Bravo strategizes with Ellie Nixon ’23

The Blake girl’s tennis team welcomes a new assistant coach to the team this year: Victoria Bravo. Bravo hopes to convey to the team that she is not only a coach, but she is also there to act as a support system for each player on the team. 

Bravo’s approach to coaching players during matches changes based on what mood they are in as well as where their focus is. She first observes what is happening in the match, and then adapts her coaching and specifically tailors it to each individual players’ matches. If a player seems to be in a positive mindset and is cognizant of how they are playing, she coaches them on strategy, whereas if they are down and struggling, she says it is then, “more about getting them to smile and be happy and remember that [they should] not take it too seriously.”

Singles player, Bella Suk ‘22, says Coach Bravo “always tells me to stay grounded and is super encouraging during both my easier and tougher matches.” Because tennis is such a mental sport, it is essential that the team feels they can trust Bravo to ground them when matches get mentally challenging. Because tennis is a much more individual sport compared to others, Bravo aims to bring the team together in hopes of instilling a more team-oriented mindset in the players.

Ultimately Bravo believes the key to coaching the girls is to always remember that, “We are both the teachers and we are both the students, and there’s just as much that I can learn from [the players] that [they] can learn from me.”