players and the girl that was cheating a parent. didn't actually see this, but she apparently threatened a parent like straight up just threatened, threatened. And so the police were called. I remember seeing the blue lights. I was like, what is happening on court 14 or whatever? And I was like, ⁓ my God. I was like asking around and I was like, ⁓ my God, this this girl like threatened these people. And I'm like, guys, it's literally a tennis match. And I can corroborate this story because she did the exact same thing to me in Florida. ⁓ speaker-0: Because there people who were known for it, literally known for it. You'd go into matches and be like, God, like I'm playing a cheater. And it's, don't know, like I sometimes almost try to like play with more margin so that they don't even have like a chance to like hook me. then, yeah, like I'd be like, I can't aim for the line. I need to aim a foot inside the line. But then obviously that like, not that I was ever aiming for the line, but like obviously that. speaker-1: The only one. Thank you. speaker-0: you know, gives them more time to get to the ball in certain situations and things like that. But I remember there was this one time I was like 13 playing a 16 year old girl. And so she was older, but like even like us, you know, younger people knew that she had a horrible reputation for cheating. Right. Horrible. And this was my first time playing her ever. And also I'm like, again, I'm little like playing. I somehow like did well in this tournament. So I think I was playing her in the semifinals, like again, in an indoor bubble. somewhere like right next to the Hudson River or whatever. And I just remember like she's changing the score on me. She's calling balls out that are like literally maybe like five inches in and I'm 13 too. So I'm getting like so frustrated, but somehow I'm still winning. Like I'm still winning. I think I was up five, four. And so she decides to pull out a medical timeout situation, right? So she calls a medical timeout. for her foot. And I was like, ⁓ maybe something's actually wrong with her foot. Peyton, I watched this girl take a tub of Vaseline out of her bag. Vaseline, she rubs the Vaseline on her foot. And I'm like, interesting. I don't know what that's gonna do. And then she proceeds to take a yoga mat out of her bag and starts just like, just stretching her hamstrings. on the yoga mat and I'm sitting there watching this. It's like completely throwing off like I know she's faking an injury just to throw off my rhythm right? Right. Anyway, anyways, I end up losing the set. end up losing the match. I'm like bawling my eyes out during the match because she's hooking me so bad and I don't know what to do. And it's like I'd call it. You'd call the line judge over and they'd walk over to your court and stand there for. speaker-1: away. speaker-0: a couple points or a couple games, and obviously the girl would stop hooking and then they'd leave and then she'd immediately hook again. speaker-1: Yeah, that was always the really frustrating part. Also, if anyone in the USDA is listening, like, please get more refs if possible. But I feel like. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I feel like my biggest tip there is like once somebody starts hooking you, go get a ref immediately, because that's really all you can do. You cannot control what the other person is going to do. Right. And so get a ref immediately. speaker-0: Pay your refs a little better too. speaker-1: If they leave and then your opponent keeps, you know, hooking you, call them over again. It's their job. if they get annoyed by it, whatever, that's their job. And you shouldn't be embarrassed to go get that ref while the ref is there. It's going to be better. But if they're not there, it's like, well, what am I going to do? And so I think it is very important to just keep going and getting those refs because it is frustrating. And at the same time, like from a parent perspective, It's very hard because you can't get involved and you're like, ⁓ my God, my kids out there all alone and you feel helpless and they're just getting cheated. But at the same time, I've seen it before. If you just, you know, fuel the fire, if you start yelling as a parent, if you start even just making gestures or God forbid, like cussing out the other parents, it's probably just going to make the situation worse. speaker-0: And it's going to reflect badly on your kid. Yes, exactly. Because kids can also get code violations for spectator behavior. speaker-1: Correct. Yeah. And so, yeah, that could just snowball into something worse. And at the same time, parents aren't allowed to talk to their kids during the match. So I do think it is important to keep as calm as you can during those situations. But also before the match, just make sure that your kid knows that they can go call a ref and encourage them to actually stand up for themselves, but in a respectful way. Right? And so I think. speaker-0: them to call the score out loud every single point. speaker-1: Yes, please call the score out loud, especially if you know, like if they're known for cheating your opponent for cheating, call the score out loud and always change that score card so they cannot try to change the score. speaker-0: And also, worst comes to worst, just hook them back. No, I'm kidding. speaker-1: We are not advocating for cheating. speaker-0: No, we are not. If someone needs to be put in their place, a lot of them. Kidding, guys. Kidding. speaker-1: ridiculous. If I ever did that, I'd be lucky lucky enough that the ref would come over that exact moment and then they'd like, no, that was in. speaker-0: Yep, yep. Also, like, again, our parents would be like, what are you doing? speaker-1: Yeah, they'd like, stop. That was always the craziest part that like, it was always crazy that parents would let their kids do whatever they wanted. I'm are you not embarrassed? speaker-0: ⁓ my gosh, Peyton, was this one girl, again, notorious for hooking in the Eastern section, different girl than the one I talked about previously, also notorious for having a meltdown anytime she started losing, she'll be bawling her eyes out. And it was so bad because her mom would just be sitting there, clapping her hands after every single point, being like, you're so good, clapping your hands, you're doing great, after she's like, just... obviously obnoxiously hooking all these people and the mom would just be like, no, she's right, that was out and clapping her hands. And it got so bad that one, like to the point where I think one of the parents like once like went up to the mom was like, dude, that ball was literally so far in and you know it too. And you're just pretending like you don't see like that she's hooking the ever living crap out of these people. And the mom's I don't know what you're talking about. She's never hooked in her life. And it's like. Are you all right? his parents like literally just enabling their kids. Yeah. Like whatever it cost. speaker-1: And yeah, literally it's like the only thing that matters is winning. It's like, no, no, you're trying to like develop an athlete and you're trying to develop a child into an adult that is not a horrible person. So I do. I hated seeing that like, and now that we're older, it's even crazier to think back and, and see just how much parents would let their kids do. ⁓ Like my parents would pull me off the court if I hooked. I would never do that in a million years. They would not be happy. speaker-0: Well, also, like, just bad behavior on the court in general, like, didn't stand for that. Well, I remember one time I was like, yeah, I was like crying and like I threw my racket and so my dad pulled me out of the next tournament. He was like, OK, you want to act like that on court? We're just not going to play. And I was like, yeah, I learned my lesson there. Learn my lesson there. speaker-1: Yeah, I was about to that. Yeah, there was one time, I probably told you this at some point, but I, there were, there were times where I did have a bad attitude towards myself. It was never towards like, I was always just like mean to myself and never cracked a racket though. And I did throw it, ⁓ but I remember ⁓ there was one time where I like said, suck. And like one of my coaches heard it. speaker-0: Yes, it was always towards myself. I get a crack at one sex elite. speaker-1: And I've definitely told you this story. And so what happened was I show up to practice that week. And we're all like in a group getting ready to, you know, start practice at the Academy. This is another bad part about being in an Academy. You get embarrassed in front of everyone. but so basically my coach gave the Academy a, an ultimatum. Basically there he was like, okay, we've, we've had another person with bad behavior, which it was a problem in our group at the time. And. He was like, all right, you guys can either run one mile as a group, like for that person, or you can have that person run five miles by themselves. And so nobody knew who it was. And I actually didn't even know it was me. I had no idea. But it ended up being me. And guess what they chose? Me to run five miles. speaker-0: That's great. That's lovely. speaker-1: I was like, all right, yeah, like, so I'm just like, we had a track around our courts and I'm just running however many. How many is that? 20 laps? I'm running like 20 laps around our courts and everyone's just like watching me. And I was like, OK, so that's one way to learn your lesson. speaker-0: That's true. That is true. But yeah, I also want to say, like, I do think sometimes parents on the opposite side of the spectrum would take it too far. ⁓ yeah. You know, getting pissed off at their kids for doing something and punishing them to the point where, you know, you sometimes see these like really bad things of, you know, parents like not allowing their kid a meal after, you know, losing a match or whatever poor behavior or... speaker-1: but. speaker-0: You know, I mean, thankfully I never saw it, but like I've heard stories of like, you know, verbal, obviously verbal abuse, sometimes even physical abuse. ⁓ speaker-1: It is insane. Definitely more on a serious note. There is definitely physical and mental abuse in the sport. I'm sure it's in a lot of sports, but I did see it. I saw a lot of mental abuse with just, know, just kind of yelling, degrading, things like that. ⁓ But there was definitely also physical abuse with hitting and some stuff that you really just don't want to ever see. There was other ones where parents were just super, super strict and it was like, you aren't allowed to watch any TV. You're not allowed to have a phone. Like you need to purely focus on tennis, which I just don't think is healthy in the first place. Like you're going to burn out so fast with with those kinds of rules. Can't be a kid. You know what I mean? And that's the same thing with like only caring about winning and letting your kid cheat. Like that is not develop developing them as a player at all. ⁓ And so I think You know, if you do see any abuse or anything happening at tournaments or, you know, even at practice, like it's important to call it out. And when you see it, like you should report it to somebody. I think that's the best thing you can probably do because you probably don't want to personally insert yourself into the situation. But I think reporting it to, you know, a higher power is a big step that you can take because parents can be suspended like from events. So that might might help that. know, junior player in the future. Yeah. speaker-0: So. Well, on that note. Yeah, on a more uplifting note, ⁓ we're going to wrap it up with some friends stories. We'll keep them anonymous. we had ⁓ one of our friends. So again, the the Indian Wells tournament over, think it's over Easter, actually, the big national, one of our friends. speaker-1: But on a more uplifting note. speaker-0: was also, I think, part of an academy and she had gotten ⁓ a lecture on professionalism literally like that day or like earlier in the day. And she ended up doing a three hour practice, ⁓ you know, before the tournament started in two left shoes because she had just gotten again a professionalism talk the day before and realized as they were driving over from the Airbnb, which was 30 minutes away, that she didn't pack. She packed two left shoes and didn't have a right shoe and she didn't want to speak up and let him know. So she practiced in two left shoes for three hours. speaker-1: Like she genuinely might have feet issues for the rest of her life because of those three hours. speaker-0: Yup. But honestly, like she said it built character. Peek. speaker-1: I don't get how she physically could do that. mean, she has so much pain. speaker-0: I don't get it. She's lucky that the coach didn't notice either, because I'm sure she would have gotten another professionalism. speaker-1: She's probably running a little funny. Like, it probably didn't look right. It probably didn't look right. Like, what in the world? Yeah, I love hearing stories from our friends because it's always something. And so that's always good to hear. And you're not the only one that like forgets things, right? But sometimes you take it to an extreme and you play with two love shoes. ⁓ Yeah, one of our friends as well. this is more on like the parent side. So so I'll read this one to you, but. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Basically, what happened was a mom followed her to the bathroom during her match, like in between sets to make sure that her dad did not coach her because like I said, you know, parents aren't allowed to talk to you. They're not allowed to coach you. But some people would do that. Some people, some, some parents would go. And if you take like a medical timeout or like a break or something in between sets, they would go and coach. But this was not this dad was not coaching her in the slightest, but she literally followed her like to the stall and when they come out of the women's bathroom, her dad like straight up just cusses out the lady that followed her into the bathroom. In front of everyone, like it was just fully in front of everyone. I'm like, good Lord y'all. Like the lengths, the lengths that people go to, it's truly hilarious. speaker-0: ⁓ my God. Again, it's not that serious, like it is serious, obviously. I take it seriously, but like, it's not that serious. speaker-1: that serious. Yeah, but honestly, to our listeners, if y'all have any stories that you want to share with us, hit us with a DM, like, you know, send it over. We would love to hear them. I love this stuff because you can laugh at it now. can laugh at it now. Then it was kind of traumatizing, but you can laugh at it now. So we'd love to hear those stories and we'll definitely put it on the pod or our social media. So reach out and we'd love to hear it. speaker-0: Sure. And if anyone who currently plays tennis could let me know if Eastern section still has a bad rep. Highly appreciated. I'm curious. speaker-1: was such a speaker-0: I know! And that's why I was like, ⁓ man, I feel like I'm getting a bad rep just from being from the Eastern section. speaker-1: associated with the part of the United States that has this bad rep for some reason. ⁓ I do wonder now, what's the drama with the sections? There was never really drama between the actual sections because you didn't see each other that often, but it was just passed along. It's a small world, y'all. It's a small world. You'll hear things. You live in North Carolina, you hear things about California, like it just spreads because everyone knows each other. yep, that was fun, but also not at the same time. Yeah, it was great to, great to, you know, go down memory lane for now. speaker-0: We got lot of stories. speaker-1: For sure, will definitely have to do a part two of the juniors and the drama. all right, everyone have a great week. See ya.